Epaper – April 25-2022 KHI

Monday, 25 April, 2022 I 23 Ramzan, 1443 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XII No 297 I 12 Pages I Karachi Edition

Govt asks for proGram extension, fund asks to roll back fuel subsidies g

TECHNICAL TALKS TO BEGIN NExT WEEK, GOVT AIMS FOR AGREEMENT By MID MAy

isLamabad

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KhurrAm husAin

HE government has asked the International Monetary Fund for a one year extension of the ongoing program, as well as an enhancement of the remaining financing. According to sources who were part of the government delegation in Washington DC, the fund has agreed “in principle”.

For its part, the IMF has asked for a removal of the fuel price caps im-

posed by the former government.

“Technical level talks will begin next week” says a source in the delegation.

“IMF will send a mission to Pakistan in mid May to conclude a staff level agreement.”

The fuel subsidies have to be withdrawn “as soon as possible” and the fund has also asked to see how large the deviation between the fiscal year 2022 numbers will be from the targets set in December. “They want us to minimise the deviation and make up for some of the subsidy and deviation” the

France’s Macron beats Le Pen to win second term paris

source tells Profit.

As the per last staff level agreement, the overall fiscal deficit was programmed to come in at Rs 2.917 trillion. But due to slippages along the way the projection in the same document showed it coming in at Rs3.761 trillion instead. Finance minister Miftah Ismael has said this figure is likely to be closer to Rs6.4 trillion if present course is maintained.

Rectifying these numbers and bringing them closer to the programmed targets now implies a very large adjustment in the form of higher taxes and sharply reduced expenditures in the next three months. The budget is also likely to contain severe austerity measures.

The fund also wants to see the overall budget strategy for next year.

This suggests the budget is likely to be presented earlier than usual, most likely by middle of May to conclude the staff level agreement.

“They have agreed in principle to extend the program for a year” the source says, adding the request for this came from the government side.

“They have also agreed to enhance the amount” the source said, adding modalities still need to be worked out.

The program at present is set to conclude by September of this year.

Two reviews were scheduled, one in March and the last in June but the schedule has been thrown off after the last review stalled under the previous government due to the surprise announcement of fuel price caps. The remaining amount to be disbursed at present is $1.55 billion.

Compromising neutrality of office, CEC Raja refuses to step down isLamabad stAff rePort

A day after former prime minister Imran Khan called for his resignation over charges of bias, the chief election commissioner (CEC) said he had no intention of stepping down and would continue to work in the “best interest of the country”, potentially compromising the neutrality of his fateful office.

Since his appointment to the office in January 2020, Sikandar Sultan Raja — who is the son-in-law of Saeed Mehdi, former principal secretary to Khan’s disgraced predecessor Nawaz Sharif — has been at the helm of a series of decisions against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party, the party insists.

On Saturday, in his first press conference after leaving office, Khan said his party did not trust Raja because all his decisions were against the PTI. Responding to the presser, Raja said he had “no intention of tendering my resignation,” before adding that there was no valid reason to “think like that”.

“I am working in the best interest of the country and shall continue to do so.”

Loadshedding continues nationwide as electricity shortfall reaches 5,500 MW LaHOrE

Agencies

French President Emmanuel Macron defeated his far-right rival Marine Le Pen on Sunday by a comfortable margin, early projections by pollsters showed, securing a second term and heading off what would have been a political earthquake. The first projections showed Macron securing around 57-58% of the vote. Such estimates are normally accurate but may be fine-tuned as official results come in from around the country. Cheers of joy erupted as the results appeared on a giant screen at the Champ de Mars park at the foot of the Eiffel tower, where Macron supporters waved French and EU flags.

People hugged each other and chanted “Macron”. In contrast, a gathering of dejected Le Pen supporters erupted in boos and whistles as they heard the news at a sprawling reception hall on the outskirts of Paris. Macron can expect little to no grace period after many, especially on the left only voted for him reluctantly to block the farright from winning. Protests that marred part of his first mandate could erupt again quite quickly, as he tries to press on with pro-business reforms.

“There will be continuity in government policy because the president has been reelected. But we have also heard the French people’s message,” Health Minister Olivier Veran told BFM TV. A first major challenge will be the parliamentary elections.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 03

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The electricity shortfall in the country has gone upto 5,500 megawatts (MW) resulting in power outages of upto six hours in urban centres and eight hours in rural areas.

According to sources in the power division, the overall electricity produced in the country stands at 15,500 MW against the demand of 21,000 MW, causing a shortfall of 5,500 MW. “The power crisis has emerged owing to delay in purchase of furnace oil and RLNG,” they said adding, after failure to get required fuel, the production of power generation companies has gone below par.

A previous report highlighted that Lahore Electricity Supply Company Limited (LESCO) is facing a shortage of 1000mw as the demand is 4,100mw and the available power is 3,100mw.

Currently, 610mw Engro Power Plant in Thar, Port

In an informal conversation with journalists last week, Khan said that Raja’s name for the office was proposed by the military establishment following a deadlock between the then government and the opposition.

Before Khan, Azam Swati, a senior PTI leader, too had suggested Khan’s government had to swallow a “bitter pill” on Raja’s appointment.

In his last week’s conversation with journalists, the former prime minister had also said the PTI would file a reference against Raja as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had displayed “incompetence” by not completing the delimitation of constituencies on time thereby delaying early elections.

more inside

Ahsan Iqbal says ‘Imran is playing with Pakistan’s interests to keep his politics alive’ STORY ON PAGE 02

Qureshi sees plot in 2018 Punjab Assembly seat defeat STORY ON PAGE 03

Qasim’s power plant with a capacity of 310 are closed. Nuclear K2, K3, Chasnob, Liberty Power Plant, Guddu Power Plant are also facing shortages and not producing power at their full capacity.

Ahead of Ramazan 2022, the Power Division has decided zero loadshedding on special timings of Sehri, Iftar and Taraweeh prayer across the country.

Sources said that the Power Division has sought details of demand and supply from all power distribution companies to formulate a strategy for zero load-shedding during the special hours of Ramazan 2022.

A landmine left behind?

EDITORIAL ON PAGE 06

PTI to stage protest demos outside ECP offices tomorrow STORY ON BACK PAGE

PML-N plan to bring contempt plea against president hits snag STORY ON BACK PAGE

02

Monday, 25 April, 2022 | KARACHI

NEWS

AhsAn IqbAl sAys ‘IMrAn Is PlAyIng wIth PAKIstAn’s Interests to KeeP hIs PolItIcs AlIve’

M

News Desk

INISTER for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal on Sunday accused former prime minister Imran Khan of “playing with Pakistan’s interests” to keep his “failed politics” alive.

Addressing a press conference in Lahore, the minister said the National Security Committee (NSC) twice dismissed the possibility of any foreign conspiracy, however, “Imran Niazi is playing with national interests to keep his politics alive.”

“If Pakistan wants to be a strong country, we need to have a strong economy,” he said.

“That can only happen when we align ourselves with the global economy.” Iqbal’s media talk comes as the PTI chairman continues to insist he was ousted as a result of a foreign-backed conspiracy.

In his presser, Iqbal alleged that when the PTI was in power, it had hampered the CPEC’s progress and soured ties with the

European Union, the United States and even brotherly Muslim countries, risking the isolation of the country.

He said he does not want Pakistan to turn into Cuba or North Korea. “We have to set Pakistan on the path of [development, like] Malaysia, Turkey, China and South Korea.”

“When a no-confidence move was brought against him, he encouraged the deputy speaker (Qasim Suri) to violate the constitution and then portrayed him as a hero,” the minister said, referring to Imran.

“Such people are no heroes, they’re criminals. And there will be action against them,” Iqbal asserted.

The minister defended the Supreme Court for its order that saw Imran ousted through a parliament vote after his move to dissolve the National Assembly was reversed by the top court.

“The apex court fulfilled its duty and no one has the right to point fingers at the institution,” he said.

Demonstrations in AJK as Indian PM Modi’s visit to IoK observed as ‘black day’ APP A “black day” was observed and anti-India demonstrations were held in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited occupied Jammu and Kashmir in what was his first visit to the disputed territory since New Delhi revoked special status nearly three years ago. New Delhi nullified the area’s special status in August 2019, when authorities arrested thousands and imposed the world’s longest internet shutdown, seeking to forestall local opposition to the move. Tight security was in place for Modi’s appearance at Palli village in Jammu, the Hindumajority southern part of the territory, which celebrated New Delhi’s introduction of direct rule as a defence against Kashmir’s freedom movement. Sunday’s event marked Panchayati Raj, a day that commemorates grassroots democracy — although occupied Kashmir has been without an elected regional government since 2018. There was a complete shutdown in occupied Kashmir, the official Pakistani press agency APP reported. The call for the strike was given by the AllParties Hurriyat Conference. In Azad Kashmir, demonstrations were held on the call of AJK Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas yesterday. Today, a large “black day” protest rally was held in the capital Muzaffarabad and led by AJK minister Khawaja Farooq Ahmed and representatives of other political parties. The rally started from Burhan Wani Chowk and ended at Ghari Pin Chowk. Apart from banners with anti-India and pro-independence slogans, the participants also held black flags and chanted slogans against Modi.

Addressing the participants on the occasion, Khawaja Farooq Ahmed said the protesters wanted to convince the international community through demonstrations that Kashmiris never recognised the Indian occupation and the arrival of a person like Modi — whose “hands are stained with the blood of innocent Kashmiris” — in any part of the territory was a “highly undesirable” thing for them. He called on the international community, especially the United States and the United Kingdom, to sever their relations with India, as they had done with Russia over the war in Ukraine. He lamented the “double standards” of the international community in the case of Kashmiris. Ahmed said that the UN and the international community should press India to give Kashmiris their right to self-determination. He said that India-occupied Kashmir was under a constant curfew in which people’s livelihoods were being destroyed under a “premeditated plan” so that they could not raise voices against India. He also expressed gratitude to the institutions and people of Pakistan for always supporting Kashmiris. Ahmed said that the day was not far when Kashmiris would become independent and a part of Pakistan. Mushaal Hussein Malik, the wife of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik, said that Modi’s visit was “nothing but a cruel joke with the Kashmiri people”, according to APP. She vowed that the brave people of Kashmir would observe a complete shutdown on Modi’s visit to give a clear message to him as well as to the world that Kashmiris would not accept brutal subjugation anymore. At the end of the rally, prayers were offered for the independence of the occupied territory.

Indian authorities deployed troops and police personnel across the occupied territory, particularly in the Jammu region, as security measures ahead of Modi’s visit.

According to state-run APP, Indian personnel conducted random checking of vehicles and frisked passengers at checkpoints which mushroomed on the roads of all major cities and towns as well as the Srinagar-Jammu highway.

Indian police and troops used CCTV cameras to keep a watch on the movement of people. Sharpshooters were also deployed at high rise buildings while drone cameras and sniffer dogs were included in service. Indian police seized scores of bikes from different areas of Srinagar.

The PML-N leader also accused the PTI of trying to pressurise the Election Commission of Pakistan in an alleged

attempt to influence the foreign funding case. Just a day earlier, Imran called on Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan

Improving vaccination coverage foremost priority of P&SH dept: Secretary Health LAHORe Staff RepoRt

Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare (P&SH) Department Imran Sikander Baloch said that improving vaccination coverage through innovative solutions was the foremost priority of the P&SH Department.

He said this in his message on Sunday as Punjab has geared up awareness activities on vaccination and immunization in all 36 districts as part of the World Immunization Week 2022 that is being commemorated world over from 24th to 30th April.

The Expanded Program on Immunization Punjab has chalked out a comprehensive plan to use the opportunity and highlight the use of vaccines as key intervention to save lives against vaccine preventable diseases.

