Issuu

CMYK

20 September, 2020 I 1 Safar, 1442 I Rs 25.00 I Vol XI No 81 I 40 Pages I Lahore Edition

nawaz set to break silenCe with live aPC address g

PPP WILL PROVIdE A LINK ON SOCIAL MEdIA WHERE NAWAz ANd zARdARI WILL dELIVER OPENING REMARKS

ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

ORMER prime minister Nawaz Sharif is all set to break his political silence with an address that will be broadcast live to the All Parties Conference (APC) on Sunday. Nawaz’s eldest son Hussain Nawaz Sharif on Saturday said that arrangements have been made to broadcast the PML-N supremo's speech to the APC directly. The ex-premier's address will be streamed live on social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube from Hussain's office. Hussain confirmed that arrangements have been made for Nawaz's appearance and speech to the APC The former premier's eldest son said that Nawaz will be addressing the conference around noon Pakistani time. Earlier today, PPP said that it would provide a link on social media where PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and PPP Chairman Asif Ali zardari will address the opposition's APC via video link. Meanwhile, talking about the PPP chairman's invitation to the PML-N supremo, PPP Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar revealed that Nawaz had accepted Bilawal's invitation

to virtually attend the conference. He disclosed that Nawaz and the PPP chairman had also discussed the political situation of the country and the future course of action to take by opposition parties. In a tweet, Bilawal said that former presi-

Coronavirus in

Pakistan

CONFIRMED CASES:

305,031

LAST UPDATED AT 8:42 AM ON SEPTEMBER 19 2020

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

RECOVERED:

292,044 SINDH:

133,362 KP:

37,270

NEW CASES:

645

DEATHS:

6,415 PUNJAB:

98,272 BALOCHISTAN:

14,138

AJK/GB: ISLAMABAD: 2,491/3,412 16,086

dent Asif Ali zardari will also attend the conference via video link. In addition, an 11-member delegation of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led by its President Shehbaz Sharif also will attend the opposition-led APC. The party leaders who will attend the APC include PML-N VP Maryam Nawaz and senior leaders Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Khawaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Ayaz Sadiq, Pervez Rasheed, Rana Sanaullah and Amir Muqam. "Just spoke to Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif. Enquired about his health. Also invited him to virtually attend opposition APC, hosted by PPP, on 20th September," the PPP chairman had tweeted. Responding to Bilawal's tweet, PML-N vicepresident Maryam Nawaz thanked the PPP chairman. "Thank you Bilawal. Warm regards & prayers," she had tweeted. Opposition parties including the PPP, PML-N and the JUI-F have said that they will use the platform to try to come up with a joint strategy focused on ousting the incumbent government.

GOVT WARNS OF ‘LEGAL OPTIONS’ IF NAWAZ APC ADDRESS AIRED NEWS DESK: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Political Communication Shahbaz Gill said on Saturday that the Pakistan Electronic Media Authority Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and other “legal options” would be used if Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) supreme leader Nawaz Sharif addresses the opposition-led All Parties Conference (APC) or if his speech is aired. Taking to Twitter, the SAPM said, “How is it possible that a fugitive carries out political activities and gives speeches? The Sharif clan can only spew lies. They are such big liars that they also lie about [their] medical conditions.” The comments follow the development of Nawaz confirming his virtual attendance at the conference which is scheduled to be held on Sunday. Meanwhile, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Twitter confirmed that the party would utilise social media platforms to live stream Nawaz’s address as it can’t be blocked that way. “We are doing that [God willing],” she wrote to a user who had suggested that she look into live streaming. Earlier this week, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had issued nonbailable arrest warrants for Nawaz while dismissing his application seeking exemption from personal appearance in the hearing of appeals against his conviction in the Al-Azizia and Avenfield properties references. On Thursday, the Pakistan High Commission (PHC) in London received arrest warrants sent by the government for Nawaz. The high commission did not make an official comment on the development but sources confirmed that the mission had received the paperwork to serve the arrest warrants on the ousted premier.

Shafqat says hasty decisions to close schools will 'destroy education' ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood on Saturday warned that any hasty decision to close educational institutions will "destroy education.” In a tweet on Saturday, the federal education minister said that any decision the Centre will take on reopening educational institutions will be "guided by the advice of the health ministry". He said that the sixmonth closure of educational institutions has deeply affected students. "Health of students is our first priority and any decision we make will be guided by the advice of the Health Ministry. Having said that 6 months closure deeply affected the students. The decision to open was taken with great care. Any hasty decision to close will destroy education," he tweeted. His tweet comes a day after Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani announced that the provincial government has postponed the second phase of schools’ re-

APC only being held to cause chaos in country: Shibli Faraz ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Information and Broadcasting Minister Senator Shibli Faraz said Saturday the All Parties Conference (APC) of opposition would be a gathering of “accused and losers”, who only wanted to create “law and order situation and chaos” in the country. Addressing a press conference flanked by Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior and Accountability Shehzad Akbar, the minister said opposition was trying to spread hopelessness by saying from day one that the government had failed. He said opposition wanted to rule the country to protect its illegal wealth and properties but the result of the APC would be zero. A convicted person will make a speech through video link in the APC, Shibli said, adding the opposition was trying to put pressure on the government to get relief in the cases of corruption. Shibli said Prime Minister Imran Khan had said that he was ready to sit with the opposition on any issue but he would not compromise on corruption. He said the government had achieved successes, revived the economy, exports and remittances were in-

opening for the resumption of academic activities from grade-VI to grade-VIII for at least one week. The schools will not reopen on September 21 as was scheduled earlier, the provincial education minister said, adding that the resumption has now been delayed till September 28 at least. On the other hand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Minister for Labour Shaukat Yousafzai a day earlier dropped a hint at reviewing the decision for reopening educational institutions if a spike is seen in Covid-19 cases. Shaukat Yousafzai in a statement on Friday said that they cannot put the lives of students in danger and a unanimous decision will be made for educational institutions after witnessing a rise in Covid-19 cases. “It had been decided to reopen educational institutions in phases in order to observe the rate of Covid-19 spread. We will take strict action against the education centres involved in the violation of standard operating procedures (SOPs),” he said.

more inside

Another woman gang-raped after abduction with children STORY ON PAGE 03

Banned outfit leader booked over sectarian remarks in Islamabad rally STORY ON PAGE 12 creasing and economic indicators were improving. The government overcame the issue of coronavirus and then revived the economy – a feat not accomplished by any other government in the world, the minister added.Shibli said the government negotiated with the power producer companies to provide cheap electricity and gas to the people. He said Prime Minister Imran Khan announced incentives for the construction sector and the government would fulfill its promise of building five million houses by the time it would complete its term. He said Nawaz Sharif destroyed the country and brought the economy to verge of bank-

ruptcy while staying inside and Altaf Hussain damaged the country sitting abroad. The PTI government was transparent and committed and working for the development of the country, the minister maintained. To a question, he said regional newspapers were nursery for journalism, adding, “We will request the governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to facilitate the regional newspapers within the set parameters.” He said the joint sitting of the parliament passed the anti-terrorism and money laundering bills to meet the requirements of Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

Imran Khan decides to cut perks of president, PM STORY ON PAGE 03 in today’s issue

attention Some readers have complained that they are not getting the magazine with their newspaper copy. Please call or WhatsApp us at the following number to register a complaint. Contact: 0307-7338168 irfan.farooq@pakistantoday.com.pk

Sunday, 20 September, 2020

NEWS

Kaira SayS Opp'S apC tO ChalK Out plaN tO OuSt 'hOllOw' GOvt

NEWS DESK

AKISTAN People’s Party (PPP) leader Qamar Zaman Kaira said on Saturday that the All Parties Conference (APC), due to be held on Sunday, will chalk out the final plan to oust the "hollow" government. "It is clear the government knows full well how hollow it is from within," the PPP leader said. "The crutches it is on will not save the government. The real support comes from the people." He said that keeping the government's two-year performance as a "charge-sheet", the entire country and all political parties "rightfully view" the government to have "failed in every sector". "Not only have they gone back on all their promises, they have in fact, put the country into reverse gear and have snatched away any existing freedoms,

making life difficult for citizens," Kaira said. He said that it is necessary to develop a joint action plan for the future. "Every party has its own viewpoint, but a joint action plan will enable us to rid the country of this government," he added. The PPP leader said that Sunday's APC will be a "historic moment" for the country to achieve this goal. Kaira said that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari spoke to Nawaz Sharif on the telephone to inquire about his health and extended an invitation to participate in the APC, which the PML-N supreme leader accepted. He will attend the conference virtually, as will PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, he added. "So we will formulate the final action plan to be implemented against the government tomorrow; we will decide what course of action to take," he further said. Kaira said that the venue for the APC

has changed. It was to be held at Ramada but will now be held at Marriott Hotel. Kaira said that the government "can be seen panicking". "If they were so confident, they would not have been scrambling to push out the same tired, old narrative of blaming the opposition [for the country's problems]," he said. Speaking of elections in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), he said that there are national security concerns being raised over the polls. "A big concern for national security is free and fair elections in Gilgit-Baltistan. It is very important that independent, fair and free elections take place there," he added. If any questions are raised like in the past, "anti-Pakistan elements will attempt to make use of this opportunity so it is a great trial for us to hold free and fair elections there", he further said. "So we hope timely and fair and free elections without any interference take

Prime suspect of motorway gang-rape still at large NEWS DESK The prime suspect of the Lahore Motorway rape incident, Abid Malhi, remains at large even after the passage of 10 days since the incident. According to the details, search operations conducted in the different areas of Sheikhupura, Kasur, and Nankana Sahib has proved fruitless. Although the entry and exit routes of Punjab have been blocked to tighten the law

enforcement agencies’ grip on the prime suspect, the Punjab Police has also extended its scope of investigation by coordinating with the police forces of other provinces. A police source said that the teams of law enforcement agencies working on the case had managed to obtain the rapist’s travel history. It suggested the accused had travelled to Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa several times in the past to take refuge after committing crime or to see his

relatives/friends. “Accordingly, the police teams are being dispatched to these provinces.” Nankana Sahib police spokesperson said that they raided the house of rapist Abid’s sister-in-law in the city on Friday night after receiving a tip-off about his presence in the area. However, police were not able to arrest him. Police also suspect that the accused may change his appearance in order to dodge police, therefore, various pictures of Abid in disguises have

place there so that the people of GilgitBaltistan can make their own decisions, which their representatives will see through for them," the PPP leader said. To a question of whether resignations by government representatives will be considered as an option and if the Sindh government will "sacrifice Sindh" in the process, Kaira said, "People say the PPP will not sacrifice the Sindh government for this purpose, but you must bear in mind we are rightfully saying the government has failed." "It is standing with crutches and once it is toppled, it will shatter," he added. He also said that the PPP will then "perform even better and secure more seats". "So we reject the notion that the PPP is not making concrete decisions over such fears," he added. Kaira said that in the past when an APC was held, it was on the issue of Kashmir, or to demand better governance or economic reforms. "We never sought to topple the government. We told Imran Khan we will support him, requested him to sign a charter of economy, despite all the name-calling. "But now that there is a 100pc failure, there is no other option," he added. been shared. These images have been sent out via WhatsApp and plastered across police stations so that if anyone spots someone bearing resemblance to any of the photos, they may easily inform authorities. Among the four photos distributed, one shows Abid with his original face and hairstyle, a second one with a bald head and moustache, another where he is cleanshaved with a bald head, and the last with a French beard. In all four, his primary features have not been altered. To date, authorities have taken four men into custody, one of whom has confessed to the rape.

Pak Army contingent takes part in opening ceremony of Kavkaz 2020 in Russia ISLAMABAD TLTP

A contingent of Pakistan Armed Forces participated in the opening ceremony of multinational military exercise Kavkaz 2020 at Astrakhan, Russia, on Saturday. Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Babar Iftikhar said that Kavkaz 2020 exercise is aimed at assessing the ability of troops to react to various challenges and learn from

each other's experiences. The week-long exercise will commence from Monday. It is pertinent to mention here that the exercise will include 19 counties including host Russia where over 12,500 troops will participate. Other than the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) members, 11 other countries will be part of the exercise. The aim and scope of the exercise is to improve cooperation. The idea is for militaries to prepare for joint action with units of armies of foreign states.

2,000 Sikh yatrees to attend Baba Guru Nanak death anniversary LAHORE: Three-day observance of Baba Guru Nanak Dev Ji death anniversary to start at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur from Sunday, Sept 20. On the directions of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Chairman Dr Amer Ahmad, all arrangements including security, accommodation, lungar, etc., have been completed. As many as 2,000 Sikhs yatrees from Lahore, Nankana Sahib, Peshawar and other districts would participate in the event, official sources said. The ceremony of Madha Radas would be held on Sept 21 while Nagar Kirtan (religious procession) will be taken to Zero Line from Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur on Sept 22. APP

645 new Covid-19 cases, seven deaths reported in past 24 hours ISLAMABAD: The total active Covid-19 cases in Pakistan on Saturday were reported to be 6,572 as 645 more people tested positive for the deadly virus during the last 24 hours. Seven patients, who were under treatment in hospitals died on Friday, according to the latest update issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). No Covid-19 affected person was on a ventilator in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Balochistan, while 103 ventilators elsewhere in Pakistan, out of 1,912 allocated for Covid-19 patients, were occupied. Some 35,720 tests were conducted across the country on Friday which was the highest ever number of tests done per day, including 14,352 in Sindh, 12,154 in Punjab, 3,112 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 3,569 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 1,455 in Balochistan, 403 in Gilgit Baltistan (GB), and 675 in AJK. Around 292,044 people have recovered from the disease so far across Pakistan making it a significant count with over 90 per cent recovery ratio of the affected patients. Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 305,031 cases were detected so far, including AJK 2,491, Balochistan 14,138, GB 3,412, ICT 16,086, KP 37,270, Punjab 98,272 and Sindh 133,362. About 6,415 deaths were recorded in the country since the eruption of the contagion, including 2,459 in Sindh, four of them in hospital on Friday, 2,226 in Punjab, one of them on Friday, 1,258 in KP, one of them on Friday, 180 in ICT, 145 in Balochistan, 81 in GB whereas one of them on Friday and 66 in AJK. A total of 3,126,380 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 735 hospitals are equipped with COVID-19 facilities. Some 834 corona patients were admitted in hospitals across the country. STAFF REPORT

Almost 4,000 students at risk of losing scholarships at foreign universities ISLAMABAD GHULAM ABBAS

Around 4000 students that were supposed to attend foreign universities on full or partial scholarships this winter may lose their admissions, and their scholarships, if foreign embassies do not grant them visas. According to a group of students who got scholarships in reputed universities of the world are going through difficult situations as they are unable to get visas within the stipulated time. If they do not get them and are unable to attend their classes, their admissions and scholarships will be cancelled. Unlike students in India, Bangladesh and other countries in the region, the students here are given one year visa processing time instead of one to three months. More than 4000 students who got scholarships in foreign universities are victimized by the delayed visa processing by foreign embassies. “The Government of Pakistan should request or protest to foreign embassies to issue visas of Pakistani students within one month time so that they will attend winter semester classes abroad,” they said, adding that the winter semester in foreign universities start by October.