Imran Sikander Baloch said, “Access to a basic lifesaving intervention like vaccination, can save many young lives. We have to ensure that the benefits of immunization are evenly shared by all. The P&SH department is taking all out measures to ensure that all populations, especially the poorest and the most marginalized,

have equitable access to immunization services.

Our target is to remove bottlenecks and improve quality of services.” Punjab Government is committed to fill all vacant posts in due course of time including vaccinators to increase the access & immunization coverage.

The theme for 2022 is “Long Life for All; In pursuit of a long life well lived”. The ultimate goal of World Immunization Week is for more people – and their communities – to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases. The UN Sustainable Development Goal 3.2.1 envisions an end of preventable deaths of newborns and under-5 children by 2030.

Director General Health Services Punjab Dr. Haroon Jehangir Khan said that the World Immunization Week 2022 was also an opportunity to increase demand through active engagement of a wide range of stakeholders.

He said, “Vaccines not only prevent deaths but also reduce illness and disability, with wide-ranging health, social and economic impacts. Between 2010 and 2018, 23 million deaths globally were averted with measles vaccine alone.”

Director EPI Punjab, Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Awan said that Punjab provides free vaccination for 12 vaccine preventable diseases including childhood TB, Polio, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hepatitis B, Hib Pneumonia, Meningitis, Typhoid, Rota-related diarrhea, Measles and rubella which are administered through EPI outreach and fixed centres across the province. He said Punjab introduced two new antigens, Hepatitis birth dose and DTP Booster in Routine Immunization schedule.

Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed also said that the challenge of coverage in slums and underserved urban areas is being met by establishing a new EPI center through Public Private Partnership with PPA, PMA & Family Physicians association, recruiting new vaccinators, Mobile vaccination and creating mass awareness.

He said that the program is introducing innovative strategies to increase coverage in south districts as well as in five mega urban districts. He also appreciated the role of partners and donors like UNICEF, WHO, GAVI & BMGF for extending their technical, financial and in-kind support for immunization programs in Punjab.

Raja to resign, accusing him of bias. Raja subsequently said there was no valid reason to do so and would remain in his position in the best interests of the country.

Iqbal, in his presser, termed the frequent mentions of “conspiracy” by the ex-PM the “rona-virus”, vowing the country would move forward and the coalition government would fix all issues facing the country.

Iqbal also alleged that Imran sold Toshakhana gifts abroad, thus bringing disrepute to Pakistan. He said the masses would be given relief in “some time”, adding the first priority of the government was to overhaul the economy.

He rejected notions that the government was worried with Imran’s expected march to Islamabad, saying the ousted premier had been doing all of that before and it would likely continue in the future as well.

The minister vowed there would be no “false cases” against Imran and only “genuine cases” would be lodged. “Evidence will guide all our actions,” he said.

Another 14-year-old girl goes missing from Karachi’s Malir area News Desk Within a week after 14 year-old Dua Zehra Kazmi went missing from Karachi’s Malir district, another teenage girl reportedly disappeared from the same area. According to the missing girl’s mother, her 14-year-old daughter — identified as Nimra Kazmi — went missing on April 20 from Saudabad.

The missing child’s mother said that she left her home at 9am to go to work but when she returned, her daughter was not at home.

Despite frantically searching for Nimra, she was nowhere to be found. Providing details about her daughter, the grief-stricken mother said that Nimra was a grade-10 student and was preparing for her final exams. She appealed to the chief minister of Sindh, the Inspector-General of Sindh, and other higher-ups to look into the matter and recover her daughter as soon as possible.

Per the police, a case related to the missing child has been registered at the Saudabad Police Station and a search is underway. It should be noted that Dua Zehra, the girl who earlier went missing from Malir, is still not found. Commenting on the issue, the chief of Karachi Police Ghulam Nabi Memon told Geo News that the police is employing all-out efforts and the latest technology to search for the child.

PM Shehbaz announces two-month remission in jail sentences of prisoners on Eid LAHORe Staff RepoRt

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has announced two-month remission in jail sentences of the prisoners across the country on the occasion of Eidul Fitr during his visit to Kot Lakhpat jail on Sunday.

He also directed the constitution of a committee under Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah that would formulate a comprehensive strategy for the provision of basic facilities to the jail inmates, besides making improvements in the overall system. Relevant officials from the four provinces would be included in the committee.

Premier Shehbaz Sharif said that it was the responsibility of the government to ensure that a prisoner, after his release from jail, should become an efficient citizen of society.

He also specially directed the authorities of Kot Lakhpat jail to utilize all the available resources in an effective manner to meet the basic

requirements of jail inmates.

In this regard, the prime minister directed for further improvement in dining and health facilities of prisoners.

He also asked for effective use of skill development resources, so that prisoners could spend time in jail in a positive manner and adequately gear up

for playing an effective role in society after completion of their jail terms.

While talking to PTV, Shehbaz Sharif said that he had set up a committee headed by the interior minister to introduce much needed jail reforms.

Sharing his personal experiences, he said that jails lacked basic facilities for

prisoners including washrooms, toilets, laundry and health facilities.

The prime minister mentioned different issues faced by the prisoners and said there were a number of prisoners who had completed their jail terms but could not be released as they had no financial resources to pay their fines.

Similarly, others had relatives living in far flung areas and they could not visit jail regularly to meet them. Moreover, there were prisoners who did not afford to hire lawyers, he added.

The prime minister, on the occasion, also announced upgradation of perks of staffers of the jails at par with the police force. He expressed the hope that jails reforms would be brought in accordance with the rules and laws.

PM Shehbaz also lauded Aleem Khan for donating a hospital for the treatment of jail inmates.

Later, the prime minister also visited Ramazan Bazaar set upon in Johar Town and issued direction for ensuring the provision of edible items at low prices.

Monday, 25 April, 2022 | KARACHI

qureshI sees Plot In 2018 PunJAb AsseMbly seAt DeFeAt IsLAMABAD

P

MonitoRing RepoRt

AKISTAN Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi said his defeat in the PP-217 (Multan-VII) constituency in the 2018 general elections was a conspiracy to keep him from becoming Punjab chief minister.

“Imran Khan had considered my candidature […] he had instructed me to contest the election on the provincial [assembly] seat,” he told anchor Ehtesham Amir ud-Din while speaking on the latter’s political talk show.

“Why would he say this if he hadn’t decided [to make me Punjab chief

senior bureaucrat Ahad cheema resigns from civil service

executive]. I was contesting for a National Assembly seat anyway.”

During the last general elections, Qureshi won the NA-156 (Multan-III) seat of the National Assembly by a margin of over 31,000 votes but lost the provincial seat to a young, independent candidate, Salman Naeem, by 3,578 votes. Naeem later joined PTI. At the time, many a people hinted at the involvement of Qureshi’s nemesis from South Punjab and former PTI secretary general Jahangir Tareen in the election upset which shattered his dream of becoming Punjab chief minister.

Qureshi further told Amir ud-Din that Khan had considered two people for the post — him and Tareen. But

Punjab Governor asks President Alvi to declare Punjab CM election void

News Desk

News Desk

Senior bureaucrat Ahad Cheema on Sunday tendered his resignation from civil services.

Cheema, who was a BPS-20 Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) officer, was arrested for his alleged involvement in several cases but nothing could be proved against him.

According to sources, the Prime Minister’s Secretariat has not been able to persuade Ahad Cheema to withdraw his resignation.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has not yet accepted Cheema’s resignation. Sources added that during PML-N’s previous tenure, Cheema played an instrumental role in the Metrobus and Orange Line train projects. He was also involved in the planning and setting up of private power plants in Punjab. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested Cheema on February 21, 2018, to investigate assets beyond means reference and other cases against him. He was released on bail by the Lahore High Court in April.

Punjab Governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema has highlighted “constitutional violations” in the election of the Punjab chief minister held earlier this month in a six-page report he shared with President Arif Alvi on Sunday.

The report came to light a day after the Lahore High Court (LHC) asked President Alvi to appoint someone else instead of Cheema for the oath-taking of PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz who emerged victorious in the election of the CM on April 16.

It has been reported that the Punjab governor alleged that the voting record of the election was “tampered” with along with the violation of the Rules of Business.

In his report, Cheema said the CM election violated the Constitution. He added the police entered the Punjab Assembly in violation of the assembly rules and members [of PTI and PML-Q] were allegedly stopped from voting in the election.

The report further said that the voting procedure contradicted the Second Schedule of the Constitution. As per Rule 21 of the Rules of the Business of the Punjab Assembly, the speaker is supposed to intimate the governor about the outcome of the election and the governor needed to be satisfied with the election of the leader of the house, Cheema wrote in his report.

Maryam nawaz claims ‘Imran got millions from Arif naqvi’ News Desk Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz has accused former premier Imran Khan of staging ‘lettergate’ drama to divert public attention from the verdict that is expected to be announced soon against Arif Naqvi, a case she claimed Imran was also involved in. Taking to her official Twitter handle on Saturday, Maryam alleged that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran had taken millions of dollars from Arif Naqvi, a Pakistani businessman and the founder of the Abraaj Group, who is currently behind bars and is awaiting his verdict, which she maintained was expected soon. US prosecutors alleged that Naqvi was the architect of a plot to defraud investors, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Lawyers for Naqvi, who has denied the allegations through a public relations firm, have said he could face 291 years in jail if convicted in the US. The PML-N leader further said that Imran has attacked the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) because there was “irrefutable evidence of illegal funding”.

Maryam stated that Imran “wreaked havoc in every sector of the country during his tenure and harmed the country at every level”. She said that he violated the Constitution brazenly, made a mockery out of judicial orders, trampling them underfoot and was now spreading mischief.

Maryam claimed that Imran was playing a dangerous game for the sake of the seat of the prime minister. “He does not deserve any mercy or concessions,” she said, adding that his attack on institutions was a way to increase pressure for early elections. She warned Imran that his “bullying and intimidation” would lead to his own destruction. Earlier this week, the PML-N Vice-President claimed that PTI’s “criminal ring” led by Imran Khan was running a smear campaign on social media against state institutions after his ouster from the power earlier this month. In a series of tweets, the ruling party leader said the malicious campaign and “lies” about foreign conspiracy were spread by a handful of people using hundreds of fake accounts and bots.

Tareen was disqualified for life by the Supreme Court in 2017 and his chances of entering the Punjab Assembly and eventually becoming chief minister were doomed.

“Let me make sure I understand this correctly […] a conspiracy was hatched against you following the result of which you lost the election and thereby the chance of becoming Punjab chief minister?” responded the anchor.

“Yes […] I’m revealing this for the first time through your programme [… ] a conspiracy was hatched [against me] to ensure I lose the election on the provincial assembly seat,” the former foreign minister said.

“A number of factors contributed to [my election defeat].”

NEWS

03

Doctors recommend more tests for ailing governor Punjab’s treatment LAHORe Staff RepoRt

Punjab Governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema suffering from dehydration owing to stomach problem, hospital administration sources said on Sunday. “The doctors have suggested more tests for treatment of the ailing governor,” hospital management said. “No decision yet made about his discharge from hospital,” according to sources. Punjab governor was admitted at the Services Hospital Lahore on Saturday after suffering a bout of diarrhea. “Food poisoning is likely cause of gastroenteritis to the governor,” Dr. Amir Mufti, medical superintendent of the hospital stated. According to the kidneys report his urea level has also been above the normal limit, MS Services Hospital said. “In fresh reports kidneys also seemed to have affected”, Dr Mufti said. “Yesterday senior physicians examined him, while his ultrasound and some blood tests were also conducted.” “These all tests will be conducted again on Monday (tomorrow),” Dr. Amir Mufti added. It is worth mentioning here that Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday directed President Arif Alvi to nominate another official to take oath from Chief Minister Punjab Hamza Shehbaz after Governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema refused to administer the oath.