According to sources, apart from the prolonged visa processing systems introduced by foreign embassies in Pakistan, the closure of visa processing for at least six months has also badly affected the students. The six-month closure has especially affected visa aspirants at European and North American embassies. The waiting time for acquiring an appointment for a master visa at the German embassy is 16 months. By the time students get their appointments, their admission letters become obsolete. Countless students have become victim to admission cancellations in Germany due to the prolonged waiting time for visa appointment. Furthermore, the American embassy has ceased giving appointments altogether because of the pandemic. This situation in the embassies of France, UK and Canada is similar. According to the sources, these problems are not new and existed before as well, but have become worse because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Waiting-queues for western embassies have been on the rise since 2018. Unlike what the students face in Pakistan, the students are comparatively facilitated in India and Bangladesh. India has a number of consulates and embassies that cater to its educa-

tion-hungry population. India has about four embassies that facilitate acquiring visas for students in as early as three months in Germany. As a result, they outnumber Pakistani students a hundred-fold in securing admissions in foreign institutes. In Bangladesh, the US embassy gives students their visas 120 days in advance. According to the affected students, unfortunately embassies in Pakistan are well known for delaying student visas and have plainly refused to cooperate with the students, even in the times of global crises. Applying to foreign institutions is not an easy feat. Students become devastated upon giving their utmost best to clear countless expensive entrance exams like the GRE, IELTS and TOEFL, just to end up finding out that their aspirations and struggles have all fallen in vain because of bureaucratic inefficiencies. Visas are delayed and sometimes even refused although the student has secured his admission in the respective foreign university. Students in Pakistan therefore waste their money and efforts on a prolonged gamble. Currently, the fate of these students is merely based on the color of their passport rather than their grades and talent.

Sunday, 20 September, 2020

NEWS

imraN KhaN deCideS tO Cut perKS Of preSideNt, pm ISLAMABAD

STAFF REPORT

RIME Minister Imran Khan has decided to reduce the perks and privileges of the president and premier by amending the rules through a bill. While showing his commitment to cutting down the expenditures of the national exchequer, Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to reduce perks and privileges of the president and prime minister. He contacted his Adviser on Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan and instructed him to table a bill in the Parliament to allow reducing the perks of the prime minister. He directed him to formulate legislation for ending

VIP expenditures on public funds. Following the directives of the premier, Babar Awan expedited work on the legislation. He told PM Imran Khan that the bill related to the cut in perks and privileges of the state heads will be tabled in the Parliament soon that will fulfil the promise of austerity measures by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led federal government. Awan added that the new law will also abolish the discretionary powers of the president and the prime minister of holding camp offices in different cities. President and prime minister would be allowed to possess only one government residency under the new law, he added. The PM’s adviser said that millions of funds had been spent on security, employees, food, internet, telephone

AC to hear assets beyond means case against Khursheed Shah on Oct 5 SUKKUR TLTP

An accountability court in Sukkur has fixed the hearing of assets beyond income cases against Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) senior leader Khursheed Shah and others on October 5 after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) pleaded for producing new witnesses on Saturday. The judicial magistrate of Sukkur issued notices to parties for their appearance on September 21 where the witnesses produced by the anti-corruption watchdog will be cross-questioned. The court summoned Khursheed and other accused persons in the assets beyond income reference. A final challan will be presented before the accountability court in view of the statements recorded by the witnesses October 5. Earlier in August, the accountability court in Sukkur had deferred indictment of PPP leader Syed Khursheed Shah in assets beyond known sources of in-

come. The hearing of the case had been presided over by AC Judge Farid Anwar Qazi. At the outset of the hearing, NAB’s counsel had requested the court to defer the indictment as more evidence had been gathered against Shah and others. NAB had also nominated two wives, two sons and son-in-law of Khursheed Shah in the reference. It is pertinent to mention that the anti-graft watchdog had filed assets beyond means reference of Rs1.23 billion against Shah and 17 co-accused. The accountability court had granted bail to Shah in December after the accountability bureau’s delay in filing reference against him. However, the Sindh High Court (SHC) Circuit Bench Sukkur later suspended the accountability court’s orders dated Dec 17 to grant bail to the veteran Peoples Party leader. In April, the SHC had also rejected the plea filed by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Syed Khursheed Shah, seeking bail in the assets case.

OLM train project to be launched soon: Asim Bajwa ISLAMABAD TLTP

Chairman China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority, Lieutenant General (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa has said that Orange Line Metro Train project will be launched soon. In a tweet on Saturday, Lieutenant General (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa said that teething issues of the

project have been resolved and fare has also been decided. He said that trial runs of the train are underway while the hiring process for the project is in progress. Earlier on September 1, Asim Saleem Bajwa announced more than 250 jobs of various categories for Lahore’s Orange Line Train project. “250 new jobs of various categories for Orange Train Lahore by the operator.All applications can be sent to careers@olmrts.com.pk,” he had tweeted.

Study suggests ‘slim chance’ of a second Covid wave in Pakistan AGENCIES The latest study by a leading blood diseases institute in Karachi suggests there is a slim chance of a second wave of the novel coronavirus in the country, further strengthening the government's policy of reopening businesses. The cross-sectional study conducted from May to July at the National Institute of Blood Diseases (NIBD) has been published by the Oxford University Press Journal of Public Health. Titled, “Challenges in acquiring herd immunity for Covid-19,” the study conducted by a team of microbiologists, hematologists and pathologists, led by Dr Samreen Zaidi, included nearly 1,700 people from three groups — healthcare, community and industrial workers. It included participants from both genders, aged between 18 to 60. The study, conducted to assess antibodies levels in a diverse group of residents to comprehend prevalence in the community, revealed that 36 per cent of Karachi's workforce — the country’s largest city and commercial capital — have already developed immunity against Covid-19. "This study has been instigated to evaluate the seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in different healthcare and community population from Karachi and with the aim of assessing the importance of seroprevalence in these groups," the report reads. The overall seroprevalence or the immunity rate, it added, is found to be 36pc with highest positivity in industrial employees (50.5pc), whereas only 13pc of healthcare workers tested positive. Moreover, the community, which comprised healthy blood donors and walk-in patients for antibody testing, had a 34pc positivity rate. Seroprevalence is the incidence of a disease or illness within a distinct population at one time, as measured by serology tests. The seroprevalence rate in the US population varies from 1.9 to 6.9pc, which is very low compared to Pakistan, according to the study. Seropositivity rates reported from Switzerland and

Spain, respectively, were 10.8pc and 5pc. HERD IMMUNITY: The study showed that around one-third of Karachi's industrial population developed immunity against Covid-19, which is still far from the 60pc to 70pc needed for herd immunity. "In addition, if we consider acquiring 60pc of seroprevalence in next couple of months, then herd immunity is not far from reality provided the antibodies did not decline with time," the report says. "The present study raises the possibility that if 36pc of adult population of Karachi is supposed to be seropositive, then we can hypothesise that in the next 2–3 months 60pc of general population will become seropositive [immune].” And according to Dr Samreen Zaidi, follow up studies show that the seroprevalence rate has reached 60pc, as per expectations. "We, on the basis of a gradual drop in cases, and other relevant factors, assume that there are low chances of a second wave of coronavirus," Zaidi told Anadolu Agency. However, she acknowledged: "Assumptions are assumptions." "The only limitation with this study is that our sample size is small. Therefore, we have recommended a further and wide-ranging research on the government level to double check the results of this study," she says. Endorsing Zaidi's view, Dr Tahir Shamsi, the head of NIBD, claims the country has "almost" attained herd immunity, indicating that there are low chances of a second wave of the pandemic. 'VIRUS VERY MUcH THERE': A similar study conducted by one of the largest laboratories in Pakistan suggested that at least 33pc of the country's health professionals have developed immunity against the virus. The laboratory conducted tests on 15,000 health professionals across the country for the study. The number of cases has dropped from nearly 7,000 to merely 400 plus daily cases in the past few months, with daily fatalities hovering in the single digits each day.

services and others from the national treasury after the previous state heads declared many residencies as their camp offices. Babar Awan also presented the record of past presidents and prime ministers of Pakistan which revealed the huge spendings of public money for their luxurious lifestyle. According to the government record, one of the former presidents had declared residence of his close relative as President House, besides holding camp offices in Lahore and ancestral places. A former president belonging to rural Sindh had declared two President Houses in Larkana Rest House and ‘Bhutto House’ in Ratodero. The record also exposed huge spending on ‘five locations’ declared as Prime Minister Houses by a former premier belonging to South Punjab. A former chief min-

ister had established seven camp houses in Lahore, whereas, an ex-premier had spent Rs830 million only to construct a wall of his residence. Earlier on September 9, it emerged that the present government led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had further reduced the expenses of the Prime Minister (PM) House up to 68 percent under its austerity measures. The expenses of staff and other expenditures of the PM House had visibly reduced from over Rs500 million to Rs310 during the last two years. The numbers of employees at the PM House reduced to only 180 from 522, whereas, the present government spent Rs316 million so far during the two-year period as compared with the last year’s expenditures up to Rs509 million in 2018.

Another woman gang-raped after abduction with children KHAIRPUR TLTP

In yet another horrendous incident of sexual abuse, five alleged culprits kidnapped a woman with her three children in Khairpur and gang-raped her. According to details, the incident transpired in the Sobho Dero Police jurisdiction where a woman with her three children was allegedly abducted by five culprits who then sexually assaulted her. The victim said that other than kidnapping and gang-rape, the five alleged culprits tortured her as well. However, the Khairpur woman said that in spite of her complaint to the police, the suspects still roam freely while police don’t budge. Earlier on Friday, a woman labourer was allegedly raped during a robbery in Faisalabad neighbourhood on Friday. The incident occurred in Peoples Colony near Raja Chowk within the jurisdiction of Batala Colony police station where two suspected robbers raped the woman in front of her daughters, according to police. They took Rs200,000 cash, gold ornaments, and other valuables of the woman with them after sexually abusing her. It is pertinent to note that earlier this month, a woman, driving with her two kids on Lahore Motorway link-road, was robbed and gang-raped mercilessly after her car ran out of gas and stranded on the road.

Sunday, 20 September, 2020

NEWS

LDA shortLists three consortiums for LAhore mAster PLAn 2050 LAHORE

SHAHAB OMER

He Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has shortlisted three consortiums that meet the eligibility criteria for the preparation of the new Master Plan for Lahore Division – 2050 (MPLD-2050), Pakistan Today learnt on Saturday. An official of LDA informed this scribe that seven consortiums had submitted expressions of interest for the preparation of the Lahore Master Plan. These included Country Developers, euro Consultant Pakistan, Shahar Saaz Pvt. Ltd., Dar Al-Hindsa, Mine Heart, Pluto Plan-

ning Turkey and Nespak Consultants. However, the pre-qualifying consortium includes Dar Al-Hindsa (Lebanon), Mine Heart (Singapore) and Nespak (Pakistan); requests for proposals have been issued to these consortiums so that they can submit their technical and financial proposals. The deadline to submit these documents is October 19, 2020. The official informed that the first master plan of Lahore was prepared by the Housing and Physical Planning Department in the 1960s and was sanctioned in 1972. In 1980, Lahore Urban Development and Traffic Study (LUDTS) was conducted by a team of foreign and local experts and a structure plan of Lahore was prepared as one component of the study.

“The new master plan was approved by the City District Government Lahore in 2004. After amendment in LDA Act 1975, notified in 2013, planning jurisdiction of LDA was extended up to Lahore Division. Now the function of master planning, land use control and approval of private housing scheme is performed by LDA. As appropriate master plans were not available for all cities/towns outside Lahore, therefore, the amended Master Plan of Lahore Division was prepared in 2016 by LDA by incorporating available plans with necessary updates,” the official said on the condition of anonymity. He added, “The Punjab government intends to develop urban areas of the province as sustainable, livable and well

Amid economic crisis, KP’s failed public-private partnership attempt needs a revamp PESHAWAR AZIZ BUNERI

A slate of legal complexities and a lack of capacity and required resources has meant that public-private partnership projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have failed to achieve the kinds of results they were expected to produce.

The disappointed observations were made in a report of the provincial Planning and Development (P&D) department, in a report compiled with the support of United Nations Development Program and the British Aid Agency. The report detailed how public-private partnership projects had been a great success in other provinces in Pakistan, particularly Sindh and Punjab,

but that KP’s tryst with the idea had failed to come to fruition. The success of such projects in Sindh and Punjab had been the driving force behind KP’s attempt to implement similar schemes. However, even though publicprivate partnership has long be slated as the way to go, the past six years have not borne the desired results. The KP government has received Rs170 billion less than what it was owed from its share from the federation during the financial year 2019-20, which has had a negative impact on the development program. This has resulted in the uplift funds of a number of projects being significantly reduced. According to sources, the financial situation in the province will continue to deteriorate for many years to come. In view

CM Buzdar reviews progress on development projects in south Punjab LAHORE APP

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar presided over a meeting here to review progress on development projects in southern Punjab in Multan on Saturday. The CM sought a report on public demands during his visit to Vehari, Multan, Barthi and Fazila Kachh, says a handout issued here. Usman Buzdar said that the secretaries of southern Punjab should keep their doors open on the public and the suggestions and recommendations of public’s representatives should also be given due consideration. He said that genuine demands of anyone should be fulfilled and people of south Punjab should not have to visit Lahore for the redress of their grievances. He asked the officers of Southern Punjab Secretariat to work hard and pay full attention to solving people's problems. Usman Buzdar said that he would hold meeting to review progress on issues resolution. He said that police patrolling in remote areas of Dera Ghazi Khan should be restarted. In order to solve people’s problem officers should make better liaison with them. He said: "Public service is our mission." No stone should be left unturned to meet the expectations of people, Usman Buzdar asserted. The meeting was attended by Additional Chief Secretary, Commissioners of Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan, RPOs, Deputy Commissioners and concerned officials.

managed engines of economic growth. Lahore and its surrounding towns have expanded greatly to accommodate the large population of the province, and hence require a comprehensive, strategic, regional, and long-term plan. Therefore, LDA has been assigned the task to prepare the ‘Master Plan for Lahore Division – 2050 (MPLD-2050)’. Since the scope of this plan will be regional, LDA shall be the client on behalf of all districts of Lahore division including Lahore, Sheikhupura, Kasur and Nankana Sahib.” Meanwhile, LDA Director General Ahmed Aziz Tarar opined that Lahore should be made a center of civilization and a prosperous city through a new master plan. He said the new master plan will be prepared for all urban and rural areas within the limits of Lahore division. “The preparation of the new master plan will ensure environmental protection, prudent use of resources, preservation of historical heritage, and promotion of economic activities and inclusion of all sections of the population.” of the financial crisis, it is not possible for KP to set out on a journey of development other than through public-private partnership. This is why even though there are major flaws in the process, the government and the concerned agencies are going to have to pull through and work together to remove these drawbacks. The report recommends the development of a public-private partnership system keeping in view the needs of the market, and said that the P&D Department has recommended the provincial government review the KP Public-Private Partnership Act 2014 and remove the shortcoming in consultation with all parties, as well as the views of international organizations and the federal government. The P&D department has also proposed to enhance the capacity of the Public Private Partnership Unit and keep it in touch with international agencies. The report also recommended the introduction of Public Private Partnership in the health and education sectors on priority basis instead of following the traditional system.