France’s Macron beats le Pen to win second term CONtINueD fROM PAge 01

The report also raised questions over former chief minister Usman Buzdar’s resignation which “violated Sub-Section 8 of Article 130”. The governor’s office never received the resignation of Buzdar so how could it have accepted it, the report claimed.

Cheema urged the president to declare the election void in the light of information shared by him. He asked the president for constitutional advice over the issue in the wake of the circumstances in Punjab.

Imran Khan urges PTI’s lawmakers to mobilise public for march on Islamabad IsLAMABAD Staff RepoRt

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan Sunday tasked the party MPAs in Lahore with launching all-out efforts for preparing more and more people to go with the PTI march on Islamabad after Eidul Fitr.

According to the PTI sources, Imran Khan has asked the PTI MPAs in Lahore to launch a public campaign at Union Councils level in their constituencies for preparations regarding the party’s long march after the upcoming Eid.

It is to be noted here that the central leadership of the PTI has tasked the MPAs, instead of party leadership, in Lahore to bring more and more people to the party’s Islamabad rally.

Meanwhile, PTI leader Asad Umar said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had said that he would side by Imran Khan if foreign interference behind ouster of the PTI government was proved. “Now, the National Security Committee (NSC) has twice confirmed that foreign interference did occur,” he said, urging Prime Minister Shehbaz to step down and call general elections.

“Imported government unaccepted,” he added.

They are just around the corner, in June, and opposition parties on the left and right will immediately start a major push to try to vote in a parliament and government opposed to Macron.

Philippe Lagrue, 63, technical director at a theatre in Paris, said earlier in the day that he had cast a ballot for Macron, after voting for the hard-left Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round. He said he will vote for Melenchon again in the legislative elections: “Melenchon Prime Minister. That would be fun.

Macron would be upset, but that’s the point.” Ifop, Elabe, OpinionWay and Ipsos pollsters projected a 57.6-58.2% win for Macron. Victory for the centrist, pro-European Union Macron would be hailed by allies as a reprieve for mainstream politics that have been rocked in recent years by Britain’s exit from the European Union, the 2016 election of Donald Trump and the rise of a new generation of nationalist leaders. Macron will join a small club – only two French presidents before him have managed to secure a second term. But his margin of victory looks to be tighter than when he first beat Le Pen in 2017, underlining how many French remain unimpressed with him and his domestic record. That disillusion was reflected in turnout figures, with France’s main polling institutes saying the abstention rate would likely settle around 28%, the highest since 1969. Against a backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing Western sanctions that have exacerbated a surge in fuel prices, Le Pen’s campaign homed in on the rising cost of living as Macron’s weak point. She promised sharp cuts to fuel tax, zero-per cent sales tax on essential items from pasta to diapers, income exemptions for young workers and a “French first” stance on jobs and welfare. Macron meanwhile pointed to her past admiration for Russia’s Vladimir Putin as showing she could not be trusted on the world stage, while insisting she still harboured plans to pull France out of the European Union – something she denies. In the latter part of the campaign as he sought the backing of left-leaning voters, Macron played down an earlier promise to make the French work longer, saying he was open to discussion on plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 65.

Marriyum Aurangzeb says ‘Hamza Shehbaz will take CM oath, even if entire PTI falls ill’ News Desk Minister of Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb stated on Sunday that Punjab Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz will take the oath, “even if the entire Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) falls ill, including President Arif Alvi and Governor of Punjab Omar Sarfraz Cheema.”

The information minister, while answering questions raised by ex-premier Imran Khan in his recent presser through the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) official Twitter handle, stated that the former ruling party had no authority to question the functioning of courts at night, as they participate in flouting the orders of the courts.

“The president of Pakistan appointed

by Imran Khan is actively violating the Constitution in Punjab, so the courts are open at night,” Marriyum said.

The federal minister accused former prime minister Imran of being a fascist, adding that he should stop violating the Constitution.

“They [PTI] hold the Constitution, democracy and parliament hostage and then ask why are the courts open?” she questioned.

Marriyum expressed that the nation was a witness to the violation of the Constitution at the hands of President Alvi.

She furthered that the country’s judiciary was being dragged into Imran Khan’s “conspiracy” and being labelled a traitor.

The minister claimed that all, “unconstitutional gangs, including Imran Khan, his President Arif Alvi, and the Governor of Punjab” should be punished under Article 6 for treason.

“You are sick-minded, undemocratic and fascists, your dark age is fading,” she added. Marriyum’s remarks came after

reports of Governor Cheema reportedly being hospitalised in Lahore on complaints of food poisoning and fever were doing rounds.

According to media reports, doctors at the governor’s residence conducted a medical assessment after which he was taken to the hospital for medical tests.

Earlier this week, Hamza Shehbaz had moved the Lahore High Court (LHC) to avert a “constitutional crisis”, after the governor’s reluctance to administer the oath. In his petition, Hamza had pleaded that the governor violated his constitutional duties as well as the court order by delaying the administration of the oath to the CM-elect.

The high court Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti on Thursday directed the Punjab advocate general to assist the court after taking instructions from Punjab Governor Omar Cheema

regarding a delay in the administration of the oath.

Advocate General Punjab (AGP) Ahmad Awais was told to assist the high court on Friday with the response from the governor.

Despite being given two opportunities, AGP Ahmad Awais had failed to satisfy the court whether the governor had addressed the relevant authority in black and white about his inability or the reason why the matter of administration of oath was being delayed. However, on Saturday, it was reported that President Arif Alvi would “consider” the matter of the oathtaking of Punjab CM after receiving a summary from Prime Minister Shehbaz

Monday, 25 April, 2022 | KARACHI

04 NEWS

GB Traders rejeCT CondITIonaL openInG of KhunjeraB Border ISLAMABAD

a

GhulAm ABBAs

S the Chinese government has announced to open the border with Pakistan conditionally, despite an ease in Covid pandemic, the decision of opening the Khunjerab border has not facilitated two-way goods traffic.

Despite reported opening the border this month, no trade has practically been possible as the condition of contactless trade, imposed by China, has made it very difficult for importers and exporters to trade with Chinese businessmen on this route.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through a letter on April 13, had informed the relevant institutions including government of Gilgit Baltistan that Chinese authorities have conveyed that Pakistan-China border has been made operational w.e.f. 11th April 2022 for two-way goods traffic, with the proviso that the trade would be held on no contact basis i.e. cargo handlers from either side would not come into contact with each other.

As per the letter, the Chinese authorities have further conveyed that movement of passengers and tourists across the border will not be allowed from either side in view of the prevailing COVID-19 situation.

The ministry through the letter has asked relevant authorities to make due arrangements for opening of the border.

The Chinese side had imposed similar conditions for opening the border last year which could not yield the result for trade.

Under the condition, only Chinese cargo containers were allowed to leave goods near the border from where the same would be lifted by Pakistani importers.

As per a letter issued in April, 2021, the Chinese government had informed that their exporters would leave the goods on a specific location of Pakistan’s side of the border from where importers may receive them after following the SOPs. Similarly, exporters would also leave their goods at the same location which buyers from China would receive after completion of the same process on their

Leopard attacks policeman, sows panic in Iran city

side of the border.

Personnel and the vehicles of both parties were directed to work in different time frames to avoid direct contact.

In this regard, loading and unloading, dropping and hanging up the trailer was to be done separately when the cargo inspection channel was opened.

However, these arrangements could also not work. Following the Chinese decision to open the border this month, the Gilgit Baltistan Chamber of Commerce held a meeting on the border issues on Saturday in which the members showed their serious concerns that the conditional opening of the border would not facilitate bilateral trade.

Similar conditional opening of the border has already failed to operate the dry port in the past too. During the meeting, which was chaired by President of chamber Ashfaq Hussain, it was decided that one side trade would not be allowed under the stiff condition of bilateral trade.

“Over 3000 traders and importers are facing huge losses for closure of the border

Illegal, unscientific mining turning Swat River into ruins

TEHRAN

SWAT

AFP

News Desk

A leopard attacked a policeman in a city of northern Iran, sparking panic among local residents Sunday before being captured, state media reported. The animal “attacked and injured a policeman before fleeing towards a garden” in Ghaemshahr, said the environment protection spokesman of Mazandaran province, Kamyar Valipur, quoted by state news agency IRNA. “The health situation of the policeman is stable,” he said. A video circulating on social media shows a leopard standing on the front side of an apartment building above a bank. Shortly after, panicked, the animal leaps to the ground and flees. Terrified residents run amok in all directions while shouting, in the images. The leopard was captured and transported to Semeskandeh wildlife refuge, in the same region, IRNA said. According to Valipour, the province’s environment department is investigating whether the animal entered the city from forested areas or was illegally kept in a local household. Persian leopards are listed as an endangered species on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Many wild animals, including wolves and foxes, have been seen in urban areas in Iran in recent weeks, according to Hamshahri, the daily of Tehran’s municipality. The newspaper notably reported the sighting of a bear in the southern town of Marvdasht and a wolf attack on two elderly women in Khalkhal, northwest Iran.

Illegal and unscientific mining is being carried out in Swat River for sand, gravel and crush materials while the district administration has turned a blind eye towards the mafias involved.

Swat River has become a center of illegal mining since the catastrophic floods of July 2010 in Swat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which not only washed away valuable properties but also damaged the river course. After the floods in the Swat River from Kalam Valley to Landakay, the riverflow was also badly affected and it has spread further due to illegal mining.

But the government did not take any practical steps to protect the river and control its flow after the catastrophic floods.

With the help of excavators and other heavy machinery, strong mafias started digging in various places in the Swat river and further ruined the beauty of the Swat River.

Mr. Rafiullah, a social activist who raises voice against the illegal excavations to save the beauty of the river, said that the administration has failed to stop the crush mafia.

He said that a few days ago, two children who were playing on the river bank at Khwaza Khela area

Customers suffer due to BoK IT system malfunction PESHAWAR

for over two years. Under the condition of contact-less trade, the local traders would not be able to trade with their Chinese counterparts,” a statement issued by the chamber after the meeting said.

The chamber has rejected the conditional opening of the border demanding that normal trade handling be allowed on the only land route of the two countries.

The chamber has also requested the Chinese side to allow those importers who have obtained ‘border passes’ to cross the border and enter at least into bordering Xinjiang province.

It may be mentioned here that China, after keeping the only land route closed for over two years following the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, had announced to open

it from April 1, 2022 for trade activities.

According to a circular issued by Foreign Affairs office of Kashgar administration, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China on March 24, 2022, the Hongqi Lafu port (Khunjerab dry port) would officially be opened in April.

“In accordance with the agreement between the government of Pakistan and China on border crossing and their management system signed on May 22, 2013, CMB Hongqi Lafu Suster port will officially be opened on April 1, 2022,” the circular said.

However, as per the circular all inspection units and foreign related enterprises were directed to make preparations in accordance with the port epidemic prevention and control requirements.

Lebanon hunts for survivors after migrant boat capsizes TRIPOLI AFP

drowned in a dug pit and lost their lives. But this is not the first time more than a dozen people drowned in the pits caused by gravel mining.

Zia-ur-Rehman, a tourist from Karachi, said during his Swat visit he along with his family went to the river bank, but unfortunately the river was no longer fun.

Environmentalist Haseeb Khan said that excavations were being carried out in the Swat River with heavy machinery.

Large pits have been dug in the river on one side and rocky outcrops on the other, which can cause flooding in summer.

“The biggest disadvantage of this illegal excavation is the damage of aquatic life and depletion of its reserves,” he said.

As a result of this move, fish have become extinct in the Swat

River while the water has become badly polluted and unusable.

According to Deputy Commissioner Swat Junaid Khan, all kinds of excavations in the Swat River have been banned by the district administration under Section 144.

“Strict instructions have been issued to all concerned agencies and levies to protect the Swat River and prevent such activities, including encroachments,” he said.

He said that on a daily basis, under the supervision of Assistant Commissioners, the concerned agencies and levies were being carried out and action was being taken against the crush mafia and they are being sent to jails.

He said that a comprehensive plan was being devised to restore the beauty of the Swat River and no one would be allowed to ruin the beauty of the Swat river.

Lebanon searched for survivors Sunday after rescuing 45 people and retrieving the corpse of a child from a capsized boat in the eastern Mediterranean loaded with dozens of migrants. The boat capsized on Saturday night near the coast of the northern city of Tripoli, the departure point for a growing number of people attempting a potentially lethal sea escape from crisis-hit Lebanon. “The search is ongoing by the Lebanese navy which is looking for survivors,” the director of Tripoli’s port, Ahmed Tamer, told AFP. The Lebanese Red Cross and Transport Minister Ali Hamie had said around 60 passengers were on board the vessel before it sunk. Hamie told a local broadcaster on Saturday that 45 people had been rescued and the corpse of one child retrieved from the ship. According to Tamer, the number of passengers still missing remains unclear. “We still don’t know how many people were on the boat,” the port chief said.

Lebanon is in the grips of an unprecedented financial crisis, with the currency losing more than 90 percent of its value and the majority of the population living below the poverty line.

The economic crash has spurred an uptick in sea crossings out of the country, with an increasing number of Lebanese joining the ranks of Syrian and Palestinian refugees trying to illegally cross into Europe. The Lebanese army and security forces were deployed at Tripoli’s port on Sunday where ambulances were on standby to receive survivors. Relatives of those on board the capsized ship held a vigil at the entrance to the port to await news of their loved ones. “My nephew, he has five children and his wife is pregnant with twins.

Aziz BuNeri

The Bank of Khyber (BoK) IT system malfunction has caused problems to car finance and house finance customers as extra deductions have made from many accounts have instead of their monthly installments.

Javed Ali, a car financier from BoK said that the IT system of BoK has been deteriorated for last last two weeks as a result of rupees have been deducted from the customer who had taken loan or rented a car from the bank. He informed that Rs193,000 has been deducted from his account instead of monthly installment of Rs17000. He said despite several complaints to the bank management, the IT system could not be repaired and the additional deductions are yet to be refunded. Javed Ali furthered that the bank has been assuring that work is underway to repair the system and refund the extra deductions. The BoK management said that the system is not facing any issue however if extra amount is deducted from some accounts, it would be refunded on Monday. Customers were informed on April 16 on Bank of Khyber’s social media pages that ATM, internet banking and mobile services will be temporarily suspended on April 17 due to system upgradation. According to BoK sources, the bank has purchased an IT system worth Rs700 million from Temenos T24 but the system is developing technical issues. According to sources, bank’s profit has already been affected. The Temenos T24 system is now bring shifted to Islamabad. The sources said that the bank is already suffering from low income and the transfer of the system to Islamabad will further increase expenses.

N. Korea boasts of ‘invincible power’ ahead of key military anniversary SEOUL AFP

North Korea’s state media boasted Sunday that its armed forces had “gained invincible power” under leader Kim Jong Un as it prepares for a major army holiday that analysts say could be marked with a military parade or major weapons test.

North Korea on Monday celebrates the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army and the nuclear-armed country has staged military parades in the past to mark key holidays.

Pyongyang has carried out more than a dozen weapons tests this year, including firing an intercontinental ballistic missile at the full range for the first time since 2017.

A report by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency listed the history of the country’s military achievements, from its battles against the United States in the 1950-53 Korean War

to smaller conflicts.

“All the people of the country are looking back deeply on the history of the 100 victory of our revolutionary armed forces,” it said.

The report added Kim had further propelled the country’s military might with his “genius military ideology, excellent military command and unparalleled courage and guts”.

“Our revolutionary armed forces have gained invincible power that the world cannot ignore,” it said, in an apparent reference to the North’s nuclear arsenal.

North Korea had been widely expected to showcase its military strength to mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of its founding leader and Kim’s grandfather Kim Il Sung on April 15, but instead, the day was celebrated with a civilian parade.

Satellite imagery has shown continued preparations, with thousands of North Korean troops and scores of vehicles marching in formation at a parade

CMYK

training ground in Pyongyang.

“Typically, troops depart the training ground as soon as the parade is complete, so their presence further indicates an upcoming event,” Martyn Williams, a fellow at the Stimson Center, wrote on the

38 North website.

US and South Korean officials and analysts have also warned Pyongyang could resume nuclear weapons testing for the first time since 2017, citing renewed activity at its key testing site.

Monday, 25 April, 2022 | KARACHI

NEWS

Hurriyat Conference leaders vow to remain united despite Delhi’s colonial pressure SRINAGAR Agencies

There was consensus that political workers and leaders of various factions of Hurriyat will henceforth work only under the banner of single All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and shall strive to achieve the people’s right to self-determination in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

According to Kashmir Media Service, the APHC spokesman in a statement issued in Srinagar said in utter disregard to the internationally-recognized disputed nature and statehood of Jammu and Kashmir, India unilaterally and illegally annexed it and APHC leaders and activists were arrested and black law Public Safety Act (PSA) was excessively used.

He deplored that besides planned murders and arson, no stone was left unturned to change the demographic complexion of the Muslim majority territory by settling non-state subjects following the footsteps of Israel.

It was under these circumstances that the organizations and leaders of APHC, hitherto, reaffirmed their pledge to forge unity to take the ongoing movement for right to selfdetermination to its logical conclusion, he added.

The spokesman said that it was not only the demand and wishes of Jammu and Kashmir masses but Quaid-e-Tehreek Shaheed Syed Ali Geelani in his life had also urged to have unity amongst all factions and forums. It would not only strengthen the movement but would also be a tribute to our martyred leaders who longed for it, he maintained.

He said that the participants were unanimous in suggesting that the office bearers of APHC shall be democratically elected and to avoid recurrence of split all precautionary measures would be taken lest we fall prey to machinations of the occupying power, India. He added that steps taken by India on and after 5th August 2019 warranted unification of APHC. Both factions of Hurriyat along with all other organizations made unification possible. APHC umbrella will further be strengthened and expanded to all regions including Jammu and Ladakh, the spokesman said. He said the Women Wing has been formed separately by uniting all women organizations.

Pakistan reiterates Call for Probe into extra-juDiCial killings in oCCuPieD kasHmir ISLAMABAD

P

stAff report

AKISTAN has once again called upon the international community to play its role in ensuring a just and peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people for durable peace and stability in South Asia.

In a statement, Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad reiterated Pakistan’s call for investigation of extra-judicial killings in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir by the Commission of Inquiry as

recommended by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in its Kashmir reports of 2018 and 2019.

The spokesperson strongly condemned the unabated killing spree being perpetrated by the Indian occupation forces in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, causing martyrdom of three more Kashmiri youths in Baramullah district during the last two days.

He said the growing number of extra-judicial killings in fake encounters during the holy month of Ramazan, only exposes the ugly reality of India’s illegal occupation and the extremist anti-Muslim designs of the “Hindutva” inspired BJP-RSS combine in India.

Sugar mills yet to clear Rs21 billion dues of cane growers

iiojk political parties, social groups call for restoration of statehood JAMMU Agencies

In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit, a Jammu-based morcha of pro-India political parties and social organisations, including the Congress and the National Conference, advocated the immediate restoration of statehood and democracy. According to Kashmir Media Service, the All Parties United Morcha (APUM), which also includes the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), United Peace Alliance and the Internationalist Democratic Party, sought the Indian Prime Minister’s intervention in addressing the shortcomings in the draft proposal prepared by the delimitation commission for IIOJK. Addressing a joint press conference in Jammu, leaders of the morcha, including Congress chief spokesperson and former legislator Ravinder Sharma, former MP Sheikh Abdul Rehman and former minister Ram Paul of the National Conference, said, “Jammu and Kashmir is passing through a crucial phase as our historic state was brutally dismembered and downgraded. We are also deprived of a democratically elected government since June 2018.” He said the morcha held a discussion last week and has decided to come together and remind the Indian prime minister, who is coming to Jammu and Kashmir, today, of his promise to the people about the restoration of statehood. He said all the parties are united in their demand for early restoration of statehood and democracy in Jammu and Kashmir.

city notes M A niAzi

i

’M not sure what the PTI is up to.

That’s not, in the last analysis, really a problem, because it doesn’t really matter to the PTI that I know. All the PTI (or any other party) wants me to know is that I must vote for it.

That means I must know which candidate is standing for the PTI i in my constituency, where is my polling station, and where my name appears on the electoral roll. But then, that is a long way ahead, with elections still ahead.

The real problem, I suspect, is that the PTI itself is not sure what it is up to. That is a real problem, for if the PTI doesn’t know, how will it give people a lead? Is the PTI basically doing all it can to pull the temple down around its ears, the way Samson did when he was eyeless in Gaza, a captive and yoked to labour?

You get the impression from the CM’s election and the Governor’s subsequent refusal to take oath from Hamza Shehbaz that

05

ISLAMABAD shAhzAd pArAchA

Despite the cane crushing season ending last month, sugar mills in Punjab have not cleared dues of growers that have piled up to Rs21 billion.

Sources told Pakistan Today that 37 out of 39 sugar mills have to pay more than Rs21 billion to cane growers. As of March 15, 2022, the payment pending against Ashraf Sugar Mills (SM) is Rs458 million, Adam (SM) Rs743 million and Hamza (SM) Rs1.467 billion.

Similarly, the dues of farmers against the Jahangir Tareen’s JDW-1 as well as JDW-II are Rs1.528 billion and Rs781 million respectively.

Meanwhile, Etihad (SM) has held Rs2.54 billion R.Y Khan (SM) Rs2.582 billion, Layyah (SM) Rs117 million, Fatima (SM) Rs768 million, Seikhoo (SM) Rs1.244 billion, Tandlianwala-II (SM) Rs740 million and Indus (SM) Rs229 million.

The Channar sugar mill is yet to pay Rs524 million, Rasool Nawaz sugar mill Rs574 million, Hunza-I sugar mill Rs151 million, Husein sugar mill Rs491 million, Tandlianwala-I sugar mill Rs847 million to cane growers.

Similarly, the payment pending against the Haq Bahu sugar mill is Rs52.55 million, Kashmir sugar mill Rs325 million, Shakarhang-I sugar mill Rs285 million, Shakarhang-II sugar mill Rs317 million.

The ruling Sharif Brothers’ sugar mill has also yet to make payments to cane growers as their Ramzan (SM) has to pay Rs955.2 million.

Meanwhile, Madina (SM) has to pay Rs437.7 million, Safina (SM) Rs186.1 million and Two-star (SM) Rs207.3 million to cane growers.

The payments against the Gung Buksh (SM) as of March 15, 2022, are Rs20.8 million, Shahtaj (SM) Rs808.1 million, and Macca (SM) 34.5 million, Pattoki (SM) Rs390 million and Seven Star (SM) Rs94.3 million.

The JK (SM) has also owed Rs238 million, Abdullah s(SM) Rs124 million, and Baba Farid (SM) Rs114.2 million.

Documents available with this scribe show that Al Arabia (SM) Rs478 million, SW (SM) Rs159 million, Popular (SM) Rs204 million, Darya Khan SM Rs300million, Jauharabad SM Rs132.9 million and Al-Moiaz-II (SM) also owed Rs59.5 million payments of cane growers.

Documents show that two sugar mills including Noon and Hunza-II have cleared all the dues of cane growers.

Sources said that sugar mills are bound to make payments to growers within two weeks of ending of the crashing season and the non-payment of dues may negatively affect the farmers’ Kharif cropping season (which starts from April 1 and ends in September) and its major crops include sugarcane, cotton, rice and maize.