MUZAFFARGARH TEEN ARRESTED FOR RAPING SIX-YEAR-OLD: POLICE MUZAFFARGARH: The Muzaffargarh Police arrested on Saturday a 13-year-old boy on charges of raping a six-year-old in Basti Arain village in Jatoi tehsil. The Punjab police spokesperson said that the suspect was arrested after he was identified by the survivor. The teenager has been accused of kidnapping her and raping her at a nearby mango farm on Friday. The teen is a resident of the same village as the child. The FIR includes sections on kidnapping and rape. Meanwhile, in a separate incident, a man, Anwar Bajeer, was arrested by the Mithi Police on charges of attempting to sexually abuse a young boy in Fakeer Hussain village near Tharparkar’s Mithi town late Friday night. The father of a nine-year-old boy told the police that the accused overpowered his son and dragged him to a deserted place in their village and tried to rape him. Other villagers heard his cries and rushed to his aid. They caught Bajeer. The boy was sent to Civil Hospital, Mithi for a medical examination. Mithi SHO Majid Qaimkhani told local journalists on Saturday that after arresting the accused, the police registered an FIR against him under the Pakistan Penal Code. INP

Karachi’s Saddar, Islamabad’s Blue Area become highest tax contributors KARACHI: Saddar Market, the commercial hub of port city, remained the highest contributor of taxes during the Tax Year 2018 with as many as 72,339 filers of tax returns. According to the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) Tax Directory for the year ending on June 30, 2018, Saddar Market paid a whopping Rs77.20 billion worth of taxes, followed by Islamabad’s Blue Area boasting 5,854 tax return filers who paid Rs39.93 billion during this period. Lahore’s Multan Road market remained the third highest tax contributor in the TY 2018 with its 17,800 filers filing tax returns worth Rs11 billion. TLTP

Sunday, 20 September, 2020

SECP BoArD To iSSuE Show-CAuSE noTiCES To Four oFFiCiAlS involvED in DATA lEAk iSLAMABAd

SHAHZAD PARACHA

HE Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has decided to issue show cause notices to four officials involved in data leak. A special meeting of SECP board was held on Saturday in which fact finding committee head Sadia khan presented the data leak report. Other members included a registrar, an additional director and an IT dept official. Source said that the fact finding committee in its report declared four people

responsible for data leak as they alleged committed several mistakes. The committee recommended strict action against them in accordance with the SECP human resource manual. The show causes notices would be issued to all persons suspected of data theft in the inquiry report during the next week, as per the Securities Act 2015. The respondents can submit written reply within seven days, and hearings will be held for each person in front of the commission, sources added. The commission will decide the punishments in accordance with the SECP HR manual where the minor

Tariff structure rationalised for 41pc raw materials: Dawood GUJRAT TLTP

The government has done tariff rationalisation for 41pc of the raw materials and intermediaries, while the next measures are also under consideration for different sectors, including chemicals, engineering, pharmaceuticals, leather, food processing and textiles, under the three years tariff rationalization plan of the Ministry of Commerce. Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood said this during his visit to Gujrat Chamber of Commerce and Industries (GTCCI) on Saturday. Dawood said that these measures are essential for strengthening the economy by promoting ‘Make in Pakistan’, export-led growth and import substitution. The adviser apprised the representatives of the industry of various cost reduction measures, like tariff rationalization on raw materials and intermediaries, taken by the Ministry of Commerce, to enable the industry to manufacture their products on globally competitive rates and ensure valueaddition. He said that a common expo centre will be established for cities of Sialkot, Gujrat, Wazirabad and Gujranwala, for which the government of Punjab will be approached for allocation of land. The adviser recognized and appreciated the role of the industry in these cities for their contribution in overall exports of Pakistan and assured full support to exporters and industrialists. He underlined, “For sustainable growth in exports, we need to diversify our products into the developmental sectors and find new markets, including Africa and the Middle East, etc.” He discussed development of fans, furniture and pottery industries with the representatives. Dawood visited the office of Pakistan Electric Fan Manufacturers Association, where the representatives shared different issues related to export of fans and discussed practical and constructive solutions for development of industry and resolution of problems. The association members appreciated the Ministry of Commerce for various measures and interventions for boosting exports and promoting the engineering sector, especially the recent move for revision of rates of duty drawbacks for electric fans. In addition, the problems related to Mandi Bahauddin were also raised by the chamber representatives. The adviser assured that the government will play its facilitative role in finding solutions to their issues.

penalties and the major penalties have been clearly defined. Major penalty included dismissal and minor is suspension from service, with a possibility that the case could be referred to FIA. Sources said that the matter was serious not because it was related with any personality but because this case has also proved the vulnerability of the key national data that has been entrusted with the SECP. Earlier, it was reported that SECP Additional Director (Market Surveillance Department) Irsalan Zafar Hijazi, the son of former SECP chairman Zafar Hejazi

had stolen the personnel information of Lt Gen (r) Asim Saleem Bajwa family through NADRA record. The department, while confiscating his laptop, also sent him on forced leave. It was further reported that the former SECP chairman’s son had also deleted the data from his laptop and obtained a letter from SECP’s HR department to apply for a UK visa. It is pertinent to mention that SECP Chairman Aamir khan had established a fact finding committee once Ahmad Norani alleged in his story that SECP reportedly removed data from its website with regard to Asim Bajwa companies’ data.

Punjab govt to incentivise shifting of industries to environmentfriendly technologies LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Punjab Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht said on Saturday that the provincial government will incentivise the shifting of industries to environment friendly technologies. The provincial finance minister said this while chairing the meeting of the committee constituted by the chief minister on smog control. The meeting decided that Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) will be the chief coordinating body for managing Punjab’s plan for mitigating and preventing smog in the coming winter season while the authority will also conduct research, make policy and create awareness about the socio-economic impacts of smog. The minister observed that the smog results due to climate change in months of November and December and has become a disaster, saying it should be countered accordingly. He said that in the wake of Covid-19 when the world is fighting against the pandemic, it is

high time to control the smog on an emergency basis. The new task of controlling the PDMA is assigned following the performance of it to control the locust attack and Covid19 management, he observed. The PDMA will also procure required equipment for smog control, medicines and other related items. Further, the authority will also conduct training for shifting of the brick kiln on zigzag technology, installation of scrubbers under

green Punjab program. The minister instructed the transport secretary and AIG to ensure that smoke emitting vehicles should not ply on the roads, besides creating awareness among the public about it to avoid any backlash from the public on closing of vehicles. The minister observed that the environment and transport departments’ initiatives to control Covid-19 pandemic need to be kicked off again.

PM directs for removal of hurdles in Naya Pakistan Housing Project ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed for removing all kinds of hurdles with regard to Naya Pakistan Housing project. The Prime Minister was talking to Punjab Minister for Housing & Urban Development Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed who called on him on Saturday. The prime minister said that local bodies’ institutions are being empowered and an opportunity will be provided to ideological workers of PTI to participate in local bodies elections. Mehmoodur Rasheed briefed the PM about the preparations of local bodies’ elections in Punjab. He apprised the PM about the progress on Naya Pakistan Housing Project and said that housing related policies have been compiled with the consultation of all stakeholders. “All-out measures are being taken to provide relief to the developers and builders, and the Naya Pakistan Housing Project is moving forward according to the vision of the PM,” he stated. He said that Punjab Housing & Town Planning Agency is actively working to launch projects in different cities of the province. TLTP

Govt committed to helping textile industry realise export potential: Nadeem Babar LAHORE STAFF RPEORT

Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Petroleum, Nadeem Babar, said on Saturday that the Federal government is committed to making the textile industry competitive, and helping it realise its full export potential. The SAPM made his comments speaking to the media at the Punjab office of the All Pakistan Textile Manufacturers Association (APTMA), where he was on a visit to hear and understand the problems that the textile industry was facing. He said his meeting with the APTMA leadership and members was very constructive on the issue of Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC), and that the government would ensure maximum relief to the industry within the ambit of the verdict of the apex court. According to him, the textile industry is looking for a stable textile policy and the government is committed to bring it at the earliest to enable the industry to begin in foreign exchange, create jobs and new investment in the country. He said the government would ensure supply of gas to the industry during the winter season. SAPM also congratulated Adil Bashir for his unopposed election as central Chairman APTMA and expressed the hope that he would serve the industry out of his best abilities.

Earlier, Secretary General APTMA Mohammad Raza Baqir formally announced official results of APTMA elections. He said Adil Bashir has been elected unopposed as central Chairman APTMA while Zahid Mazhar and Hamid Zaman have been elected unopposed for the office of Senior Vice Chairman and Vice Chairman APTMA respectively. Speaking on the occasion, Adil Bashir said he would continue to serve the textile industry with the same passion as he has been serving as Chairman APTMA Punjab over the last two years. He said the textile industry has been revived fully due to the export-friendly policies of the government. The idle capacity has become operational and the textile exports have started picking up over the last two months. The exports are also showing 14% increase during the ongoing month of September, he added. Earlier, in his presentation to SAPM Nadeem Babar, Chairman APTMA Chairman Adil Bashir said realistic energy efficiency benchmarks should be re-fixed in consultation with the industry, experts and technical data. Also, he said, the energy audit may be suspended till redetermination of efficiency benchmarks. The industries using gas for in-house consumption should not be charged GIDC at captive tariff. Since the textile industry has not passed on the incidence of GIDC, therefore, arrears of GIDC should not be recovered from the textile sector till decision by Superior

CMYK

Courts, he stressed. According to him, SNGPL has issued GIDC arrears bills at captive connection tariff without determining passing of incidence. The Lahore High Court vide order dated 14-09-2020 has stayed recovery of arrears prior to 2015 and difference of industrial and captive tariff. He said the textile sector has not passed on incidence of GIDC to consumers. Hence Supreme Court decision not applicable to textile sector. GIDC arrears recovery may be suspended till final outcome of Review Petition. He demanded the fixation of all inclusive energy tariffs i.e. electricity @ 7.5C/kWh and gas at US$ 6.5/MMBTU for next five years. He further said that a billing mechanism should be devised for disbursement of subsidy to SNGPL for providing gas to 5 export oriented sectors at US$ 6.5/mmBTU. Subsidy for all the surcharges and costs above US$ 6.5/mmBTU for the period Oct 2018 – July 2020 should be released to SNGPL, he added. He has also urged the visiting SAPM to include new electricity/gas connections of industry not previously listed in erstwhile zero rated. He said the government had announced in October, 2018 an all inclusive energy package for 5 export oriented sectors announced with electricity at 7.5C/kWh and gas at US 6.5/MMBTU. This package enabled the industry in Punjab to compete with domestic and regional competitors, he added.

NEWS

APC only being held to cause chaos in country: Shibli Faraz cOnTinUEd On pAGE 01 The legislation was done in the best interest of the country and to take Pakistan out of the grey list. Past rulers did not pass legislation on money laundering to serve their own interests and FATF put Pakistan in the grey list. The opposition was exposed because of the way it opposed the FATF related legislation. Meanwhile, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior and Accountability Shehzad Akbar said FATF was represented by countries which review each other's laws to see whether these meet the requirements to counter money laundering and terror financing. He said Pakistan had an FATF secretariat represented by different institutions and worked on ways to stop money laundering. As a responsible government, it was its duty to pass the FATF related legislation. Shehzad said the government held discussions with the opposition for the last one year on the FATF related laws. The opposition wanted 34 amendments in the NAB law, he said, adding the government passed the laws with the support of the people despite resistance of the opposition. Shehzad said due to loopholes in the money laundering law, there were issues of fake accounts. FATF had a booklet mentioning steps to stop money laundering and the government also made provisions in the law to this effect, he added. PTI wanted Pakistan to be out of the grey list and stop money laundering, he asserted.He said opposition tried to stop money laundering cases of Shehbaz Sharif, Asif Zardari, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and others by proposing amendments in the law. Opposition wanted that NAB should not be an investigation agency for the offences of money laundering, he told. He denied that there was a new provision in laws to put a person in jail for six months. He said institutions could arrest an individual for different crimes and money laundering was made a cognizable offence to avoid delay in investigation. He clarified that in the age of media and in the presence of journalists and cameras, it was not possible to count wrongly in the Parliament for passage of bills. Shehzad said participants of the APC including Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Asif Zardari and Ahsan Iqbal were accused while Nawaz Sharif was a convict. The agenda of the APC was that the opposition wanted change in the NAB laws and was seeking powers to appoint judges of its own choosing, he explained. Shehzad Akbar said the application of investigation techniques was introduced in line with the demand of FATF.

Sunday, 20 September, 2020

06 COMMENT

A homeopathic APC

Options for the opposition Desperation mustn’t lead opposition to lose its head

Khan seems set on his crease with all the necessary support

ever except under Martial Law have so many opposition leaders been in jail or faced trials in malleable accountability courts. even under the Martial Law they did not face the sort of media trials that are common now. The accountability process continues despite a recognition by the superior judiciary of its being one-sided and the NAB law being used to arm-twist and pressurise political opponents. A team of uncouth spokespersons has been unleashed to make unsavoury remarks against opposition leaders on a daily basis and the media pressured to publicise these. The Prime Minister has accused his opponents of working against the country’s interest. Offers by the opposition for cooperation in lawmaking have been rejected out of hand as attempts at seeking an NrO. It is in this situation that the opposition parties are holding a moot to review the two-year performance of the PTI government and formulate a joint action plan. While there is a general agreement that the government has badly failed to fulfill the promises made to the people, the parties have yet to reach an agreement on how to deal with it. The JUI(F) has been pressing other parties to resign from the Assemblies and to go for a ‘dharna’ in Islamabad till the fall of the government. Some of the parties want to let the Imran Khan-led government complete its tenure while others would like to remove it through parliamentary means that include a vote of no confidence, leading someone else from the ruling party take over as PM. There is a need on the part of the opposition to respond to the situation with maturity, giving priority to national interest over political expediencies. Any recourse to religious slogans to overthrow the government should be strictly avoided. Continuing a dharna over a long period is rife with unpredictable circumstances. So are en masse resignations. Change of regime through a vote of no-confidence is no more feasible after what happened at the joint sitting of Parliament. That leaves the opposition with the option to continue the struggle inside Parliament while gradually increasing pressure from the street so that the government either changes course or is removed in the next election in 2023.

aRif Nizami

S a precursor to the opposition parties’ APC (All Parties Conference) being held today, the country’s lawyers held their own APC on Thursday, sponsored by the PBC (Pakistan Bar Council). The resolutions adopted at the meeting were highly critical of government policies in relation to freedom of expression and media, the one-sided accountability process and the military’s increasing role in governance. Unsurprisingly, the lawyers moot came out hard on the issue of the independence superior judiciary demanding repeal of the 19th amendment to the constitution. The amendment gives the superior judiciary leading role in the appointment of judges of the higher judiciary. This is implicitly a vote of no confidence on the impartiality and independence of the superior judiciary. This is a far cry from the 2007 Lawyers’ successful movement for a free judiciary spearheaded by the then CJP justice Iftikhar Choudhry and different lawyers’ bodies. That rare form unity resulted in the ouster of dictator Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf. But soon the revolution started souring. In the past two years a zero-tolerance policy towards dissent has been streamlined by design. resultantly, barring a few exceptions, space for independent discourse has vastly shrunk. In this backdrop, widespread scepticism is being expressed about the proposed PPP-sponsored APC achieving anything. In fact, it might increase the cyn-

Fresh wave of sectarian violence The state must act and stop a possible descent into chaos

sudden escalation in hate speech and violence against the Shia community is alarming and has all the makings of leading towards full-blown sectarian violence that will create instability in the country. These concerns were voiced by PPP Senate leader Senator Sherry rehman, as she urged the PTI government to take immediate steps in order to arrest this dangerous trend. Massive rallies arranged by hardline Sunni groups like the JUI, banned outfit Sipa-e-Sahaba and TLP among others, were held on successive days in Karachi last weekend with thousands gathering on major highways of the city, chanting anti-Shia slogans, calling them infidels and heretics. Chairman of ruet-e-Hilal Committee Mufti Muneeb-ur-rehman demanded that it be made mandatory to declare one’s sect in the next census. TLP’s Karachi chief, in keeping with the party’s more violent leanings, took a more extreme line, declaring that Sunnis could behead people for blaspheming. All this has not happened overnight and there has been a build-up towards igniting this old fire, most notably legislation passed by the Punjab Assembly a few months ago, a bill that many MPAs had not even read but voted in favour for, perhaps due to its title: the Tahaffuze-Bunyad-e-Islam (Protection of Foundation of Islam) Bill. Apart from proposing ridiculous changes to Punjab’s textbooks, it maintains that the Sunni interpretation of Islam was the only one that would be acceptable, causing much outrage in the Shia community. Quite expectedly, close to 42 blasphemy cases have been registered in August, mostly against Shias. According to some reports there have been at least 20 cases of targeted killing with Shias being executed. Pakistan had remained in the fold of some of the worst sectarian violence in the region during the 1980s and 1990s with a proxy war of the Saudi-Iran Sunni-Shia conflict being fought in the country. Around 20 percent of the country’s population is Shia and for decades extremist outfits, some statesponsored, have carried out a cleansing, with minor Shia groups like the Hazaras virtually wiped out, mostly killed with others having fled the country to safety. The NAP (National Action Plan) that criminalizes hate speech must be implemented in letter and spirit. Demonstrations where such incitement to violence takes place must be stopped. Shias are again in the same crosshairs and it is up to the state to put an end to it

Is the death penalty a solution? Capital punishment should not be an option in Pakistan

Rabia ahmed

just society is one in which citizens fully comprehend the result of committing an offence; in which citizens know that if they break the law they will be apprehended and punished. Yet crime happens. In a place like Pakistan where committing an offence is almost unavoidable and it is easy to avoid apprehension and punishment, crime is rampant. Here not only do real offenders escape being caught and punished, those who do get caught and punished are often innocent. Fraud and forgery are strong industries in Pakistan, and bribery and misrepresentation a daily occurrence in almost everyone’s life. Fake documents (think driver’s licenses, for example) are nearly more common than genuine. An AFP report says that the system in Pakistan allows people with money or power to rise above the law. And that is scary. One of the basic tenets of the law is that no one should be above it. When segments of society are above the law, law enforcement and justice cannot function. In this scenario innocents suffer and criminals live the good life. Following the recent dreadful case of the rape of the lady on the Lahore-Sialkot motorway– and in front of her small children, the country has seen strident calls for the rapists to be apprehended and punished as they definitely should be. What is debatable is whether capital punishment should apply. And what is very difficult to understand is the clamour in support

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

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APC could prove to be another damp squib. But this is what might happen the day after. To give some hype to the APC, Nawaz Sharif is expected to address the moot through video link from London where he has been under treatment (the more intense and invasive part of which is yet to begin) since November last year. Sharif has nothing much to lose after being deicism about the opposition parties’ desire and ability clared an absconder. It is yet to be seen if the governto close their ranks and give the rulers a befitting re- ment will allow the PML-supremo to speak. According to Special Assistant to the Prime Minsponse to their high-handed anti-dissent tactics. The recent passing of the FATF related legislation ister on Political Affairs Dr. Shahbaz Gill, PeMrA amply exposes the chinks in the opposition’s armour. (Pakistan electronic Media regulatory Authority) Despite the theoretically superior numbers, the oppo- will take action if ‘fugitive Nawaz’ is allowed to sition parties did not muster adequate strength in the speak at the APC. In all likelihood the section where Nawaz speaks will be blacked out by the channels parliament to defeat the legislation. Was it by coincidence or design? Probably the themselves, those who won’t, will probably be fined. This is the extent of what PeMrA can realistilatter is true. Lame excuses proffered by the PML-N, for ex- cally do, but what the action will expose is the government’s insecurity when it ample, that one of its leading comes to Sharif becoming lights simply did not show up more vocal, that too addressing because his close relative was an APC. seriously ill, simply do not If Sharif is able to address wash. That is why the PTI and It is a conundrum for Khan. the opposition’s much hyped its backers were confident that If he blocks Sharif it will moot through video-conferencthe bill will easily pass through ing without interruption it will even before it was tabled. provide grist to the prove to be a big boost to the A poorly organised and a opposition’s propaganda opposition’s sagging fortunes. highly demoralised opposition Nevertheless, instead of throwposes no threat to the governmills exposing the PTI’s ing the book at the opposition ment at least for the time being. already badly tarnished or try to block Sharif trough That is why Khan is becoming force or intimidation, the govincreasingly intolerant, aggresdemocratic credentials. ernment should show some resive and bordering in personal straint in the matter. The insults by the day. proposed APC will get a big every day that passes he is boost one way or the other. becoming more intolerant toIt is a conundrum for Khan. If he blocks Sharif it wards any form of dissent. Media persons are constantly under threat of being made a horrible example will provide grist to the opposition’s propaganda of. As a result, journalists feel adequately intimidated mills exposing the PTI’s already badly tarnished democratic credentials. not to call a spade a spade. At the same time however the ruling party is well In any case, a majority of media owners do not have any ideological commitments to freedom of the aware of the fact that the opposition’s unity is very press and are quite willing to take the easy way out. fragile. JUI-F’s failed dharna notwithstanding, each Most media houses are in in dire financial straits party has its own agenda that pulls them in different hence are quite happy as long as their financial health directions, rendering them virtually incapable of organising any meaningful street agitation. keeps on improving. even if somehow, on paper, the opposition can A lot of hype has been created about the opposition’s grand show. But proof of the pudding is in eat- generate the required numbers, those who allow such ing it. Bilawal Bhutto, as a prelude to the APC, has shows of power to go forward are in the government’s been taking quite a strident line against the govern- corner and that in itself is not only a source of confidence for Khan and his party but a barrier in the way ment. Whether the PPP leadership will be able to walk of the opposition’s effectiveness. the talk is yet to be seen. Zardari is the co-chairperson Arif Nizami is Editor, Pakistan Today. He can be of the party, a master tactician; he keeps his cards contacted at arifn51@hotmail.com close to his chest. http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk Although it sounds difficult to imagine that the

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of a public hanging and castration. even the PM has added his voice, for what it’s worth, in support of the call for public hanging or chemical castration. Whether or not capital punishment is effective is a moot point, and not under discussion here. The point of this column is to question whether capital punishment should be allowed in Pakistan, a country where people with influence are above the law, where officials are easily bribed, where false documentation and false testimony are rife. If a capital punishment is handed out despite this, and later found to be false, a dead person will not come back to life. His or her family members will have lived with the pain of wrongly losing a loved one and that stigma and suffering will never be lifted. This is not justice. The same argument applies against castration. The further call for the hanging to be public, to “Let everyone know what happens to those who commit such crimes” is impossible to understand. No one seems to make a move to make repercussions so explicit when each and every day innocents suffer and criminals go free. Why then this sudden baying for blood when in today’s age of newspapers and televisions, when even the poorest man possesses a cell phone and a Tv, the public know well what happens without people being hung on their doorstep. Do the people of Pakistan need to witness the image and stink of such violence? Do they lack such images in their lives? Do they lack the tendency towards violence that they should witness more? Should our children see such images? Should they grow up to accept such sights as part of their lives? If there were any sort of guarantees that the men caught for committing such crimes are really guilty, that their conviction is not the result of revenge or wrongful arrest based on fake evidence then capital punishment is open to discussion, but public hanging never. It is my conviction however that because there can be no such guarantee in Pakistan, the idea of capital punishment in this country should never be entertained. Based on very common precedent there is no guarantee whatsoever of the real criminal being caught, in fact a good chance of the opposite. There are those who say that religion calls for this. That is not so. You can only hand out punishments when the conditions are such that the punishment is likely to be just, and there is little justice in this country. Pakistani society is as much to blame for crime as the criminals, as are the governments who have failed

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to check corruption, and law enforcing authorities who have failed to check crime. In the particular case that took place on the motorway the police did not turn up when called. If there was a shortage of officers this should have been made clear to anyone using the motorway and alternative arrangements provided. So if there is to be no capital punishment, what then? We need a complete overhaul of law enforcement. Officials should know as much as any rapist that they will be held accountable for neglecting the security of the citizens of the country, accepting bribes and giving in to pressure. It is the government’s job to ensure that pressure does not come to bear on those who enforce the law. It is most often government officers and the rich segment of society which provide such pressure, and get away with it every time. Punishment is not the only deterrent. Attempts should also be made to change the conditions that encourage crime, to prevent crime from occurring. We need jobs, education and security in this country. And just as important we need to change the deeply entrenched attitude against women as a result of which it is considered acceptable to harass women, to commit crimes against them and to hold the victims themselves responsible. It is the attitude we saw reflected in the CCPO’s statement where he held the victim responsible for being raped. Such reprimands are not his job. His job is to ensure security and this he entirely failed to do. The criminals must definitely be apprehended and punished. One has no sympathy for people who commit such crimes. But as we all expect in our own cases, there must be a proper investigation free from bribery, sloth or self-interest. The rapists must face time in jail. To take a life and to cut off body parts is neither a solution nor a deterrent. Those who have the wherewithal still know that they can get away with rape, murder and fraud, and they are as much a part of this society as anyone else. Is one segment to be deterred and not the other? In case of a false conviction, if the person is eventually pronounced innocent, at least he or she can still be freed, in many cases, and the shadow cast over his/her entire family can still be lifted, albeit after much suffering. A dead person cannot be brought back to life and whatever is lost cannot be replaced. Choose. Rabia Ahmed is a freelance columnist. Read more by her at http://rabia-ahmed.blogspot.com

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Sunday, 20 September, 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

Food wastage in Pakistan PAKISTAN is the country where a large number of poor people sleep with hunger. Multiple people are deprived from food due to poverty and they sleep without eating. So, as a human it’s the responsibility of the rich ones to help the poor indigent people. But it’s disheartening to say that instead of providing the food to the poor’s , the food is being wasted. Furthermore, every year 30 million of food is wasted in Pakistan. According to a report around 40 percent of food is wasted in the weddings, homes, parties and hotels. However, inplace of wasting the food , it’s better to provide them to the ones who do not get food for numerous days. Thus, all the Pakistanis should wake up and create awareness regarding food wastage and provide the food to the needy ones inplace of wasting it. MahEEn JaMEEl TurbaT

Peace deal in hindsight

No compromise, no going slow, no reprieve Chickens have come home to roost

Candid Corner Raoof hasaN “Shame on the misguided, the blinded, the distracted and the divided. Shame! You have allowed deceptive men to corrupt and desensitise your hearts and minds to unethically fuel their greed.” —Suzy Kassem

AWAZ Sharif’s legal journey in his battle to convince the court/s to overlook his prolonged absence in spite of his bail having lapsed seems to be nearing an end. On September 15, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the former prime minister. Proceedings to declare him an absconder have also been initiated. Another court has already declared him an absconder, leading to initiation of steps by the government to get him back in the country to face the charges. This has taken a long time in coming owing to the Sharifs’ masterful skills for buying everything that would suit their purposes, survival and continued advancement in the political domain being the most important. This dates back to the beginning of their political journey under the tutelage of General Jilani and later Dictator Zia ul Haq. They never looked back and went on a frenetic spree to first default on repayment of loans to the banks only to be reprieved, and then to unleash the tyranny of money to buy everything along the way to the offices of the chief minister and the prime minister. Once ensconced there, they used the commodity lavishly to turn human beings into paid lackeys and sycophants. Under the command of the two brothers, and with the support of their close lieutenants and bootleggers, they degraded democracy to become a vile instrument for inducting the most corrupt people into the political echelons. Their disdain for the judiciary and the rule of law is proverbial. They were used to dictating orders to the judges over telephone, the Malik Qayyum episode being just one among many others which never hit the public view. When the Supreme Court, under the command of the then Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, refused to capitulate, they first despatched a consignment of currency notes to Quetta vide a person who was later anointed President as a reward for his chicanery, and then proceeded to have the court attacked by goons to stop it from functioning. The mob comprised members of their party, includ-

ing sitting legislators. In a crude display of the instances of dereliction, it appears that the Sharsame criminal mindset, the PML(N has urged ifs and Zardaris may, after all, not be able to use the convict/absconder Nawaz Sharif not to re- their pelf to secure relief. As a deceitful camouflage to thwart accountturn to the country, thus having come out publicly in defiance of the IHC injunction. It is not ability, the PML(N) and the PPP jointly prea case of a few individuals. The entire party sented a 34-point charter for securing an NrO by having amendments incorporated in the stands guilty of contempt. Lying, fabricating, forging documents, hid- FATF-related legislation. This was a heinous ating facts and indulging in just about everything tempt to blackmail the government in a matter illegal, have been their favourite instruments to that was of existential relevance for the country─ escape accountability. Nawaz Sharif was caught quite in keeping with their time-tested tactic of lying on the floor of Parliament only to rubbish short-circuiting and circumventing the process of it later as a political gimmick. His subsequent law for gaining political reprieve. Giving in to two statements were out of sync with each other, their demands would have meant stoppage of the and everything he presented in the accountabil- process of reform altogether, thus further perpetity court belied all his previous protestations. His uating the status-quo which is a vile and wicked defence mechanism was one mammoth and legacy of the rule of these two families. That is the reason why Prime Minister Khan shameless pile of lies and deceit. Nawaz Sharif’s rule was particularly con- decided to take them on in a decisive battle to spicuous because of politicisation and criminal- expedite the advent of meaningful and far-reachisation of the state institutions including the ing change in the country. As a first step, on September 16, at a joint bureaucracy, ingratiatsession of the Parliaing them to take an oath ment, the government of loyalty not to the successfully piloted all state, but his person inThe speech by Prime Minister eight bills through the stead, thus recruiting a including three coterie of lackeys to do Khan at the conclusion of the House, FATF-related ones. his bidding. In return, The story of the they were extravagantly joint session of Parliament felonies of the Sharif and rewarded with graft over was par excellence. After Zardari clans is a long and above their legal sordid one and availbenefits. This virtually holding a mirror in front of and able space would not legitimised corruption. The younger brother these leaders to see where permit me to pen all of that here. Suffice to say was not the one to lag they come from, he finished that it was neither the inbehind. His rule as chief terest of the state that minister of Punjab was studded with a high dose with a flourish: “We are willing typified their gross misof fake drama. There to work with the opposition to demeanours, nor the welfare of the poor and was nothing real about his demeanour and acstrengthen the country and the marginalised people of the country. It was tions, just petty optics to democracy, but there will be their own interest alone create an impression of dictated their poligovernance. He is the no compromise on corruption” that cies. The country was reone who criminalised duced to becoming their the police force and had personal fiefdom with fake armed encounters members of their famistaged to eliminate people. From the state institutions to bureaucracy to lies its princes and princesses who were empowpolice to local administration– everyone was be- ered to rule by diktat, resulting in merciless holden to the Sharifs for immeasurable illicit plundering of the state resources. It is only now earnings. This is only a microcosm of the extent that the long arm of law is closing in to make of corruption they practised and promoted with them pay for their arson and robberies. The speech by Prime Minister Khan at the the help of a host of aiders and abettors. The Charter of Democracy was in fact a conclusion of the joint session of Parliament was Charter of Corruption with the two political par- par excellence. After holding a mirror in front of ties, led by the Sharifs and the Zardaris respec- these leaders to see where they come from, he tively, cunningly agreeing to cover each other’s finished with a flourish: “We are willing to work back for illegitimate enrichment of their per- with the opposition to strengthen the country sonal coffers. In order to do so, they appointed and democracy, but there will be no compromise a virtual criminal, Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, as on corruption”. There is going to be no compromise, no go the chairman of NAB who, instead of pursuing the corruption cases against them, manoeuvred slow, and no reprieve. The faces that Shahbaz Sharif and Bilawal Zardari cut at the press contheir way to freedom. Much to their angst, the Sharifs and Zardaris ference they held at the conclusion of the joint are now pitted against Prime Minister Khan session of Parliament tell the whole story: chickwho, throughout his political innings spread ens have come home to roost. over more than 20 years, has vowed to eliminate Raoof Hasan is a political and security corruption from the country. In spite of innumerable hurdles, he has remained steadfast in ful- strategist, and heads the Regional Peace Instifilling his commitment. That’s why one sees a tute – an Islamabad-based think tank. Email: plethora of cases being pursued vigorously in raoofhasan@hotmail.com. Twitter: various courts of law. Though there have been @RaoofHasan

IN the last one month, two Arba countries - the UAe and Bahrain - have officially recognized Israel. A peace agreement brokered by the US president Trump has been signed among the three afterward. The purpose behind this deal is, as told to the world, bringing the deteriorated condition of the region because of long conflicts between Israel and the neighboring states particularly the people of Palestine to normalization. It is also believed by many analysts that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Oman can follow the suit as none of the two condemned the precedent set by the UAe and Bahrain. Oman, on the contrary, endorsed both countries. But here a question arises that whether the peace deal will really bring the fruits as it is deemed or it is just a dream that can never be true? We have two imminent precedents before us to reach the conclusion. The first one is the Camp Devid Accord signed in 1978 under the auspices of the US president James Carter, popularly known as Jemmy Carter. A peace deal between Israel and egypt signed and Israel was asked to act as per the UN resolution 242. The resolution was passed after six days of the Arab-Israel war in 1967 that says to Israel to leave the areas she occupied in the war. However, neither those areas were left by Israeli armed forces nor ceasefire is experienced ever since. Israel not only remained indifferent to the peace deal, but she also humiliated the resolutions of the UN. The second one is the peace deal between Israel and Jordan signed in 1994. Leaders of the two countries shook hands and pledged to not wage war against each other. There will be no harm to the interests of the two countries, they decided there as well. What do we see in the aftermath? Israel didn’t leave West Bank that she captured in 1967 nor did she cease the killing of innocent Palestinians residing there. Do the UAe and Bahrain or the Arab countries that are supposed to follow the suit yet have any reason to trust such peace deals? Do they not see how Israel keeps persecution of the Palestinians even after making peace deals? ali haSSan Mandi bahauddin