Sugar production during the current season has crossed 7.5 million metric tons against the demand of around 6.5 million metric tons, sources added.

Earlier, the Ministry of Industries used to depend on the sugar mills associations’ statistics but with the implementation of the FBR’s Track and Trace system, the government is getting the real-time production information from mills.

Senior Vice Chairman of the Pakistan Sugar Mill Association Iskander M. Khan has said that mills should make payments to farmers in time.

He suggested the incumbent government export one million tones of sugar not only to stabilize the market but to make payments to farmers in Punjab and Sindh. The government of Pakistan will earn around $600 million, he added.

According to the Pakistan Bureau of statistics, the sugar price at the weekend of April 21, 2022, was recorded at Rs85 to 90 rupees in different cities per KG. It is worth mentioning here that PM Shahbaz sharif announced banning the export of sugar after emerging that Utility Stores Corporation has quietly increased the sugar prices.

staying in His fatHer’s House the PTI plans to play dog-in-the-manger.

The Governor is himself under notice of dismissal, only the President has probably eaten the PM’s advice.

The President has not complained of a toothache, which would probably only get him the unfeeling response, “Treat it yourself.” But he himself has hardly been doing his job. He didn’t give the PM or the Cabinet oath, but he was apparently able to give a second phase of the Cabinet oath.

As for the CM’s election, it seems that the sport MPAs should have specialized in was wrestling, not cricket. Usman Buzadar should not have been labelled “Waseem Akram Plus’ but ‘The Undertaker Part II’ and Ch Pervez Elahi should be labelled ‘John Cena Part II.’ Hamza Shehbaz is of course free to become CM under whatever name he chooses, but maybe ‘he Rock Part II’ sounds good, though the PM would probably take it as a compliment if he fought

(sorry, ruled) under the moniker ‘Son of the Real Rock.’

The Real Rock chaired the National Security Committee, which examined the letter on which Imran has based his conspiracy claim, and it found that there was no conspiracy. The Committee in its last meeting had not found a conspiracy, even though it was chaired by the Sultan of Reverse Swing. I’m not sure there was any conspiracy. Or even that he himself thinks there is.

I mean, if he thought the Biden Administration had really toppled him, would he have received a Congresswoman from Biden’s party at home? And then posted pictures afterwards?

Remember, this is the guy who wouldn’t meet corrupt elements, and to hear him talk, his regret was not so much that he was out as that Shehbaz was in. Or do we have separate treatment for domestic and foreign corrupt elements?

I wonder what conspiracy Congress-

CMYK

woman Ilhan Omar weaved with Imran in their meeting. Does that have anything to do with President Alvi overcoming his scruples and being in the same room as Shehbaz? I mean,I don’t suppose Shehbaz went to the Presidency because he had a toothache.

I suppose it’s the effect of Ramazan, but I was reminded of a Hadith by Imran’s blunt ‘mera tohfa, meri marzi’ (my present, my decision) about the Toshakhana scam, where Imran took out presents he had received on visits abroad, selling them.

The builder of the Riasat-e-Madina might remember that “The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) employed a man from the tribe of Al-Azd named Ibn Lutbiyyah as collector of Zakat. When the employee returned (with the collections) he said: “(O Prophet (PBUH)!) This is for you and this is mine because it was presented to me as gift.”

Messenger of Allah PBUH‫ )ﷺ‬rose to the pulpit and praised Allah and extolled

Him. Then he said, “I employ a man to do a job and he comes and says: ‘This is for you and this has been presented to me as gift’? Why did he not remain in the house of his father or the house of his mother and see whether gifts will be given to him or not?”

I wonder whether the people crowding into those rallies would like to apply this test to Imran. Or is honesty and morality only for opponents?

By the way, how are the Russians, whom Imran supported against Ukraine, for whom he sacrificed his government doing?

They failed to achieve their initial war aims, and had the pride of the Black Sea fleet, the cruiser Moskva, sunk.

Whether it was an accident (as Russia says) or a hostile missile (as Ukraine claims), it’s at the bottom of the Black Sea. Just as whether Imran was removed through a foreign conspiracy or the democratic process, he’s no longer PM.

06-07 Comments - 25th April 2022_Layout 1 4/24/2022 10:37 PM Page 1

Monday, 25 April, 2022

06 COMMENT

Pandemic and IMF’s pro-cyclical policy stance

Tilting at the ECP windmill The PTI’s call for protests outside ECP offices seems hypocritical

The IMF should help the countries that need it the most

t

HE call given by the PtI for protests outside the various offices of the Election Commission of Pakistan for tuesday may seem to many like a quixotic tilting at windmills, and even misdirected. the ECP has not notified the vacation of the seats from which PtI members have resigned, and may appear to the PtI to be a ‘soft target’, an institution it can target without the consequences entailed by targeting certain other institutions. However, that should not conceal the fact that the PtI mNAs’ resignations at issue were accepted by a Deputy speaker just before his own resignation, without verification, with the new speaker saying he would first verify the resignations and proceed.

PtI Information secretary Fawad Chaudhry, while disclosing this decision of the party’s political committee, said that the PtI was unhappy with the Chief Election Commissioner, and had called for his resignation. this is the same CEC the PtI itself had named, and only now has PtI chief Imran Khan hinted that he had been palmed off on him by the establishment. While the ECP has disagreed with the PtI over the i-voting and EVm proposals, the main bone of contention visible is the foreign funding case. that case could lead to the dissolution of the party, as well as the personal disqualification of various officebearers, including mr Khan. It is almost as if the party is preparing for that eventuality, and is virtually rehearsing for the protests it will launch. the present excuse seems thin, for the prompt respect for institutions is not apparently expected of the PtI. At the moment, the President and Punjab governor do not appear to be acting as constitutional office-bearers, but as PtI activists, who will only exercise their offices in the interests of the PtI, rather than of any and all persons, as they are sworn to do. It is essential that the PtI remember that the Constitution does not just enjoin loyalty to the state and obedience to the law on PtI members, but on all citizens, and refusal to obey constitutionally constituted authorities, or trying to make citizens clash with such authorities, is supposed to be done by enemies of the state, not its purported reformers.

Dr Omer JaveD ‘this is a cost-push inflation… it’s a rise in costs of fuel, which is something that is used in everything else. It’s used in the production of many many other goods and services, it’s used in transport, and so it doesn’t just affect the prices at the pump, it actually affects all others prices in the economy. the problem is that then governments say, oh well, what we have to do is to get the central bank to tighten monetary policy, to raise the interest rates. that’s not the problem, that’s not the solution, that doesn’t affect the cause of inflation, so you really have to think of different measures in this situation. …the prices themselves have gone higher than you would expect given the actual impact on supply… and that’s because there’s been very feverish speculative activity in what are called the commodity futures markets.’

– Excerpt from a recent interview by Jayati Ghosh, on ‘Democracy Now’

A

CCoRDINg to oxfam, in 87 per cent of the programmes of International monetary Fund (ImF) during the last two years– which are also the years of the pandemic, and its recession-causing effects, especially on developing countries that were made to suffer from vaccine apartheid, and low level of debt moratorium/relief– countries in the programme were asked to adopt austerity policies. this does not make much sense, not only because at the same time, the ImF encouraged countries in the global north to provide stimulus to their economies– where both quick and adequate provision of vaccines, and more than $13 trillion of stimulus led to much

A landmine left behind?

Loadshedding crisis should have been avoided

Saima afzal

A

lmost every constitution of the world protects and provides the basic human rights to its individuals. the Indian Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950 with the most elaborate fundamental laws that were adopted and the preamble to the constitution declares India to be a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic. the term democratic denotes that the government gets its authority from the will of the people. It indicates that all individuals are equal irrespective of the race, religion, language, sex and culture. the preamble to the Indian Constitution also pledges justice, social, economic and political, liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, equality of status and of opportunity and fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation to aid its citizens. It is sad to say that it just remains written in documents but has not been implemented so far in the Indian state. the recent Us human rights watch report 2022 has exposed India’s real face to the world by highlighting the Indian authority’s repressive laws to silence critics by curbing freedom of expression of minorities and especially muslims. Police and security forces in India used excessive force against members of minority communities. Courts undermined the right to a fair trial and delayed hearing crucial cases involving violations of human rights.

In the context of Covid-19, lack of transparency over the distribution of funds increased and the right to health was undermined. Caste-based discrimina-

Arif Nizami (Late) Founding Editor

Yousaf Nizami Umar Aziz

Joint Editor

Joint Editor

Executive Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965

The writer holds PhD in Economics degree from the University of Barcelona, and previously worked at International Monetary Fund.Prior to this, he did MSc. in Economics from the University of York (United Kingdom), and worked at the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Statistics (Pakistan), among other places. He is author of Springer published book (2016) ‘The economic impact of International Monetary Fund programmes: institutional quality, macroeconomic stabilization and economic growth’.He tweets @omerjaved7

Indian abuses are becoming too obvious for the world to ignore

Dedicated to the legacy of late Hameed Nizami

M. A. Niazi

It is important that IMF does not stress upon programme countries like Pakistan to adopt a strong pro-cyclical policy stance

US Concern about Human Right abuses by India

l

oADsHEDDINg has increased, and is likely to go beyond the 18 hours a day that is beginning to afflict many. As fans, coolers and air-conditioners go on, and begin to run for ever longer, electricity demand is going to increase. the situation is particularly worrisome because the hot weather has not yet set in, when temperatures soar into the 40s, and the sun bakes down on the Indus Plain. the pity of it all is that a number of generation plants are simply not running, because of a failure to import furnace oil in time.

It is almost as if the previous PtI government had left this particular crisis behind, because in the days when the days of the government were clearly numbered, the politicians concerned, like the Pm and the Energy minister, were more concerned about the government’s survival, while the bureaucrats concerned, were carefully following a policy of doing nothing. It is almost as if the previous government had left this crisis to occur, because the ordinary consumer, already hard hit by inflation, unemployment and economic pressure, now has to fast in Ramazan in heat without benefit of electricity.

Whether or not the landmine was deliberately set, it is now the responsibility of the present government.

Assigning blame is essential to prevent repetition, but it will not provide any relief at the present, when it is most urgently needed. the government must also keep in mind that the current crisis in sri lanka, which has resulted in a default, also showed up in the inability to import furnace oil for its power plants, leading to prolonged and widespread loadshedding. the government must also pay attention to another part of the crisis, which the PtI was unable to solve, that of circular debt, which intimately involves furnace oil imports. the government must act prudently in handling this crisis, if it wishes to avoid having to face a long hot summer of discontent.

Editor Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

quicker and more significant economic recovery than developing countries overall– but also because developing countries needed to give stimulus to its people, and improve their purchasing power in the wake of firstly, supply constraints by oPEC+ group of countries overall had led to a high price of oil, where from a dip in oil prices in the first few months of the pandemic, it had reached very high levels of crossing $130 per barrel, to coming down to somewhat below $100 per barrel as the UsA for instance released significant quantities from its oil inventories in the wake of the war in Ukraine by Russia. secondly, developing countries, many of which were already facing a difficult debt situation, during the pandemic had to provide most of whatever stimulus/welfare spending, and health sector expenditures that they could make, from their own resources, given very little debt moratorium/relief was provided by creditors, including multilateral institutions. thirdly, much stimulus could not be provided by developing countries, because developing countries received no significant amounts in enhanced allocation of special drawing rights (sDRs) by the ImF. so, when in last August ImF did provide an enhanced allocation of sDRs to the tune of $650 billion, most of it went to rich, advanced countries, since it was inappropriately allocated, given the situation of the pandemic at hand, on the usual practice of distributing on the basis of sDR quotas of member countries– richer countries with more contribution to the ImF pool of resources have larger quotas– when it was the developing countries who needed the lion share.

Hence, for instance, Pakistan only received $2.75 billion in enhanced sDR allocation. Having said thwt, the possibility of relocation of enhanced sDR allocation from developed countries to developing countries through a recently established window in the shape of he Resilience and sustainability trust by the ImF could help fill some of the financing gap of developing countries, yet the main achievement would be if the ImF could persuade Us Congress to pass the bill regarding allocation of $2.2 billion in enhanced sDR allocation. moreover, during the unusual times of the pandemic, any possible subsequent allocation of enhanced sDRs should be done in a way that the

countries which need such a support the most, receive it accordingly.

Here, it needs to be mentioned that the financing needs of the developing countries were much more than they could receive, where also such needs were not reduced through any adequate level of debt moratorium/relief, or through provision of any significant amount under climate finance, something which rich countries had committed to during the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, indicating that annually they would provide $100 billion to developing countries as climate finance. the amount of financing that developing countries needed to have for providing stimulus, improving debt sustainability, boosting purchasing power, and reducing the imported component of cost-push inflation, was indicated, for instance, by United Nations Conference on trade and Development (UNCtAD) in last December, to be between $2 and $3 trillion.

Hence, in this context, it is important that ImF does not stress upon programme countries like Pakistan to adopt a strong procyclical policy stance, since for instance, enhancing policy rate– which being close to zero real interest rate, is already very high and needs to reduce significantly, given inflation is mostly being driven through the cost-push channel, and not through the demand-pull channel– increasing overall tax/tariff burden, and reducing/eliminating subsidy, especially on oil, and essential food items, would not only most likely enhance inflation, given as indicated it is primarily cost-push caused, on the other hand will also significantly hurt the economic growth momentum, which reached, with great difficulty some reasonable level of 5 per cent plus last fiscal year, not to mention the overall catastrophic of this slow-down and high inflation on managing very difficult debt, poverty, and inequality situation.

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Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

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tion and violence against muslims and Dalits continued unabated. the report expressed concern over excessive use of force in Kashmir during cordon and search operations, resulting in civilian deaths as well as new allegations of torture and deaths in custody. the international human rights organizations have realized that the human rights situation in India and especially Kashmir continue to deteriorate.

India should accept the findings of the report and invite an independent investigation to help end serious abuses in Kashmir. the report further highlights that the modi-led BJP government has continued to intimidate and harass journalists and news outlets critical of the government through politically motivated lawsuits and tax raids. on 13 April, Us secretary of state Antony Blinken expressed concerns on “rise in human rights abuses” in India; he said that “we are monitoring some recent concerning developments in India, including a rise in human rights abuses by government, Police, and prison officials.”

He made the statement at a joint press briefing with Us secretary of Defense lloyd Austin, India’s External Affairs minister s Jaishankar and Defence minister Rajnath singh. India has been on the radar of International organizations due to its Human Right Abuses for long. the statement had come amid a wave of anti-

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

muslim campaigns in India, targeting women who wore Hijabs in educational institutions, meat sellers, muslim traders selling their wares at temple complexes and muslim taxi drivers. since modi came into power, right-wing Hindu groups have launched attacks on minorities. It also indicates that though the UsA and India are close allies and strategic partners, the UsA is aware of India’s inhuman acts in the mainland of India and especially in Indian-occupied Kashmir.

India is continuously violating all international laws and conventions in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir and people are even deprived of their basic human rights in the territory.

In brief, India should accept the findings of the Human Rights Watch report and invite an independent investigation to help end serious abuses in Kashmir. the international human rights organizations have realized that the human rights situation in India is continuously deteriorating. therefore, India should peacefully resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute through the implementation of the UNsC resolutions. the international community also needs to acknowledge and take a stance against routine harassment of and genocidal threats against minorities and especially muslims in the country.

Therefore, India should peacefully resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute through the implementation of the UNSC resolutions. The international community also needs to acknowledge and take a stance against routine harassment of and genocidal threats against minorities and especially Muslims in the country

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Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

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The writer is an Islamabad based analyst and can be reached at sarahamidkhan21dec@gmail.com.

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

06-07 Comments - 25th April 2022_Layout 1 4/24/2022 10:37 PM Page 2

Monday, 25 April, 2022

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

Climate changes and disasters

Seeking peace with India COAS asks India to include China in talks on Kashmir

amJeD JaaveD

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HE Islamabad security Dialogue conference was addressed, among others,

by Pakistan’s CoAs gen Qamar Javed Bajwa also. His tentative proposal for peace with India suggested trilateral talks involving India, Pakistan and China to create an inclusive peace.

From several angles, China’s inclusion is vital to the success of talks. China will not be a third-party mediator but a party to the Kashmir dispute. China has a lingering boundary dispute, extended to the Aksai Chin, with India. to India’s chagrin, Pakistan, with China’s support, was able to convince the United Nations security Council to discuss the India-Pakistan Question about the disputed Kashmir in an in camera session on August 16 last year. “the India-Pakistan Question” was first placed on the UNsC’s agenda on 22 January 1948. But it had been lying dormant on the agenda of the UNsC since December 1971.

China’s initiative has potentially significant implications for India. Be it observed that China was represented permanently in the UNsC by the Republic of China (taiwan). After replacing taiwan on the UNsC, China became very assertive with regard to “the India-Pakistan Question”. to counter India’s actions during the December 1971 India-Pakistan war China cast its first veto against the admission of Bangladesh to the UN in August 1972.

Pakistan too had some differences with China on a territory in Kashmir. But, it amicably resolved the differences and reached an agreement.

India trumpeted that Pakistan ceded territory to China. the factual position is quite different. A. g. Noorani points out, `In truth, China ... got no territory. Instead, it was Pakistan which secured from China 750 square miles of administered territory (A. g. Noorani, Facing the truth, June 5, 2020, Frontline, Print edition: october 06, 2006).

India should stop harping the mantra that the disputed Kashmir is an integral part of India. It should restore the statehood and do away with all steps taken to alter the status of the state in consonance with the UN resolutions. till India does so, it qualifies as a rogue state subject to international sanctions (pacta sunt seervanda, treaties are to be observed and they are binding on parties).

Abrogation of the statehood (Article 370) of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir state, and the Kashmiris hereditary rights (Article 35A) violated the UN”s directive that the status of the state should not be altered. Even a section of jaundiced media in India expressed ennui at India’s mightis-right initiative. the Hindu dated 6 August

2019 commented in its editorial “Scrapping J&K’s special status is the wrong way to an end”: “the mechanism that the government used to railroad its rigid ideological position on Jammu and Kashmir through the Rajya sabha was both hasty and stealthy. this move will strain India’s social fabric not only in its impact on Jammu and Kashmir but also in the portents it holds for federalism, parliamentary democracy and diversity. the BJP-led government has undermined parliamentary authority in multiple ways since 2014, but the passing of legislation as far-reaching as dismembering a state without prior consultations has set a new low”. senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram commented, ‘the government cannot modify Article 370 by using another provision of Article 370. By doing so it made a “fatal legal error” and it would discover this in due course. the entire exercise of getting Article 370 of the Constitution effectively abrogated has been marked by executive excess’. there are several United Nations’ resolutions, mentioned heretofore, that corroborate that Kashmir is a disputed territory.

Between January 1948 and December 1971, the UNsC adopted 17 resolutions on “the India-Pakistan Question” and endorsed the 1949 Karachi Agreement which established a ceasefire line agreed to by India and Pakistan, to be monitored by the UN military observer group in India and Pakistan. these resolutions include UNsCR 38 (Junagadh also requested to be included in scope), 39 (Pakistan again requested that the scope of the issue be expanded to include Junagadh and the treatment of muslims in India). 47, 51, 80 (demilitarisation), 91 (forbade imminent accession by the Kashmir puppet constituent assembly), 96, 98, 122, 123, 209, 211, 214, 215, and 307 (UN military observer group). the plethora of UNsC resolutions confirms that Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed state.

Both at the UN and back at home Nehru kept saying that the accession by the maharajah or the accession by the puppet Kashmir constituent assembly does not amount to an accession by plebiscite as required by the UN. the UNsC itself forbade India from changing status of the state from the so-called accession by the puppet Kashmir assembly.

Avtar singh Bhasin, in his book India and Pakistan: Neighbours at Odds has traced Pandit Jawahar lal Nehru’s perfidious ever-changing stands on Kashmir. Initially, Nehru forcefully expressed his resolve that plebiscite was the only solution to determining the future status of Kashmir.

He told the Kashmiri leader sheikh mohammad Abdullah that independence would be acceptable to him if the Kashmiri people so desired.

Bhasin says , `on 7 August a day before his arrest, BBC reported a significant passage from his speech on the martyrs’ Day in the previous month, which had been blacked out in the Indian press: `If I felt that by remaining independent,

Kashmir would be well off, I would not hesitate to raise my voice in favour of complete freedom for Kashmir. If I felt that Kashmir’s betterment lay in its accession to Pakistan, no power in the world could silence my voice’.

Bhasin says Nehru addressed a lengthy letter to him [sheikh Abdullah] on 25 August 1952 from sonamarg, where he was then camping. He wrote, \‘If the people of Kashmir clearly and definitely wish to part company from India, there the matter ends, however we may dislike it ‘ Nehru banked on so-called Instrument of Accession and its authentication by the `Constituent Assembly. But in a strange quirk of volte face, Nehru declared, `after consideration of the problem, we are inclined to think that it [plebiscite] should be held under United Nations’ auspices (p. 28 ibid.). He reiterated in New Delhi on November3, 1951 that `we have made it perfectly clear before the security Council that the Kashmir Constituent Assembly does not [insofar] as we are concerned come in the way of a decision by the security Council, or the United Nations’ Again, at a press conference on 11 June 1951, he was asked `if the proposed constituent assembly of Kashmir “decides in favour of acceding to Pakistan, what will be the position?”’ he reiterated, `We have made it perfectly clear that the Constituent Assembly of Kashmir was not meant to decide finally any such question , and it is not in the way of any decision which may ultimate flow from the security Council proceedings’ .

He re-emphasised his view once again at a press conference in New Delhi on 3 November 1951. He said, “We have made it perfectly clear before the security Council that the Kashmir Constituent Assembly does not [insofar as] we are concerned come in the way of a decision by the security Council or the United Nations.”

It is flabbergasting that during the period 1947 to 1952, Nehru kept harping on commitment to plebiscite. then there was a sudden metamorphosis in his compliant attitude.

Bhasin points out that `there was a perceptible shift in his [Nehru’s] stand on 24 July 1952 about the future of the state `if the decision of the security Council was at variance with that of the Constituent Assembly’. Nehru said, `Unless the security Council functioned under some other sections of the Charter, it cannot take a decision which is binding upon us unless we agree to it. they are functioning as mediators and a mediator means getting people to agree ’.

Including China in trilateral talks on Kashmir could lead to a durable solution. As a permanent member of the UNsC, China could agitate the “the India-Pakistan Question” again at a time and manner of its choice.

Including China in trilateral talks on Kashmir could lead to a durable solution. As a permanent member of the UNSC, China could agitate the “The India-Pakistan Question” again at a time and manner of its choice

The writer is a freelance journalist, has served in the Pakistan government for 39 years and holds degrees in economics, business administration, and law. He can be reached at amjedjaaved@gmail.com

It is extremely disturbing to know the latest warnings issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] about climate changeinduced natural disasters up ahead. Post the latest climate change report released by the IPCC, almost all the media outlets have been highlighting the key takeaways from the report.