Hanging not the answer THe increasing rape cases of Pakistan brought people in confusion. There are lots of questions in the public’s mind to control rape cases. For government the last option is to hang the rapists in front of the public or chemically terror them. But, hanging the rapists is becoming an old tradition lets change the traditional into something else. For finishing the rape culture, the government should provide education to the youths. They should be thought about the rape, sexual harassment and Islamic laws on sexual activities. In some developed countries, they are using this pattern to control on this. For the future, the government needs to provide education in this regard. rahMaTullah Shafiq TurbaT

Democracy must prevail SePTeMBer 15 marks the international day of democracy to raise awareness regarding its importance in the political structure of the world. Different Ideologists, authors, and political scientists have explained it according to their understanding and observation of the society in which we live. Aristotle, the most influential and prolific political philosopher of his era views democracy as a threat to rule of law, according to his opinion the one who possesses all the abilities of a ruler must be preferred over an aristocrat who is inept to run the affairs of the Government. Another Political Philosopher of repute Plato, alike his student Aristotle did not view democracy as an identical form of governance and presented democracy as the tyranny of the majority The prime mover of the french revolution J.J russow termed democracy as the only suitable form of government. His book Social contract flung opened the door of democracy and guided French people to scrap Kingship. Time went by and philosophers kept giving new ideas and theories about democracy and during that period democracy continued to flourish even though ideological giants Like Aristotle and Plato rejected it as an ideal form of government. 1215 the year when for the first time in modern human history, significant and substantial headway was made towards democracy. Magna Carta the charter of democracy guaranteed the rights of people and king John delegated his powers thus that event made the U.K the mother of Democracy. That historical achievement also made the successful fusion of Kingship and a democratically elected government that continues yet. However, that combination also proved Aristotle wrong by successfully conserving the rule of law across their territorial jurisdictions under democratically elected governments. Although the President of the USA is contemplated as the most powerful elected representative of the world and it does not corroborate the principle quite essential for the existence of democracy laid down by john At-con who propounded that “absolute power corrupts absolutely”, but despite that technically polished political infrastructure of USA has effectively managed to uphold the banderole of democracy and the secret behind that is the successful implementation of the doctrine of separation power and prevalence of the system checks and balances which puts that powerful President on his feet and he keeps delivering during his tenure KaMran KhaMiSo KhowaJa SuJawal

Sunday, 20 September, 2020

08 WORLD VIEW

Partition is the only solution to lebanon’s woes HEZBOLLAH’S DOMINANCE HAS DEPRIVED NON-SHIITE LEBANESE OF A VOICE IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY. IT IS TIME TO RECONSIDER A CENTURY OF CONSOCIATIONAL DEMOCRACY AND RETURN TO A FORM OF FEDERALISM

ForeigN PoLicy

JOSEPH A KÉCHICHIAN

EbANON is an ancient land that is mentioned 71 times in the Old Testament; the current geopolitical entity that bears that name, which was created in September 1920 by the French government, has survived for a century—but barely. Over the course of that century, Lebanon lived through two civil wars, two foreign occupations, and assorted calamities while being plagued by corruption and substantial losses of liberties. Regrettably, all nation-building efforts came to naught, as political and religious leaders raised fresh power-sharing formulas. These ranged the gamut from federalism to partition, as the Lebanese, Christians, Druze, Sunni Muslims, and Shiite Muslims repeatedly rejected “communal coexistence”—a colloquial expression that is frequently used but lost meaning some time ago. After 100 years, many Lebanese are asking themselves: Why continue to live a lie? In 1920, French Gen. Henri Gouraud was optimistic and, along with the Catholic Maronite Patriarch Elias Hoayek and Sunni Grand Mufti Sheikh Mustafa Naja, expanded the predominantly Christian-inhabited Mount Lebanon by creating a new geographical entity, which the French official and the two clerics named Greater Lebanon. They added the coastal towns of beirut (then chiefly Greek Orthodox); Tripoli, Sidon, Tyre, and their hinterlands (then mostly Sunni); and the bekaa Valley(whose populations included Shiites, Sunnis, and Christians). Overnight, Mount Lebanon’s 80 percent Christian majority was reduced to 55 percent, which was the basis of flawed political apportionments on Sept. 1, 1920. Importantly, a demographic parity was reached between Muslims and Christians as early as 1943, when Lebanon gained formal independence. The country made a crucial error by preserving an unwritten sectarian system that granted the top posts of the presidency to Maronites, the premiership to Sunnis, and the speakership of parliament to Shiites. The French believed that power sharing would best serve the new republic, granting the three leading religious communities high-level posts. All 18 officially recognized religious communities were allocated specific positions that, in effect, created a unique democracy based on consociationalism. A consociational state rests on a carefully divided internal setup along ethnic, religious, or linguistic lines, with none of the divisions large enough to form a majority group that would or even could dominate the rest, but which remains relatively stable because leaders consult among each other to maintain a balance of power. In Lebanon’s case, consociationalism was meant to maintain internal stability among the newly created state’s Christian and Muslim elites. Christians promised to maintain distance from Western protectors, and Muslims pledged to forgo attachment to Syria,

though only Georges Naccache, a Renaissance man par excellence, lamented this so-called National Pact as a “double negative.” In 1949, Naccache wrote that “two negations don’t make a nation,” an affirmation that was repeatedly overlooked during the country’s civil wars. Over time, the Lebanese reached new accords, such as the 1989 Saudi-brokered Taif Agreement, which suspended the civil war and put an end to successive Syrian and Israeli invasions. The Taif Agreement called for a return to political normalcy and reasserted Lebanese authority in southern Lebanon (then controlled by Israel and its South Lebanese Army allies). It also stipulated that the Syrian army withdraw within two years, though the actual withdrawal did not occur until 2005. United Nations resolutions, along with U.N. peacekeeping troops that have now been deployed for more than four decades, mostly kept the peace on the southern border. Syrian occupying troops imposed peace from 1990 until 2005, even if Damascus emasculated every Lebanese political and security institution by encouraging the creation of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia as a state within the state. Remarkably, after Syrian troops were withdrawn in 2005, Syrian President bashar al-Assad’s baath Party retained its intelligence operatives in Lebanon who, among other things, dominated local politics. Their grip was so strong that Damascus surfed through its own post-2011 civil war relatively unscathed, using Lebanon as a conduit for every imaginable good and service while it relied on Hezbollah for both warfare and terrorism. Unwilling to preserve and protect their country’s sovereignty, Lebanese merchantpoliticians such as WalidJumblatt and former Foreign Minister Gebranbassil, both of whom owned dozens of companies and media outlets—saw fresh opportunities in Syria, while Hezbollah executed Iranian orders to provide troops and prop up increasingly challenged governments in both countries. A century is a very long time for a failed experiment in nation-building. What 100 years of neglect and greed produced were immense contradictions, as relative poverty and extreme wealth existed side by side. When functional unemployment increased, for example, it was quickly camouflaged through sectarian corruption, as party bosses and other power brokers disbursed generous financial donations to smother social unrest. Simultaneously, most of the nearly 1 million Lebanese workers toiling overseas dutifully transferred hard-earned salaries year in and year out. Their remittances ensured the creation of a first-rate banking Ponzi scheme that enriched the superwealthy while it provided the illusion of prosperity to the middle class. In fact, expatriate Lebanese workers helped keep their native land afloat, sending $7 billion to $8 billion in annual remittances—which amounted to 18 percent of gross domestic product when the economy was riding high in 2010 and were deposited in local banks or earmarked to buy property. Local banks offered high interest rates, ranging from 6 to 12 percent—and sometimes reaching 15 to 20 percent—with the full approval of the central bank that had kept the lira stable at 1,507 to the dollar since 1997, though the currency spiraled downward to around 10,000 to the dollar on the black market a few months ago (and was back down to 7,600 as of this writing).

Today, capital controls have locked up dollars in bank accounts, uniting both rich and poor in anger, with many businesses no longer accepting card payments. Most Lebanese believed that their steadily growing bank accounts were safe and that they would be allowed to enjoy life—oblivious to sophisticated mechanisms introduced by incredibly savvy pilferers. Organized corruption melted most savings as banks ran out of dollars and paid out dollar accounts in Lebanese lira first at the 2,600 lira rate before settling at 3,900 lira to the dollar, at a time when a dollar fetched 8,000 lira on the black market. Inflation galloped, prices skyrocketed, unemployment increased, emigration exploded, poverty settled in for at least 50 percent of the population, and the Lebanese lira lost nearly 80 percent of its value in less than a year. beyond the explosions that rocked beirut on Aug. 4, beyond successive economic crises that impoverished a large majority of the Lebanese, and beyond the continued hijacking of political life by one of the most corrupt ruling establishments anywhere on the planet, Lebanon is now confronting its thirsty post-1920 demons. In the words of Salim badaoui, a French-educated Lebanese journalist, “the 1943 National Pact was dead and the 1989 Ta’if Accords were no longer viable,” even if Lebanese Shiites were now openly calling for a constitutional convention that would presumably reach a new power-sharing accord. “It was imperative … not to accept a new Iranian-sponsored Ta’if since that would be based on excessive Shiite power. Lebanon would disappear,” badaoui wrote in his 2019 opus Marounia: Uneidentitéenpéril. Of course, calls for a new pact today between Christians and Muslims did not mean that whatever emerged would favor Shiites, though the openly advocated associations with Iran by Hezbollah and, far more ominously, the unabashed desire to be part of the wilayat al-faqih —the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist council that maintains a supreme leader who must serve all Shiites everywhere—unsettled the rest of Lebanese society. Hezbollah representatives and Shiite religious figures seldom missed an opportunity to reiterate their desire and duty to be part of the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist, which drew sharp criticisms from Christians and Sunnis alike. Maronite Patriach Mar bisharah boutros al-Ra‘i reacted strongly to such pronouncements and recently advocated neutrality to preserve the country’s political identity. Shiite officials promptly rejected his call. For his part, Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, the Sunni mufti of Lebanon, emphasized that there were no alternatives to the Taif Agreement, which Shiite clerics dismissed as a spent deal. Interestingly, a majority of Lebanese wished to see real technocrats in charge of their government, a desire expressed during the protests of October 2019 and more recently. Naturally, establishment stakeholders ignored all of these calls, unwilling to surrender lucrative activities that allowed them to remain in power and perpetuate their proven performances. One government resigned and was replaced by another, with the same political leaders manipulating the process. In reality, nothing changed. Although Lebanese Christians, Druze and Sunni Muslims rejected Shiite jurisprudence, this did not and does not mean that they no longer wanted to coexist with Shi-

ites. Rather, the overwhelming majority of the Lebanese, including Shiites not beholden to Iran, appeared to be aghast at how Shiite leaders positioned themselves in society in a way that made coexistence nearly impossible. Admittedly, this was a difficult proposition to test, given that no scientific surveys on sectarianism were conducted or even allowed. Still, evidence that buttressed sectarian preferences proliferated, as Hezbollah coerced key Christian officials and corralled the Free Patriotic Movement of Gen. Michel Aoun, who only became head of state after Hezbollah forced a suspension of parliament for two years, eager to reach power and rule with impunity, thus ensuring that Aoun was beholden to them. In the aftermath of the 2018 parliamentary elections—after the agreement between the militia and Aoun, now Lebanon’s president—Hezbollah was euphoric. Successful gerrymandering also played a role. In 2017, Lebanese politicians passed a new electoral law that allowed almost all political parties to engage in proportional representation, opening fresh fields of electoral competition, which had been previously confined to just a few constituencies. As a result, the country’s political architecture changed, with a new level of uncertainty that forced parties to build ad hoc alliances with a broad, shifting set of partners, established district by district. There were numerous cases of new alliances crossing traditional lines, which prevented civil society candidates from winning all but a single seat out of 128. The gerrymandering upset every political apple cart, leading to then Prime Minister Saad Hariri losing 12 of the 33 seats his Future Movement held in the 128-member parliament. Hariri, the son of the assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, was one of the pillars of the March 14 Alliance, ostensibly opposed to Hezbollah but, in reality, a silent partner in several successive governments. The journalist Kim Ghattas reported exuberant celebrations as many chanted: “beirut is Shia, beirut is Shia.” Shiite operatives posted video clips on YouTube and other social media outlets praising the sect and arguing the time was long overdue to rule Lebanon. Of course, there were hundreds if not thousands of such clips, even as leading Shiite religious leaders cautioned overzealous speakers to tone the rhetoric down. Sadly, the “Shiite, Shiite, Shiite” chants were repeated in the aftermath of the October 2019 uprisings that saw nearly 2 million protesters in downtown beirut. In some cases, armed partisans attacked demonstrators, burned tents, and otherwise terrorized peaceful opponents of the regime. This was important because Hezbollah operatives were behind these acts, all to show who was in charge of security in Lebanon. Partition is a serious option that would help avoid repeated mistakes that largely defined Lebanon during the past century. Lebanese public opinion solidified against Shiite community activities after villagers in Lassa illegally erected a building on land owned by the Maronite Church in 2011. The long-running dispute over land ownership in the mixed community, as elsewhere throughout the country, threatened to upset demographic conditions. Similar flare-ups occurred in several predominently Druze villages in the Chouf Mountains and resulted in deaths while government officials watched. There was also a backlash from Chris-

tians. In mid-2019, the town of Hadath banned Muslims from buying property, which sparked a national outcry, though these developments illustrated Lebanon’s rapidly changing demographic makeup against the backdrop of deep-rooted sectarian divisions. More recent attacks on the Maronite patriarch, who boldly called on Aug. 24 for state authorities to remove all illegal weapons, meaning Hezbollah’s weapons, further exacerbated conditions. For his part, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, whose almost weekly televised speeches were broadcast on all local channels, warned protesters who set up mock gallows for him in beirut’s Martyrs’ Square to watch it. On Aug. 12, Nasrallah strenuously objected, adding: “We’ve seen all boundaries crossed. Who do these people represent? We respect those peacefully protesting not those who are backed by embassies,” insinuating the widespread anti-government protests were foreign-funded while his Iranian-funded militia was the genuine representative of the people’s will. Moreover, the secretary-general warned many when he stated: “I don’t say let go of your anger, hold on to it, but restrain it, because the day might come when you will need it to end all attempts to drag Lebanon into a civil war,” It was a warning to all, especially Christians, not to rely on outsiders to save them. There was some media outcry, leading top managers at TV stations to decide they would no longer broadcast Nasrallah’s orations. It fell to a former minister, Pierre bouAssi from the Lebanese Forces party, to call a spade a spade. When pressed by an interviewer to clarify his criticisms of the Shiites, bouAssi bluntly stated that “we are different people”; he also called on Aoun to resign because of his deals with, and tolerance of, Hezbollah. As Lebanon teeters on the brink of collapse, the country’s Christians, Druze, and Sunnis—along with some Shiites—are determined to preserve their freedoms. Many endured hardships for four centuries under Ottoman rule, and some have once again begun talking about federalism as an option to ensure their long-term safety, though how that would work in a sectarian society such as Lebanon is unclear, especially when Hezbollah is opposed to the very idea of federalism or partition. Many wonder whether the Lebanese can survive with Hezbollah’s guns imposing Shiite minority rule over all other communities. Others deliberate how many more will need to perish before the Lebanese can truly be free. Partition is a serious option that would help avoid repeated mistakes that largely defined Lebanon during the past century. It was amply clear that while the Lebanese shared common attributes, they could not agree on basic political and social freedoms, which can only be preserved through a new political pact. Without liberty, Lebanon has no meaning, since those who presumably created the current geographic entity intended to empower its inhabitants with the freedoms that were absent elsewhere in the region. Regrettably, the 1920 experiment failed, and the real question that confronts the Lebanese in 2020 is whether the country ought to go back to its pre1920 settings.

Joseph A. Kéchichian is a senior fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 2008, he published two studies, Power and Succession in Arab Monarchies and Beirut and Faysal: Saudi Arabia’s King for All Seasons. His newest book is Legal and Political Reforms in Sa‘udi Arabia, and he has just completed a companion volume to Faysal on ‘Iffat Al Thunayan: An Arabian Queen.

Print emerges as the most reliable news source News LauNdry At a time when the battle for TRPs has made a section of TV news fall into new depths, a timely survey titled News Credibility Index by a media consulting firm, Ormax Media, has found print media to be the most credible source of news compared to TV and digital media. While TV news scored a 56% and radio 57%, print emerged as the clear winner with a 62% score. The survey was carried out across 17 states recording responses from

A SURVEY CONDUCTED BY ORMAX MEDIA FOUND 62% OF CONSUMERS CONSIDER PRINT MEDIA AS THE MOST RELIABLE SOURCE OF NEWS 2400 urban news consumers over the age of 15 years.According to the survey results, fake news was a major concern for 61% of news consumers. Despite the ever-rising reach of digital and social media, the survey found their credibility as a news source at a

mere 32%. Whatsapp and other similar messaging apps scored even lower--29%. With Twitter becoming increasingly entwined with the news cycle, it was not surprising that the platform emerged as the most credible news source compared to other such

platforms. However, with 53%, it scored one per cent higher than TV news, which in itself says a lot about the state of TV news in the country. Speaking to The Economic Times, Shailesh Kapoor, founder & CEO, Ormax

Media, said, “Concerns related to fake news have been a topic of discussion globally as well as in India, and the problem of fake news seems to be getting larger with every passing month. This survey was conducted to quantify the extent of this concern in India, and to understand if some media fare better than others. We plan to track these measures every six months, which will allow us to compare how perception of news consumers regarding fake news is changing with time.”

Sunday, 20 September, 2020

BUSINESS 09

Modern ‘tech farms’ to encourage agricultural exports: Fawad ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The federal government has revealed their plan to revolutionize the country’s agricultural sector through the creation of more than 500 state of the art technology-based farms under the novel Precision Agriculture project. Speaking to media, Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said that the agriculture sector is considered the backbone of Pakistan’s agrarian economy, and has the potential to contribute an even bigger share to the country’s Gross Development Product (GDP) if effective and modern technology is used on farms. Therefore, his ministry is endeavouring to introduce modern technology for improving agriculture practices and boost the production level of different crops which would boost economy as well as make the farmers prosperous. “Under the project of Precision Agriculture, farms from 2-12.5 acres would be given technology packages including drones, water censors, pesticides censors, packaging facility, seed selection facility and more,” said Fawad. “In our country, the maximum production at even 12.5 acres land is not sufficient for our farmer to bear expenses. Compare this with China, where farmers get optimum production at one acre land through tech-based agricultural practices which lasts them the whole year.” He was of the view that laser leveling of fields could maximize productivity of irrigation water at the farm level. This would help produce more crop per drop through optimal use of water and non-water inputs. The federal minister in his tweet said this year, Faisalabad Agricultural University has received 50 per cent more admissions applications than last year. The interest in admissions has also increased in other agricultural universities. “The interest of youth in agriculture is a very welcome indicator. It will change Pakistan’s agriculture field,” he said. “The second part of this project is to develop corporate livestock farms for the farmers. Pakistan Halal Authority has been created which would ensure quality of meat and Islamic way of sacrificing animals.”

CCP terms Hi-Tech’s claim for ‘Zic’ puffery ISLAMABAD APP

The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has issued a show-cause notice to Hi-Tech Lubricants Limited for puffery, after a competing lubricants brand complained to the commission that Hi-Tech’s advertising was false and hurting their business. Chevron Pakistan Lubricants (Pvt) Limited had complained to the CCP that certain marketing and advertising claims made by HiTech for their lubricant products under the brand name, Zic, were deceptive and in violation of Section 10 of the Competition Act, 2010. Chevron, the competitor in question, alleged that choice of words such as, “behtreen” in Hi-Tech’s marketing claims had created unsubstantiated impression of comparison between Zic and the competing products, said a press release issued by Ministry of Commerce here on Saturday. The CCP’s enquiry found certain claims of Hi-Tech carrying the Urdu words, “behtar” and “behtreen” without any reasonable basis and in prima facie violation of Section 10 of the Competition Act. On the inquiry’s recommendations, a show cause notice was issued to HiTech and hearings were held in the matter. Taking into consideration and analysing the arguments from both sides and in light of the commission’s previous judgments and the case law from other jurisdictions i.e. America, Australia, and India, the bench held that the abovementioned claims made by Hi-Tech for promoting its products fell under the category of puffery. Moreover, the bench accepted the respondents’ arguments that the Urdu word “behtreen” also carrying other meanings such as “alaa”, “umdah” or “mumtaz” indicates that the term “behtreen” is general and vague, and not absolute as was alleged by the complainant.

‘CPEC on TraCk, buT PakisTan nEEds To EMPloy CHinEsE ExPErTs’ ISLAMABAD

MIAN ABRAR

UTGOING Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing has said that the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would be better served if Pakistan appointed officials who are experts on the functioning of Chinese government and its market. In an exclusive interview with Pakistan Today, the ambassador said that on his exit from the country, he was happy at the progress that had been made between the relationship between the two countries, and that CPEC was on the right track. The Ambassador said that he did not feel that was any challenge to the progress of CPEC because it was proceeding in a timely fashion. There were only ways to make it better and stronger. One of his chief suggestions was the appointment of experts that knew the workings of the Chinese government, and markets closely and could advice Pakistan on how to navigate these mechanisms. “CPEC is now well connected, much to the satisfaction of both sides,” he said. “The biggest concern if there is one is that Pakistani officials lack expertise on not just how the Chinese government works, but also how Chinese companies operate.” “In China, for example, we have some experts that advise us on Pakistan’s functioning model. But there is a lot more to be done for Pakistani authorities to learn the functioning of Chinese markets and government,” he added.

OutgOing envOy yaO Jing says PaKistani Officials lacK exPertise On nOt Just hOw the chinese gOvt wOrKs, but alsO hOw chinese cOmPanies OPerate MEGA PROJECTS UNDER CPEC: Pointing towards ML-I, the Mainline-1 railway project under CPEC) worth $6.8 billion, Ambassador Jing said China and Pakistan have made strides when it comes to mega projects which will become beneficial to both countries soon. “ML-I is the biggest of our mega projects. We were stuck for a while on this, but now we have made a breakthrough on it and we are moving on to the commercial part. Although the commercial loan issue remains yet to be settled, but it is in the process of being finalised between the two governments,” he said. “Hydropower stations are another example of some of the mega projects under CPEC,” he said. “We are currently working on two different hydropower projects, and even more are coming. Then of course there are other infrastructure projects like Motorway (M-6) and some highways construction in Balochistan, and expansion of the Karakoram Highway.” THREATS TO CPEC: Pointing towards external enemies that may want to harm CPEC, the ambassador admitted that security had been one of the chief topics under discussion during a recent visit that Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, made to Beijing. “There are some externally-sup-

ported elements who are working against the China, Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). There have also been some terrorist attacks recently. Such elements are a major security threat to Chinese companies working in Pakistan,” said the ambassador. “However we are very grateful that the Pakistani government has adopted very comprehensive security plans for CPEC and the Chinese companies working on these projects.” “The Strategic Security Division (SSD) has been established and just last year, they opened a new division called Southern Division. We are going to collaborate with law reinforcement department, basically Ministry of Interior and the Police Department”. Ambassador Jing went on to reveal that China and Pakistan were planning on having more local base stations. This would allow for a greater exchange of experience and collaboration, which would result in the increased capacity building of these forces tasked to secure CPEC projects. “We are also having some kind of police related capacities in different provinces, as well as jointly monitoring external elements who are detrimental to CPEC. We are also having intelligence cooperation between Pakistan and China”. Asked whether China and Pakistan

were also implementing an intelligence cooperation to counter such nefarious designs against the CPEC projects, Amb Yao Jing said that intelligence corporation is already operational. INDUSTRIAL COOPERATION: Ambassador Yao Jing says that Special Economic Zones (SeZs) were a major part of the industrial cooperation between the two countries, and Rashakai SeZ would be the first success story in this regard. “Under the industrial cooperation, we identified four areas including the SeZs. For which, we have identified special areas. Initially we could not make progress on SeZs due to involvement of various tiers of the federal and provincial authorities. We needed to have special areas with special tax holiday and other incentives for the investors along with special priorities for the major sectors”. Asked to elaborate, the envoy said that CPEC cooperation is between the federal governments of Pakistan and China, but the SEZs were in the provinces, which created issues. “This is why it was a little slow. Then various private companies were also involved so it took time to make a breakthrough. But finally we have managed it.” He said Motorway (M-3) is already functional now. “Better coordination is half the success. So Rashakai could be the first successful story. Gwadar Free Trade Zone has been a major success. There are 22 factories on construction sector in the Free Zone. Six of them have already finished work on port. Pakistan government has given tax-free incentive to it. Free Zone is now booming.”

KP real estate owners demand fiscal, tax relief package PESHAWAR STAFF REPORT

Businessmen attached with the real estate sector have urged the provincial government to announce a special fiscal relief and tax relief package, saying that the sector has been adversely affected during the prolonged coronavirus lockdown. The demand was raised by President of Al-Khidmat Tajaraan and Real Estate Business Forum, Haji Rahmat Ali, who met along with other office bearers of the forum with the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry president, Engineer Maqsood Anwar Pervaiz, here at the chamber house on Saturday. The business forum office bearers, Imadad Hussain Hashmi, Abid Khan, Sheikh Abdul Rehman, Faizyaab Awan, Iqbal Siddique, Iftikhar Khan, Shah Pur Salaam and Sultan Gul were present during the meeting. The delegation informed the SCCI president Engineer Maqsood Anwar Pervaiz in detail regarding issues of the traders associated with the real estate sector. The meeting was told that the ban was imposed on transfer of property, transfer of inheritance along with issuance of number, new registry during the prolonged coronavirus lockdown, because of which a large number of people attached with the sector were rendered jobless. The meeting further informed discussed how the real estate sector has rapidly declined owing to apathy of the government and department concerned toward resolution of the issues related to the sector. It added the issues had taken up with Chief Min-

ister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, provincial ministers Taimoor Saleem Jhagra, Shaukat Yousaf, Advisor to CM on Excise and Taxation, Ghazi Ghazan Jamal, but no satisfactory step was taken to resolve their problems. Registry expense was charged as per floor in Peshawar, but it was not implemented in other districts of the province, which was completely unjust and unfair, the meeting informed. The real estate owners demanded the provincial government to take measures for revival and development of the construction industry. Maqsood Pervaiz, while speaking on the occasion, emphasized that the announcement of a com-

prehensive fiscal relief package for Covid-19 hit real estate sector is inevitable. He added the SCCI has already played an integral role in resolution of traders’ community issues. The chamber president urged the provincial government to take steps for provision of relief to revival of businesses hit by the coronavirus lockdown. He assured the traders delegation that the SCCI will take up their issues with the provincial government and relevant departments. He called upon the provincial government as per commitment to take initiatives for revival and development of construction industry and provision of other facilities.

Iran ready for barter trade with Pakistan, says council general KARACHI STAFF REPORT

Iranian Consul General, Reza Nazeri, has stressed the need for strengthening trade ties between two neighboring countries, saying Iran is ready for barter trade with Pakistan, including the export of petrochemicals, steel and LPG to Pakistan in exchange for rice, meat and other agriculture products from Pakistan. During an address made at the second meeting of the FPCCI Pak-Iran Business Council held here at its regional office, the Iranian Consul General said that Iranian Consulate of Lahore is ready to facilitate Pakistan’s private sector to promote bilateral trade and investment. Zahid Iqbal Ch. Vice President FPCCI, Dr. Mohammad Reza Karbasi, Director General of ICCIA & ICCIMA, Ali Asghar, Commercial Counselor, Najam-ul- Hassan, Chairman FPCCI Pak-Iran Business Council and Syed Ali Raza Rizvi, Senior Vice Chairman FPCCI

Pak-Iran Business also spoke on the occasion. “We are trying the restore air link between Tehran and Lahore as early as possible which was suspended due to Covid-19, also affecting tourism sector of Iran,” he lamented. “The volume of two-way trade between Pakistan and Iran is negligible, as the mutual trade of two countries does not match their respective potentials.” Nazeri observed that Pakistan and Iran have the potential to cater to each other’s needs provided businessmen in both countries have the exposure to avail opportunities. The business community in the two countries would have to increase interaction to share their experiences in the larger interests of the people of two brotherly nations, he added. “Chambers of commerce in our two countries will have to focus on expansion of trade by holding single-country exhibitions and through trade delegations to each other’s country. Dissemination of sector-specific and trade-related information

would go a long way in achieving this goal.” The Iranian Consul General said that agriculture, tourism and metal industry of Iran have opportunities of investment and Pakistani business community should come forward. Earlier, addressing the meeting FPCCI President Mian Anjum Nisar welcomed the FPCCI’s Pak-Iran Business Council’s second meeting. He said that both brotherly Islamic countries have been enjoying amicable business relations. “I admit that the advantages like common religion and traditional values, geographical connectivity and interdependence of work of our economics have not been materialized in true perspective,” he added. He said that the analysis of bilateral trade shows that the trade between the two countries is growing at a very slow pace, as current volume of bilateral trade is just 359 million dollars out of which Pakistan exports to Iran accounts for 36 million dollar against the imports of 323 million dollars.

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Mian Anjum Nisar said that some of the hurdles that are the reasons for low volume of trade and impeding the growth of trade between the two countries include ignorance about each other’s’ potential and non-utilization of the territorial connectivity. “In addition to these the tariff and nontariff barriers are major obstacles in the way of trade enhancement between both neighboring countries,” he said. “All the four traditional transportation modes are available for bilateral trade between and Pakistan and Iran including air, sea, road and rail, but unfortunately none of these modes of transportation are efficiently and economically are being utilized at present.” The businessmen have been emphasizing that the transportation facilities must be improved for the enhancement in economic relations. The transportation through land routes and railways need to be improved properly to facilitate the exporters of both sides, he added.

He urged both countries to issue transport licenses by equal number of vehicles to freely work across the border, as through this step the exporters of both the countries would be able to get direct access to the consumers. The other step is to provide proper and complete information about the products of both the countries which can be done by organizing single country exhibitions, he suggested. This is because various decisions regarding the expansion of trade and economic relations between Pakistan and Iran has been taken up previously, he said and added that unfortunately, due to the unstable and unpredictable international and regional political processes, these have remain slow. FPCCI President said that Iran and Pakistan are member of emerging SCO and ECO blocks. Geographical location of both countries affects their neighboring countries. It’s required that both countries should seek various avenues of cooperation for penetration of their products in these markets.

Sunday, 20 September, 2020

10 FOREIGN NEWS nestle ceO sees health sales doubling by next year VEVEY TLTP

Nestle expects sales of its health nutrition business to double from five years ago as the Swiss company expands in personalised supplements and allergy treatments, chief executive Mark Schneider said. Revenue will reach about $4.4 billion by the end of 2021, Schneider said. In a consumer landscape dominated by Covid-19, Schneider has been accelerating a drive to refashion a company better known for food and drink brands such as Stouffer’s ready-meals and Nespresso coffee. The unit “has been on a tear even before the pandemic,” he said. “This is going to be one of our key growth drivers.” Nestle last month agreed to buy Aimmune Therapeutics for $2.6bn in its biggest push yet into health science, adding a promising peanut allergy treatment to its offering. That follows the $2.3bn purchase of Canadian supplements maker Atrium Innovations in 2018, adding brands such as Garden of Life probiotics and CBD drops. Sales growth has been strong for vitamins, minerals and supplements, Schneider said.