From time magazine to the New York times to CNN to almost all the Asian media houses, the global media outlets have gone into detail about issues like climate change, global warming, sea-level rise and the like. overall, it is all about human activities that have been the major driver of all these natural disasters. Countries from across the world should take serious and immediate steps to reduce the emissions of methane and carbon dioxide that have been the major contributors to the climate change crisis. given the latest findings and current erratic weather patterns like intense tropical storms, it is amply clear that no concrete steps have been taken worldwide to reduce carbon dioxide and methane emissions. on all these official occasions, the IPCC Climate Change reports have often been talking about sensible things like planting trees and developing forests as part of fighting the climate change issue. Interestingly enough, my native areas such as Korkai, tuticorin, tiruchendur, Nagercoil, Kanyakumari, marthandam and tirunelveli in tamil Nadu have been hubs of natural resources like big trees, rivers, seas, mountains and other natural vistas apart from having been home to rigorous agricultural activities like crop cultivation. As a matter of fact, such green activities and natural canopies will definitely act as a protective layer against the so-called greenhouse effect. on top of all, public awareness is crucial to the fight against climate change. In fact, great efforts by green activists like greta thunberg towards climate change mitigation should be encouraged and appreciated. Efforts like communicating all the IPCC climate change findings to people through proper channels and raising global/public awareness of climate change problems will go the extra mile to pitch for a strong fight against the issue so as to be able to save our beautiful planet.

AHMAD KHAN LAHORE

Water scarcity in Kashmir WAtER is an essential natural resource for the sustainability of life. the dynamics and distribution of water depend upon the physiographic and climatic settings of the landscape. the mountainous regions encompass an enormous variety of hydrological properties. Water scarcity in these regions is the foremost concern to meet the ever-growing needs of the population.

Complications in the investigation of groundwater in mountainous regions particularly Azad Jammu and Kashmir arise due to the frequently fractured rock formations. groundwater exploration in these regions is the main concern for the proper water management system to cope with the issue of water scarcity. As the consequences of global warming are quite visible, the proper water management departments are needed especially in the mountainous regions where water flows through the mountains into the rivers. I would like to draw the attention of the masses to this grave issue through your newspaper. there should be proper management and exploration departments to overcome the problems of water shortage in Kashmir as people still cover miles to get water for their homes. Budgets should also be approved by the government for this purpose and research studies should be conducted. A step today would make a big difference tomorrow.

AYESHA RAZAQ AZAD KASHMIR

Reduce ecological footprints WE are utterly reliant on our environment but woefully, we are wrecking it by exploiting natural resources. A little negligence can harshly affect the environmental aesthetics for example using fossil fuel-powered vehicles for transportation is blameworthy for climate change on account of air pollution. similarly, incandescent bulbs are a burden to the environment for their wasteful energy consumption that leads to greenhouse gas emissions. these impacts come under the umbrella of ecological footprints, which is the direct consequence of the impact of our activities on nature. We should concentrate on how to dwindle our ecological footprints. Here are some points to ponder: try to choose cleaner transportation. Using public transport or walking are always greener options against ecological footprints because avoiding driving your own car can curtail an average of 20% ecological footprints. smaller cars must be prioritized by virtue of their energy-efficient nature.

Don’t plan short eroplane trips, cover that distance by train or bus, because aeroplanes are responsible for releasing water vapours and nitrous oxide gas into the stratosphere exacerbating the rate of greenhouse gases and giving rise to ozone layer depletion.

Energy-efficient features must be introduced to your home if you want to alleviate ecological footprints. lED bulbs are the best option. Install green design features in your buildings. Passive solar heating is the best fit.

It accumulates sunlight into the material used in building and then releases it in the absence of the sun. Rainwater harvesting systems along with greywater recycling systems should be must-have elements. select recycled and sustainable furnishings. I would like to sum up the whole story by saying that it is critical to be conscious of our ecological footprints and to make an individual effort to reduce them to protect and conserve the environment as well as secure our future.

USBA FAYYAZ LAHORE

The Nation is hurt ImRAN KHAN is the only politician who inspired me and my friends. I assume every young Pakistani loves his leadership as he never puts his head down. He stands against mafias, corrupt politicians, and unsatisfactory powers. moreover, we can see lots of videos made on Imran Khan to appreciate and praise his efforts, devotions, and bravery. It is 100% accurate that most Pakistani educated people who know the history of the politicians of Pakistan love him and are hurt after the end of his government because history witnesses that no politician was removed from ruling like him. He wasn’t removed due to corruption but because of his bravery and honesty.

PARVEZ MOULA BAKHSH KARACHI

08 WORLD VIEW 25th April 22_Layout 1 4/24/2022 11:17 PM Page 1

Monday, 25 April, 2022

08 WORLD VIEW

the Un mUst InvestIgate allegatIons of atrocItIes by Us-led forces In syrIa If Any ‘rules-bAsed world order’ Is To be preserved, The rules musT Apply To everyone

rt BradlEy BlankEnship

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s we can all admit, the international order is falling into disarray, and a formal inquiry into allegations of atrocities committed by the United states in syria must be a prerequisite to upholding international law. according to a tuesday report by Press tV, the syrian government has sent letters to UN officials asking for such a formal investigation into alleged atrocities committed by the Us-led coalition in the city of raqqa. “the time has come to shed light on the humanitarian, political, and legal aspects of the matter,” syria’s ministry of Foreign affairs wrote in two identical messages, addressed to UN secretary General antónio Guterres and to the rotating president of the UN security council, Barbara Woodward. the ministry noted that virtually the entire city was

InflatIon wreakIng havoc on workIng, mIddle-class amerIcans

razed by Us bombing runs that took place between June and october 2017, resulting in thousands of civilian deaths. as the associated Press reported at the time, the devastation of that city raised serious questions about “the cost of victory.” aP even flew a drone through raqqa to highlight the extent of the damage, which had left the once flourishing city little more than a skeleton. that footage was, by any account, truly disturbing. “more than 80 percent of the city (raqqa) is estimated to be uninhabitable as a result of the fighting,” Linda tom, a Damascus-based official with the UN’s office for the coordination of Humanitarian affairs (ocHa) told the century Foundation’s aron Lund at the time. the report by the syrian side also noted several other examples of similar alleged atrocities by Us-led forces, such as in northeastern syria, between 2018 and 2019, in operations fronted by the Us and so-called syrian Democratic Forces (sDF). It noted a particular instance in Baghuz when Us fighter jets reportedly killed at least 70 civilians, including women and children, fleeing clashes. there is certainly a lot to digest in america’s role in syria. the years have illuminated countless credible accusations of war crimes and other atrocities by Us-allied bombings and military personnel on the ground, as well as by their various proxies. there’s also the fact that america’s presence in syria, which is without the consent of the UN-recognized syrian government, is a clear violation of elementary international law – and its role in interfering in the country clearly violates international laws regarding nonintervention and crimes against peace.

Editorial

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emocrats’ latest Hail mary effort to sell themselves in advance of November’s election turns on claiming the Us economy is doing great, with employment up 6.5 million this last year. It’s doomed to fail, for two big reasons.

First, everyone knows these are still overwhelmingly just jobs recovered post-pandemic (with the recovery slowest in Democratic-controlled, heavylockdown states). second, and more important: Working americans are all too aware how rampant inflation is setting them back.

Indeed, prices are soaring higher for the working class than for better-off americans: Inflation in the year through march was 9.4 percent for them, per the Labor Department’s cPI-W measure (consumer Price Index for Urban Wage earners and clerical Workers), vs. 8.5% in the “headline” cPI number. It’s even worse over the last six months, with annualized cPI of 10.1% but cPI-W of 11.1%. these are the widest gaps ever recorded. that’s because working-class americans spend more of their incomes on food and gas, which have seen by far the stiffest increases in prices.

Plus, both food and gasoline have been hard-hit by Democrats’ war on carbon. Gas of course comes from the oil that Dems don’t want drilled, but oil and natural-gas products are also key to making fertilizer; price hikes there eventually show up at the grocery story. Bottom line: real working-class wages have been sinking for almost Joe Biden’s entire presidency, as inflation ate up nominal pay hikes. and, again, inflation started taking off in early 2021 when Democrats rushed to push through Biden’s american rescue Plan, which dumped $1.9 trillion in “stimulus” on an economy that was already recovering. and voters see the truth every time they hit the grocery store or the gas pump. No amount of happy talk is going to convince them.

Bradley Blankenship is an American journalist, columnist and political commentator. He has a syndicated column at CGTN and is a freelance reporter for international news agencies including Xinhua News Agency.

greece: media freedom under assault

That’s because working-class Americans spend more of their incomes on food and gas, which have seen by far the stiffest increases in prices New York Post

But what took place at raqqa must be seriously and impartially investigated if indeed the UN and international law are to mean anything at all. the situation, and the virtual media blackout about it in the Western press, at least in terms of the extent of what the americans did there, highlight clear double standards that undermine the principles of multilateralism and international law altogether.

It’s not hard to see how repeated violations of international law, including international humanitarian law, the laws of war and basic laws about interference in sovereign countries create an inherently chaotic world order. the United states talks all the time about the “rulesbased world order” while continually and deliberately ignoring rules. the situation in Ukraine stands as a case in point.

For example, I am of the opinion that russia’s incursion into Ukraine is a clear and easily identifiable violation of international law. However, the law is already proven meaningless when the United states continually violates international law. the prospect of a formally Western-aligned Ukraine was one of russia’s primary national security concerns prior to the initiation of the “special operation,” and america’s actions prove that this threat is more than hypothetical.

We can also see that failing to hold perpetrators accountable leads to more instances of criminal activity. since raqqa, the Us has been credibly accused of committing a host of war crimes in places such as, again, syria, Iraq, afghanistan and other places. the operation in raqqa also followed in the wake of

a bloodbath operation in the Iraqi city of mosul by the Us-led coalition, which was even fraught with accusations of war crimes by Human rights Watch and amnesty International. the Us claims that it has internal mechanisms to compensate victims of its “collateral damage” or to reprimand those responsible for wrongdoing, but this is bunk. recall that the Us just got done conducting an internal review in November 2021 of a drone bombing in Kabul that killed 10 civilians, including seven children, some months earlier. It found that no misconduct or negligence took place and thus recommended no disciplinary action – which is a complete mockery of the laws of war, and of victims.

Here’s another notable example. In mosul, one Us Navy seaL, special operations chief edward Gallagher, committed such terrible acts that he was outed by his fellow soldiers for indiscriminately shooting civilians and even stabbing to death a captured IsIs soldier who was estimated to be 15 years old. He was later pardoned by then-President Donald trump for these acts – oh, and he also imposed sanctions on members of the International criminal court who were investigating Us soldiers for war crimes, though these were lifted in april of last year.

We must all be able to admit that entire cities being razed without consideration for civilian infrastructure or the lives of non-combatants, in some sort of strategy akin to Dresden in World War II, is unacceptable – as are attempts to downplay it. the UN must take the allegations of atrocities in raqqa seriously if it wants to maintain its legitimacy as an institution and ensure that international law has any serious meaning in today’s world.

Al JAzeerA Matthaios tsiMitakis

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N a democracy, the media should keep authority and government in check. In Greece, it feels more and more that it works the other way around. take the story of thanasis Koukakis, a 43-year-old financial journalist who works for cNN Greece, and contributes to cNBc, the Financial times and the Greek investigative outlet Inside story. citing national security concerns, in 2020 the Greek National Intelligence service directly administered by the prime minister’s office, intercepted his communications, while he was investigating the affairs of Greek bankers and businessmen. When the journalist became aware of this, the government tried to erase traces of the interception. shortly after, his mobile phone was infected with the Predator spyware. the software allows the user to gain full access to a target’s phone to extract data, contacts, and messages, including those sent through encrypted applications, as well as turn on the microphone and access the camera.

Koukakis is not the only victim of interception by the National Intelligence service. reporters of solomon, a team of investigative journalists researching migrant conditions in Greece, Iliana Papangeli, and stavros malichudis also discovered that they had been subjected to surveillance by the Greek intelligence services, which monitored their work with minors on the island of Kos. soon after the pair discovered the secret service’s interest in their reporting, they broke another story, about an NGo dealing with migrant housing that had possible ties to political figures. the response? a sLaPP (strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation).