Taiwan scrambles fighTers as chinese jeTs again fly near island TAIPEI

AGENCIES

AIWAN’s air force scrambled jets for a second consecutive day on Saturday as multiple Chinese aircraft approached the island and crossed the sensitive midline of the Taiwan Strait, with the island’s government urging Beijing to “pull back from the edge”. Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said 19 Chinese aircraft were involved, one more than in the previous day, with some crossing the Taiwan Strait midline and others flying into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone off its southwest coast. It said China, which claims democratic Taiwan as its own territory, sent 12 J-16 fighters, two J-10 fighters, two J-11 fighters, two H-6 bombers and one Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft. According to a map the ministry provided, none got close to mainland Taiwan itself or flew over it. “ROCAF scrambled fighters, and deployed air defence missile system to

monitor the activities,” the ministry said in a tweet, referring to the Republic of China Air Force, the formal name of Taiwan’s air force. Taiwan has complained of repeated incidents of Chinese aircraft near the island this year, and has regularly had to scramble its F-16s and other jets to intercept them. China had on Friday announced, at a news conference in Beijing about China’s UN peacekeeping efforts, combat drills near the Taiwan Strait and denounced what it called collusion between the island and the United States. US Undersecretary for Economic Affairs Keith Krach arrived in Taipei on Thursday for a three-day visit, the most senior State Department official to come to Taiwan in four decades, angering China. He left Saturday afternoon, according to Taiwan’s foreign ministry. PULL BACK FROM THE EDGE: Taiwan’s Defence Ministry, in a separate statement, said China was carrying out provocative activities, seriously damaging peace and stability.

“The Defence Ministry sternly condemns this, and calls on the mainland authorities to control themselves and pull back from the edge.” China’s widely read state-backed tabloid the Global Times, published by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, said in a Saturday editorial that Friday’s drills were a rehearsal to take over Taiwan. “The US and Taiwan must not misjudge the situation, or believe the exercise is a bluff. Should they continue to make provocations, a war will inevitably break out,” it said. Both sides need to resume dialogue to reduce the risk of war, Johnny Chiang, leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party the Kuomintang, wrote on his Facebook page. “People who are willing to play a communication role are stigmatised and people who clamour for war are regarded as heroes. Such an atmosphere is definitely not conducive to the peaceful and stable development of the Taiwan Strait,”

said Chiang, whose party traditional favours close ties with China. Life has continued as normal in Taiwan with no sign of panic. The island has long been accustomed to living with Chinese threats. Taiwan’s people have shown no interest in being ruled by autocratic China, re-electing President Tsai Ing-wen in a landslide last year on what was largely a platform of standing up to Beijing. The latest Chinese flights came the same day Taiwan held a memorial service for former president Lee Teng-hui, dubbed “Mr Democracy” for ending autocratic rule in favour of free elections and championing Taiwan’s separate identity from China. Lee, who died in July, became Taiwan’s first democratically elected president in March 1996 after eight months of intimidating war games and missile tests by China in waters around the island. Those events brought China and Taiwan to the verge of conflict, prompting the United States to send an aircraft carrier task force to the area in a warning to Beijing’s government.

Thousands rally in Thai capital against govt BANGKOK AGENCIES

Thousands of protesters in Thailand’s capital demonstrated against the government of former coup leader and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha on Saturday, with many also demanding reforms to the powerful monarchy. “Down with feudalism, long live the people,” was one of the chants. Protests have been building since mid-July to call for the removal of the government, a new constitution and elections. They have also broken a long-standing taboo by criticising the monarchy of King Maha Vajiralongkorn. Police said at least 5,000 people had gathered at the campus of Thammasat University, long seen as a hotbed of opposition to the military and royalist establishment, and scene of a massacre of protesters in 1976. Under light rain, protesters spilled onto Sanam Luang, a public space opposite the Grand Palace where state ceremonies are traditionally held. “Today the people will demand back their power,” Arnon Nampa, a human rights lawyer who has emerged as a leading figure in the protest movement, said on Twitter. Sept. 19 is the anniversary of the coup against the populist then-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006. Among the protesters were many of his red shirt followers, veterans of clashes a decade ago with pro-establishment yellow shirts. “I’m here to fight for the future of my children and grandchildren. I hope that by the time I die, they will

become free,” said 68-year-old Tasawan Suebthai, a redshirt with amulets round her neck to ward off bullets. So far the protests have been peaceful. The biggest to date drew more than 10,000 people last month, but organisers expect more this time. ESTABLISHMENT UNDER FIRE: Thai politics has for years been marked by challenges to the royalist and military establishment by politicians backed by poor urban and rural voters, and more recently by the student protesters. The military, which proclaims itself the defender of the country’s core institutions, in particular the monarchy, has stepped in to overthrow civilian governments numerous times, most recently in 2014, citing the need to maintain stability. Prayuth has said the government would allow protests as a form of free speech but that demands for reform of the monarchy were not acceptable. “We are fighting to put the monarchy in the right place, not to abolish it,” one protest leader, Panupong “Mike” Jadnok, told the crowd. A 20-year-old student, who gave her name only as Waan for fear of reprisals, said it was time to reform the monarchy. “It’s a problem that’s been swept under the rug for so long. This must end right here.” Protesters demand the scrapping of a lese majeste law against criticism of the monarchy. They also seek to reduce the king’s constitutional powers and his control over the palace fortune and units of the army.

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies at 87 WASHINGTON AGENCIES

US Supreme Court Justice and liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday, opening a crucial vacancy on the high court expected to set off a pitched political battle at the peak of the presidential campaign. Affectionately known as the ‘Notorious RBG,’ the 87-year-old Ginsburg was the oldest of nine Supreme Court justices. She died after a fight with pancreatic cancer, the court announced, saying she passed away “surrounded by her family at her home in Washington, DC”. Coming just 46 days before an election in which President Donald Trump lags his Democratic rival Joe Biden in the polls, the vacancy offers the Republican a chance to lock in a conservative majority at the court for decades to come. Trump issued a statement praising Ginsburg as a “titan of the law,” but gave no indication whether he intended to press ahead with a nomination. Accolades flowed in for the pioneering Jewish justice. “Our Nation has lost a jurist of historic stature,” said Chief Justice John Roberts. Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama said in a tweet that Ginsburg “fought to

the end, through her cancer, with unwavering faith in our democracy and its ideals”. Biden said she was “an American hero, a giant of legal doctrine, and a relentless voice in the pursuit of that highest American ideal: equal justice under law”. In Washington, hundreds of tearful mourners laid flowers in front of the Supreme Court, where the diminutive Ginsburg sat for 27 years — even taking arguments and issuing opinions from her hospital bed after repeated bouts of illness over the past two years. US flags flew at half-mast on each side of the court building. People lit candles on the steps of the court while others held rainbow flags. Among the notably young crowd was Erin Drumm, a student at the Catholic University of America. “I came here because I think RBG represents everything that America should stand for,” the 19-year-old said. “She represents the freedom to choose and respect for science and other people regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity or religion.” Taylor Gutierrez, 26, said he wanted to celebrate Ginsburg’s achievements, “especially as a gay man knowing that she helped create a more equitable society for us.”

On Thursday, Prayuth warned the protesters against raising the risks of spreading the novel coronavirus and urged them to put the health crisis before politics. Protesters jeered when a police officer told a group of them that they could only stay for an hour because of the risk of transmitting the virus. Police said they were deploying 10,000 officers on Saturday.

Sunday, 20 September, 2020

INDIa v ENgLaND TESTS, IPL 2021 COULD BE hELD IN ThE UaE

NEWS DESK

NDIA could host England in the UAE this winter, with the BCCI signing an agreement with the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) to "boost cricketing ties" between the two boards on Saturday, cricinfo reported. While the agreement is restricted only to this year's IPL, which begins today in Abu Dhabi, ESPNcricinfo understands there have been brief discussions in which the possibility of India hosting England, as well as next year's IPL, in the UAE has been raised. On Saturday, BCCI secretary Jay Shah posted a tweet announcing the Indian board had signed a "hosting agreement" with the ECB "to boost cricketing ties between our countries". Shah signed the agreement at a meeting with ECB vicechairman Khalid Al Zarooni. Also present at the meeting were BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and board treasurer Arun Dhumal. Shah did not spell out details of what the agreement entailed, but a senior BCCI official told ESPNcricinfo that it

was specific to the 2020 IPL. This year's IPL was shifted to the UAE because India remains firmly in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic. With over five million cases as of Friday, it is second only to the USA in terms of the number of infections, and has experienced a major spike in numbers over the last fortnight. It

Disheartened PSL regular Mohammad Irfan Jr quits cricket at 25 NEWS DESK Towering fast-bowler Mohammad Irfan Jr, known for his unorthodox bowling action and kabaddi style wicket celebration, has decided to quit cricket at the tender age of 25 after being overlooked from Southern Punjab’s First XI. Irfan Jr, who has appeared in three Pakistan Super League editions for three different teams, was denied a spot in the main eleven and only offered a place in the Second XI. The 6'6 pacer, in an interview with a local TV channel, listed his wicket-taking exploits over the years, adding that despite his performances he was constantly overlooked or benched "They are playing new boys in the First XI and we are still in the lower eleven so it's better that .... I have decided to leave all forms of cricket," Irfan said. Veteran all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez expressed his sorrow at Irfan Jr's decision, urging him to "reconsider and show resilience" - something The Professor has exhibited throughout his career.

Singapore police probe firm owned by Newcastle United bidders SINGAPORE

is against this backdrop that brief and preliminary discussions have taken place between the two boards, in which the BCCI is believed to have raised the prospect of using the UAE as a venue for that series, currently scheduled for January-February next year. In the original FTP, the white-ball leg

of the tour was scheduled for October this year, before India toured Australia and then returned to host the five Tests against England from January. The white-ball leg was officially postponed last month, and it is expected that they will be played together with the Tests now. The possibility of a shift to the UAE emerged as early as in August, but the chances of it happening would appear to have increased after the latest update. Depending on the situation of the pandemic in India next year, it could be that next year's IPL is also hosted in the UAE. The agreement between the two boards marks a significant moment in their relationship. For a long time in the 2000s, after the first wave of match-fixing blighted the game, India refused to play in the UAE, apart from a two-match ODI series with Pakistan in 2006 in Abu Dhabi. But that approach has changed in recent years. The ice was broken with a partial staging of the 2014 IPL in the UAE, before the BCCI relocated the 2018 Asia Cup to the country. The Under-19 team also played in the 2014 World Cup in the UAE.

Pakistan’s Olympic-bound horse Azad Kashmir passes away from heart attack NEWS DESK Pakistan's Olympic-bound equestrian Usman Khan's family has announced that his horse Azad Kashmir has passed away. “With great sadness we announce the sudden passing of Pakistan’s steed Azad Kashmir. Azad suffered a severe heart attack (aortic aneurysm) on Thursday morning in Melbourne,” the family said. Later in a message sent to this correspondent, Usman said he could not gather himself at this point in time. “I have buried the horse with an Olympic flag. I am in a state of shock.” Death of Azad means Usman will have to make a fresh effort to qualify for the Olympics. In equestrian, it is the horse that shares the equal honour of qualification. Now Usman will have to find a new horse to qualify for the Olympics — a task that looks increasingly difficult. Azad represented Pakistan and Australia at the highest level. The strong bond between Azad and Usman led to Pakistan’s first Olympic qualification. “Usman’s fifteen-year struggle can-

not be described in words. The duo achieved the distinction against all odds. It is indeed a sad news,” a handout issued by the family said. “We are devastated. We don’t have a back up horse,” Usman said. “Azad Kashmir . . . brought Pakistan honour and respect,” he added. “Honestly, financial loss becomes insignificant when compared to the bigger picture. Pakistan voyage to Olympics with Azad Kashmir — an epic journey,” he said. “FEI does allow a provision to secure another horse and start again. “Someone has to fund. Only if someone sees the bigger picture. This has never been about Usman, this is about Pakistan reaching the Olympics. I have lost a teammate. “Azad and I fulfilled our promise, we qualified, we delivered. We did more than that. The world wasn’t ready for us in July 2020. Azad Kashmir was ready. He was laid to rest as an Olympian and I am proud of my friend,” he said. Usman last year became the first equestrian in Pakistan’s history to make it to the Olympics through Azad Kash-

mir, a speedy and efficient horse. Usman said he had spent $215,000 (Rs26 million) in 2019 and $50,000 (Rs6 million) in 2020 to prepare for the Olympics. He said that he had spent at least $3.2 million in last 15 years to fulfil his ambition. Usman is to represent Pakistan in eventing in Tokyo Olympics. At the Wallaby Hill in December 2019, Usman and his horse Azad Kashmir did well to complete the CCI4*-L, finishing 13th and that was enough to earn them Minimum Eligibility Requirements (MER) and achieve Tokyo 2020 qualification. In qualifiers in September 2019, Usman ended 15th. In October 2019 at the Lynton Horse Trials in Goulburn, the organising committee had agreed to run a CCI3*-L specifically for Usman and Azad Kashmir so that they could try and achieve an MER at this level, enabling them to compete at Wallaby Hill CCI4*L.Usman, son of a retired Army Major, achieved the FEI revised qualification for next year’s Tokyo Olympics a few days ago.

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Balochistan coach Faisal Iqbal, assistant quarantined for violating Covid SOPs NEWS DESK The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has quarantined Balochistan head coach Faisal Iqbal and assistant coach Wasim Haider for "breaching the Covid-19 protocols" ahead of the start of the new domestic season. The PCB, in a press release today, revealed that all the players and support staff members who had undergone a second Covid-19 test on Friday have returned negative tests. However, Balochistan duo Iqbal and his assistant have been sent into a quarantine at Lahore Country Club Murdike."They will be tested twice over the next five days and will be required to return negative results in both tests before they are allowed to join the team in Multan," the Board said, adding: "Both Faisal and Wasim will bear the costs of these tests." Head of PCB's Covid-19 medical team, Dr Riaz Ahmed detailed the decision, saying: “The Pakistan Cricket Board has zero tolerance policy and will take stern action against those who breach the Covid-19 protocols over the course of the season. “The strict implementation of these protocols, which have been designed after meticulous planning, is the need of the hour. Such breaches have the potential to put the whole season in jeopardy and, more importantly, the lives of fellow players, coaches and all those associated with the game in danger."

1,000 fans at Italian Open better than none, says Djokovic ROME AGENCIES

World number one Novak Djokovic on Friday welcomed the Italian government’s decision to allow up to 1,000 spectators for the final two days of the Italian Open in Rome. Professional sports events in Italy have been played without fans since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic but sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora said fans would be allowed to attend the closing stages of the tournament on Sunday and Monday. Apart from the tennis masters, two Serie A matches this weekend and the Formula One race at Imola in November are also set to allow up to 1,000 spectators. “I hope that’s true. If we are going to have 1,000 people, it’s better than no people,” Djokovic told reporters after he advanced to the quarter-finals with a 7-6(7) 6-3 victory over fellow Serb Filip Krajinovic. “We all miss the fans, and part of our professional careers in sport is playing in front of them and for them as well. So I’m really glad that that’s going to happen.” Djokovic also said he hoped the matches would be played on centre court as he preferred the surface on the main court at the Foro Italico.

Reed grabs US Open halfway lead, Tiger misses cut

AGENCIES

Singapore police are looking into a complaint from Ernst & Young that a firm owned by bidders for soccer club Newcastle United allegedly used the auditor’s unauthorized signatures on financial statements. The investigation is the latest scrutiny of Singaporean business duo Terence and Nelson Loh since Reuters reported their other firm behind the Newcastle bid doctored photos of Barack Obama and made other suspect claims in marketing materials. The police report lodged this week relates to the financial statements of Cayman Islands incorporated Novena Global Healthcare Group, which Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper reported is owned by the Loh cousins. A spokeswoman for Ernst & Young said it was “never the auditors” of the Cayman Islands parent firm, and worked for a Singaporebased subsidiary only in 2017. Police said they had received the complaint and were looking into the matter. Neither of the Lohs thrust into the spotlight last month as the cofounders of the newly-formed Bellagraph Nova Group which claimed to be in advanced talks to buy one of England’s most high-profile clubs - responded to a request for comment. A lawyer speaking on behalf of Terence Loh told the Straits Times that he was aware of the allegations but denied wrongdoing.

MAMARONECK AGENCIES

Former Masters champion Patrick Reed put his sterling short game on display to grab the U.S. Open halfway lead on Friday while Tiger Woods finished well outside the cut in windy conditions that humbled many of the game’s top golfers. Reed only hit five fairways on a tough scoring day at Winged Foot but made a slew of stunning recoveries and needed only 25 putts en route to an evenpar 70 that left him at four under on the week and one shot clear of Bryson DeChambeau (68). “I feel like the game is where it needs to be. I feel good,” said world number 10 Reed. “I just need to tighten a few things up here or there, but the short game is sharp, and when I play around a place like this, that’s what you need.” Reed, who started the day one shot back of overnight leader Justin Thomas, grabbed the outright lead with a birdie on his final hole, the par-five ninth, where his shot from a greenside bunker settled five feet from the cup. Unlike the first round when 21 players finished under par in soft conditions, Winged Foot proved a much sterner test on

Friday as DeChambeau, Bubba Watson (69) and Hideki Matsuyama (69) were the only players from a 144-player field to break par. DeChambeau, who has turned heads this year with his new physique and prodigious length off the tee, went out in the morning wave and muscled his way around a scorecard-shredding Winged Foot course like few others can. The world number nine finished his

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round with a monstrous eagle at the par-five ninth hole where, after a 380yard drive, he stuffed a pitching wedge to six feet. “Confidence is at an all-time high right now, driving it well, iron play is fantastic, wedging is getting better each and every day, and I’m putting it like I know I can,” said DeChambeau, whose best major finish was a share of fourth place at this year’s PGA Championship.

FRUSTRATED WOODS: Thomas (73), Spain’s Rafa Cabrera Bello (70) and Harris English (70) were all two shots off the pace heading into the weekend of a tournament that was originally scheduled for mid-June but postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Masters champion Woods (77) missed the cut for the eighth time in his last 15 majors after a round during which he made five bogeys and two double-bogeys over a miserable 11-hole run. “Physically it was frustrating that I didn’t drive the ball as well as I needed to,” said Woods. “Iron play was pretty much the way it has been. It’s been good, and I finally putted well. But on this golf course it’s imperative that you hit fairways, and I did not do that.” Phil Mickelson’s latest bid to complete the career Grand Slam of golf’s four majors fell apart as the six-times runner-up carded a 74 and missed the cut after posting one of the worst 36-hole scores of his major career. Among the others to miss the cut were defending champion Gary Woodland, PGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa, and top-20 players Tyrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Justin Rose.

Sunday, 20 September, 2020

PrAyEr TImINGS

NEWS

PAkIstAN cALLs foR judIcIAL INquIRy As INdIA AdmIts fouL PLAy IN kILLING of 3 IN Iok

AGENCIES

ceeded their powers under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which grants the army broad authority including shoot-to-kill powers. The families of the three men have denied any possibility of the slain having ties with militant groups as claimed by the Indian army. Further, the FO’s statement said that the three Kashmiri boys — 25-year-old Imtiyaz Ahmed, Mohammad Ibrar, 20, and 16-year-old Abrar Ahmed — had come to Shopian to work in an apple orchard as labourers but were killed during a “socalled ‘cordon and search’ operation”. It added that the Indian army had claimed that the three boys were “unidentified terrorists” to cover up their “coldblooded murder” and had buried them in a

AKISTAN on Saturday called for a judicial inquiry into the extrajudicial killing of three Kashmiris in Indian-occupied Kashmir (IOK) in July this year. On Friday, the Indian army said that it had launched disciplinary proceedings against an unspecified number of soldiers following an inquiry into the killing of the suspected fighters. According to a statement by the Foreign Office, the Indian army’s statement an “acknowledgement that Indian occupation forces are guilty of war crimes in IOK (Illegally Occupied Kashmir)”. A spokesman of the Indian Army had said that evidence showed soldiers had ex-

Beijing vows to restrict ‘unreliable foreign entities’ in response to apps ban by us BEIJING

graveyard marked for “foreign terrorists” instead of returning their bodies to their families. “The Indian occupation army itself has admitted that the three innocent Kashmiri labourers were killed extra-judicially — a hallmark of Indian occupation forces’ state-terrorism in IIOJK. In [its] statement, the Indian army has accepted that the powers vested under the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act were exceeded,” the FO said. “Since its illegal and unilateral actions of Aug 5, 2019, in IIOJK, India has taken its brutalisation of innocent Kashmiris to a new level. More than 300, mostly young, Kashmiris have been extra-judicially killed by the Indian occupation forces in fake ‘encounters’ and staged ‘cordon-and-search’ operations in

Iran's Guards vow Soleimani's revenge will target only 'those involved' TEHRAN

AGENCIES

China has rolled out a mechanism allowing curbs on foreign entities harmful to its security and interests. It comes as the US pledges to bar people from downloading Chinese mobile apps, citing “national security concerns.” The Chinese Commerce Ministry unveiled th “unreliable foreign entity list” earlier on Saturday, with the official purpose of safeguarding national security interests, as well as maintaining “fair and free international economic and trade order.” It appears to be a response to the US Department of Commerce, which recently added Huawei to the country’s ‘Entity List’, restricting the Chinese tech giant’s access to items produced domestically and abroad using US technology and software. The announcement by the ministry did not single out specific foreign entities, but widely elaborated on factors that could enable the government to trigger restrictive measures. These could be imposed if such entities endanger “national sovereignty, security or development interests of China,” apply discriminatory measures “against an enterprise, other organization, or individual of China,” or cause serious damage to the rights and interests of Chinese companies or individuals. Sanctions may come in the form of fines, as well as restriction of operations and investment in China. Beijing will also be able to refuse entry to foreign personnel or equipment into the country. The timing of the new punitive measures is particularly noteworthy as they come a day after Washington ordered a ban on the downloading of popular Chineseowned video-sharing service TikTok, and effectively blocked the use of Chinese messaging app WeChat. The latter will be shut down in the US on Sunday, whereas people will be able to use TikTok until November 12, when it could also be completely banned.US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross claimed the Chinese-owned apps “collect vast swaths of data from users” and are funneling them to China’s intelligence services.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief said Saturday that Tehran will avenge the US killing of its top commander General Qasem Soleimani by targeting only those involved, in an "honourable" retaliation. Soleimani, who headed the Guards elite Qods Force, was killed in an American air strike near Baghdad airport in January. A US media report, quoting unnamed officials, said Iran plans in retaliation to assassinate the American ambassador to South Africa, Lana Marks, before the presidential election in November. US President Donald Trump threat-

more than 30 taliban killed in Afghan airstrikes: ministry

IOK during the past one year.” The Foreign Office called for a “transparent judicial inquiry, under international scrutiny, into the extra-judicial killing” of the three Kashmiris, while urging the international community to take notice of the incident. “The international community must take immediate cognisance of the July 18, 2020, episode in IOK as well as other acts indicative of the RSS-BJP regime’s genocidal tendencies and hold it accountable for continuing crimes against the Kashmiri people,” it stressed. In 2010, three Indian army officers were found guilty of killing three labourers under the guise of forcibly terming them as Pakistani infiltrators near the Line of Control (LoC).

ened Iran this week with a "thousand times stronger" response in case of any attack on his country, following the report. South Africa's state security agency said Friday it had found no evidence of such a plot against Marks. Guards' chief Major General Hossein Salami retorted to the US president. "Mr Trump, our revenge for the martyrdom of our great commander is certain, serious and real, but we are honourable and take revenge with fairness and justice," he said, quoted by the Guard's official website Sepahnews. "You think we would strike at a woman ambassador to South Africa for the blood of our martyr brother? We will target those who were directly or indirectly involved in the martyrdom of

this great man," he said. "You should know, that we will target whoever was involved ... and this is a serious message." Soleimani was killed in an drone air strike, alongside a top Iraqi commander. Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis. Days later, Iran launched a volley of missiles at Iraqi bases housing US and other coalition troops, but Trump refrained from any further military response. Relations between Washington and Tehran have been tense ever since the Islamic revolution of 1979. They have deteriorated sharply since Trump unilaterally pulled out of a landmark international nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions.

Indian economy heads for 14.8pc plunge as virus spikes NEW DELHI TLTP

India’s economic recovery prospects have gone from bad to worse after the nation emerged as a new global hotspot for the coronavirus pandemic with more than 5 million infections. Economists and global institutions like the Asian Development Bank have recently cut India’s growth projections from already historic lows as the virus continues to spread. Goldman Sachs now estimates a 14.8 percent contraction in gross domestic product for the year through March 2021, while the ADB is forecasting a reduction of 9 percent. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development sees the economy shrinking by 10.2 percent. The failure to get infections under control will set back business activity and consumption - the bedrock of the

economy - that had been slowly picking up after India began easing one of the world’s strictest and biggest lockdowns that started late March. Local virus cases topped the 5 million mark this week, with the death toll surpassed only by the US and Brazil. “While a second wave of infections is being witnessed globally, India still has not been able to flatten the first wave of infection curve,” said Sunil Kumar Sinha, principal economist at India Ratings and Research, a unit of Fitch Ratings. He now sees India’s economy contracting 11.8 per cent in the fiscal year, far worse than his earlier projection of 5.8 per cent reduction. Goldman Sachs’s latest growth forecast came last week after data showed GDP plunged 23.9 per cent in the April-June quarter from a year ago, the biggest decline since records began in 1996 and the worst performance of

major economies. While there are some signs that activity picked up following the strict lockdown, a strong recovery looks uncertain. “By all indications, the recovery is likely to be gradual as efforts towards reopening of the economy are confronted with rising infections,” Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das told a group of industrialists. The central bank will likely release its own growth forecast on October 1 when the monetary policy committee announces its interest rate decision. In August, the RBI said private spending on discretionary items had taken a knock, especially on transport services, hospitality, recreation and cultural activities. The plunge in GDP, as well as ongoing stress in the banking sector and among households, will curb India’s medium-term growth potential.

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Banned outfit leader booked over sectarian remarks in Islamabad rally NEWS DESK Islamabad police have registered a first information report (FIR) against a central leader of the proscribed Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) for inciting the attendees of a rally in the capital by using sectarian and anti-Shiite remarks. The remarks were made during the Azmat-i-Sahaba march, which was organised by the Muttahida Sunni Council at Islamabad's Express Chowk on Thursday. The march was attended by 1,900-2,000 participants, according to the FIR, which was registered on the complaint of Islamabad city magistrate Ghulam Murtaza Chandio. According to the FIR registered at Kohsar police station, ASWJ leader Masoodur Rehman Usmani has been booked under Section 295-A of the Pakistan Penal Code. The FIR stated that by using inappropriate language, Usmani attempted to fan sectarianism among the public and had incited them. The registration of the FIR was first reported by Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Hamza Shafqaat, who in a tweet on Friday said a speaker at the rally was booked for "inciting violence and sectarian hatred". Shafqaat said a ban was also being imposed on the ASWJ leader for "speaking again in public in the territorial limits of Islamabad".

Investors ready to put $9.5bn into Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project MOSCOW TLTP

Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 (liquefied natural gas) project is set to receive all the planned external financing, as foreign lenders have reportedly pledged to provide about $9.5 billion in financial support. The long list of lenders includes Chinese and Japanese banks as well as European credit and insurance firms. Asian peers are reported to have the most generous offers, with the China Development Bank providing $5 billion and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) offering $2.5 billion. French state investment bank and credit agency Bpifrance and German credit insurance firm Euler Hermes are looking to provide $700 million in credit finance and $300 million respectively. Italian Export Credit Agency SACE plans to put $1 billion into the project, while an unnamed Russian bank is reportedly considering a $1.5-billion investment. If all the foreign backers of the massive energy project stick to their financial pledges, Arctic LNG 2 will receive the external funding its developer initially hoped for. Russia’s biggest privately owned natural gas producer, Novatek, which stands behind the project, earlier said that it wants to attract between $9 and $11 billion in external financing. Earlier this month, Russia’s biggest lender, Sberbank, announced that it was ready to provide more financial support for the Arctic LNG 2 than it previously did for another key Novatek project, the Yamal LNG. Sberbank’s commitment to the Yamal project, which already supplies foreign buyers with Russian LNG, amounted to €2.7 billion ($3.2 billion). Novatek’s second plant for liquefying gas in the Arctic region has drawn the interest of several foreign companies, including those from China, Japan, and France.

G20 to use 'all policy tools' to support global economic recovery

KABUL AGENCIES

The Afghan air force conducted multiple strikes on Taliban positions on Saturday that killed more than 30 insurgent fighters, officials said, as President Ashraf Ghani once again called for a ceasefire. The Taliban claimed the strike had killed nearly two dozen civilians including women and children in the latest masscasualty incident in Afghanistan that came even as peace talks were under way in Qatar. "This morning, Taliban fighters attacked (Afghan army) positions in ... Khan Abad district in Kunduz province," the Defence Ministry said in a statement on Twitter. The military "intercepted the attack in accordance with 'active defense' procedures," the statement added, noting that more than 30 Taliban fighters including two commanders were killed. In a statement, the Taliban denied its fighters were hit and said 23 civilians had been killed.

RIYADH AGENCIES

Finance and health ministers of G20 nations have reiterated their commitment to support the global economy and called for a collective approach to develop vaccines and treatments to fight the Covid19 pandemic. “We will continue to use all available policy tools to safeguard people’s lives, jobs and incomes, support the global economic recovery, and enhance the resilience of health and financial systems, while safeguarding against downside risks,” G20 finance and health ministers said in a joint statement. “Urgent collective priority is to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic and alleviate its health, social and economic im-

pacts.” The G20 is a group of the world’s 20 largest industrialised nations that includes Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the EU. Saudi Arabia currently holds the rotating presidency of the G20. The ministers urged for a collective action to accelerate the research, development, manufacturing and distribution of diagnostic tools and a vaccine to combat the pandemic that has rattled the global economy. “We remain committed to investing in an effective response to the Covid19 pandemic to bring the spread of the virus under control ... [to minimise] the economic and social disruption,” the statement added. The G20 governments and

central banks have pumped an unprecedented $11 trillion (Dh40.37tn) into their economies to help stabilise financial markets, protect jobs and support businesses. In April, the G20 agreed on a time-bound Debt Service Suspension Initiative for poor countries, allowing suspension of debt until the end of this year. So far, more than 45 countries have asked for assistance under the scheme, resulting in the deferral of more than $5.3 billion in debt repayments. The Covid-19 pandemic has plunged the global economy into the deepest recession since the 1930s, disrupted international trade and paralysed air travel. The International Monetary Fund forecasts the world economy to contract 4.9 per cent this year while the World Bank estimates it is likely to shrink 5.2 percent.

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

G20 ministers acknowledged the need for investment in health systems and said the pandemic “has shown vulnerabilities in the international community’s ability to prevent, detect and respond effectively to pandemic threats”. Resilient health systems, they said, can sustain equitable and affordable access to essential and quality health services for all, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable. The pandemic risks wiping out gains made in education and health globally over the past decade, particularly in poorer nations, the World Bank said last week. G20 ministers said “major gaps still exist in global pandemic preparedness and response” and called for voluntary monetary contributions from multilateral development banks to help developing countries access Covid-19 tools.