In another instance, stavroula Poulimeni, a member of a journalist cooperative called alterthess, was sued by a gold mining executive convicted of serious environmental crimes in northern Greece. the businessman accused her of processing his “sensitive personal data” by reporting on his prior criminal conviction. the government seems to approve of such legal gambits. a new law authorises the National council for radio and television (NcrtV) to impose recurrent administrative fines on newspapers for slander. the NcrtV has jurisdiction over channels using public frequencies. this alarms the athens Daily Newspaper Journalists’ Union, which claims that the new regulation directly violates articles involving press freedom under the Greek constitution.

Under this law, the fines will be claimed by the majority shareholders when the company that publishes the newspaper fails to pay and will be collected by the private monopoly distributor of argos, owned by a government-friendly media mogul. the journalist union argues that the new rule threatens the viability of the media, especially the smaller, independent ones. a similar alarm was voiced by the media Freedom rapid response, a group that monitors press freedom in the european community. “challenges to the independence of the media and the safety of journalists are systemic in Greece,” asserted a recent report.

It argues that news that is inconvenient for the government, including probes into serious human rights violations, does not get widely reported. this causes a significant obstacle to the public’s access to information and, subsequently, their informed participation in the democratic process. according to the mFrr immigration policy, human rights violations committed in its implementation, and the humanitarian crisis that the migrant stream has created are highly sensitive topics for the government. Journalists face obstructions including arbitrary arrest and detention, restriction of access to migration hotspots, surveillance and harassment when they try to report on these topics. and even when independent journalists rely on official information, they face a complete lack of transparency or even denial to provide information.

In January, Greek Prime minister Kyriakos mitsotakis survived a no-confidence vote tabled in parliament by the left-wing opposition over the government’s handling of a snowstorm that paralysed the country. In a speech to parliament, mitsotakis referred to the journalists who disclosed the Novartis corruption scandal in Greece as a “gang” who are “free to exercise character assassination” – a term interpreted as a straightforward attempt to influence the judiciary.

Prosecutors had summoned Kostas Vaxevanis, the editor of the publication Documento, and Yianna Papadakou, a former television presenter, to athens’ supreme court a few days earlier. they charged the two journalists with crimes linked to their reporting about government officials, including ex-ministers, who allegedly accepted bribes from the swiss pharmaceutical corporation Novartis in order to control the pricing of specific drugs. the accused politicians have rejected the charges, claiming they are politically motivated. this is despite the fact that the Us Department of Justice in 2020 imposed a $347m fine on Novartis, due to the case. While it did not disclose any names, the company admitted to making illegal payments to Greek providers. the anti-corruption prosecutor’s probe, which began in 2016, closed the case against two Greek lawmakers in January. a second inquiry, however, is continuing in Greece, looking into an alleged frame-up involving a former minister, the corruption prosecutors who probed the Novartis case, and the two journalists.

Participation in a criminal group, collaboration in wrongdoing and two counts of complicity in the misuse of authority are among the allegations levelled against the journalists. according to a new provision of the

penal code approved only weeks ago, minor offences related to a “criminal group” will now result in actual prison sentences.

In other words, Papadakou and Vaxevanis, who reported extensively on the Novartis scandal, could see jail time. such prosecution effectively could create a troubling precedent. It also raises concerns about whether whistleblower witnesses in the case against Novartis will continue to be considered credible, or whether they will be charged as well.

It’s worth noting that Greece was one of 17 european countries that failed to incorporate a new directive on the protection of whistleblowers in their legal systems and is now coming under pressure. the coVID19 pandemic has added to the burden by reducing journalists’ rights to access information. reporters Without Borders last year ranked Greece 70th in its global index of press freedom, five positions lower than in 2020. the country’s standing has declined steadily over the previous decade, a trend that is likely to continue, judging from recent events. the government fiercely denies those accusations, stressing that pluralism is granted in the country. But democracy is safeguarded when the press is free to speak truth to power. that should not be the job of the courts to define and decide. Vera Jourova, the eU commissioner for Values and transparency, openly warned that “the 2022 rule of Law report will pay particular attention to developments pertaining to the press freedom and the safety of journalists”. these concerns have become particularly worrying in the case of the murder of crime reporter Giorgos Karaivaz, outside his home a year ago. Despite pressure from Greek and european journalists’ associations, there has been little progress in the case and those responsible have not been brought to justice. even conservative politicians are now raising concerns about press freedom in the country, suggesting, what many of us are afraid of, that the conservative Greek government has been seduced by the populist conservative turn of countries across europe, and no longer strives to be part of the so-called moderate liberal conservative milieu. the trend in Greece is indicative of the broader tension rising in some eU countries around the rule of law and the protection of freedoms – the core values of the eU. But the situation in Greece is becoming particularly grim with regard to matters of the press as problems accumulate, gradually attracting the interest of more media freedom watchdogs. seven groups, including reporters Without Borders and the european Federation of Journalists are now raising “serious concerns” about the case of Koukakis. the Greek government should do more to protect press freedom.

Matthaios Tsimitakis is a journalist based in Athens.

He has contributed to major Greek and international Media outlets such us the NYT, Open Democracy and Kathimerini. Between 2016 and 2019, he was a digital communication advisor to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. He is now developing a local independent news project called Nema (The Thread) in Greek.

Monday, 25 April, 2022 | KARACHI

NEWS corporate corner Police to deploy additional strength for smooth traffic flow during 3rd ashra of ramazan ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) has decided to deploy additional police personnel in the federal capital to keep the flow of traffic normal during the 3rd Ashra of holy month of Ramzan.

SSP (Traffic) Rai Mazhar Iqbal chaired a special meeting at traffic police headquarter on Sunday to look into the issue.

The meeting was also attended by all Zonal DSPs and other traffic police officials.

During the meeting, it was decided that in 3rd Ashra of Ramzan, additional police personnel would be deployed around shopping malls, markets, restaurants and business outlets.

The meeting also devised a comprehensive strategy to keep flow of normal, so that commuters are not forced to face problems. ITP is also going to take strict action against people doing wrong parking and violating the traffic rules. It was also decided to deploy additional strength at Masajid so that faithfuls can be facilitated.

The SSP (Traffic) directed to make `Police Congestion Unit’ more vibrant and take special measures for smooth traffic flow in the city. He said that performance of duties with commitment and to facilitate the public would have a great reward for policemen during this holy month. pr

aiou's exams begin today

09

Sino-Pak cooPeration in Sorghum induStry can booSt local economy: exPertS BEIJING

P

Staff report

AK-China cooperation in sorghum industry can boost up local economy, Gwadar Pro reported on Sunday, quoting Experts.

Sorghum is an excellent source of food and feed, and plenty of products can be made from it, so there are ample opportunities for the sorghum industry in Pakistan with the help of China which would definitely improve Pakistan’s economy, said Dr. Qamar Shakil, Senior Scientist (Sorghum), Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Punjab.

Dr. Qamar Shakil told media that mutual cooperation between the two countries can be given strength by long-term and short-term cooperation, seeking the future opportunities for expansion of sorghum production, export, and development in Pakistan.

There is a need to take advantage of Chinese technology and experience under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in this field.

Since China is a major importer of Sorghum grain for manufacturing various products, there is plenty of room to expand the export of sorghum to China.

Secondly, the quality of sorghum grain produced in Pakistan for the processing and extraction of different products is far better than that in some other countries.

Qamar told Gwadar Pro that the environment of Pakistan is most suitable for developing quality sorghum crops for grain, green chop, silage, haylage, and hay purposes. “As sorghum is a kharif (summer) season crop, so it does not compete with our staple crop (wheat), so there is plenty of cushion for its cultivation in Pakistan for export purposes.

Finally in order to boost the economy by virtue of exports sorghum crop can play a pivotal role,” he added.

Dr. Qamar Shakil said that in sorghum hybrids are used worldwide for the production of grain and green chop, unfortunately, very little research is done in Pakistan. China has much advancement in this regard, therefore their expertise can be hired for the development and improvement of research regarding hybrids development.

He further said that flood irrigation is mostly used in Pakistan. Due to the scarcity of water resources, there is a need to develop new reservoirs for water storage (small scale) and efficient utilization of available water through improved irrigation techniques.

Experts believe that in order to produce sorghum crops on a large scale, there is a need to create farmers’ associations for understanding the problems involved in sorghum production on a large scale and for resolving these issues.

Likewise establishing farmer-based associa-

tions would allow for the pooling of acres and farms into large entities that would benefit from technology.

For fetching out higher sorghum grain and fodder tonnage from unit area there is need to literate the farmers regarding adaptation of sorghum production plan.

Dr. Qamar Shakil further said that for meeting the sorghum grain and green chopped world standards, especially for export to China, there is a dire need to develop state of the art internationally accredited research laboratory to facilitate the rapid export of sorghum grain to China.

For rapid transportation of sorghum grain and other related materials to China and similarly import of machinery and other types of equipment, CPEC can effectively be utilized for the purpose.

“There is a tremendous amount of international experience especially belonging to China that can assist in building the infrastructure in the sorghum breeding programs and animal nutrition that is required to enhance Pakistan’s ability to efficiently produce animals”, he added.

Experts believe sorghum production in Pakistan can be enhanced and will be available for export to China. This will aid in mutual cooperation between both countries and in this way local industry will flourish.

Call for reducing fatalities by implementing traffic rules through effective planning LAHORE pr

ISLAMABAD: Final exams of various programs of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) for the Semester Autumn, 2021 will begin in Rawalpindi-Islamabad and other parts of the country from 25th April (Monday).

According to the Controller Exams, the programs include BA (Associate Degree), Associate Degree in Education, Associate Degree in Commerce, Associate Degree in (Human Resource Management, Islamic Banking and Marketing), B Ed, BBA, BS Accounting and Finance and Certificate Courses.

Roll number slips have been uploaded on students' CMS portals while date-sheet has also been placed at the University's official website.

Students who have difficulty in downloading roll number slip from CMS portals are directed to approach the concerned Regional Office for assistance.

As per the instructions of the Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Ziaul Qayyum, exam centers have been set up at the nearest places of the students’ residences or work places.

All possible efforts have been made to ensure transparency in the entire exams’ process.

Special teams have been constituted to supervise and monitor the examination process. There is a `zerotolerance’ policy against any kind of unfair practice. Strict vigilance system is enforced during the exams’ process.

Meanwhile, the students will be fully facilitated at the exams’ centers as standing practices, the Controller Exams added.

According to Controller of Exams, Dr. Muhammad Ajmal Chaudhary, Reappear courses have also been added in Admit Cards, however in case of missing any reappear course in the Admit Card, concerned student is directed to visit Results Section, Block # 03, AIOU Main Campus for addition/updating in Admit Card.

If someone is unable to reach Main Campus for addition the missing reappear course, should visit concerned Regional Office for addition/updating (hard copy/print of last result intimation (Spring 2021) showing reappear (RE) is mandatory for addition/amendment in Admit Card. pr

Thousands of industry members and workers are exposed to traffic accidents that cause social and economic losses to society and the country every year, and fatalities can be reduced by implementing traffic rules through effective planning. It was unanimously declared by the participants of a Road Safety Seminar and CEO Excellence award Ceremony jointly organized by coppergat cables and NHMP Training College in Lahore.

Commandant Training College DIG Mehboob Aslam, Mian Safdar Hussain CEO Coopergat Cables, Veteran Actor Aftikhar Thauker, Muhammad Shahid Hamza VP, Tahir Saleem Butt GM, Tufail GM, industrial workers and officers of Motorway Police participated. The Commandant NHMP Training College Mahboob Aslam, Mian Safdar Hussain, CEO Coopergat and other speakers highlighted different essential aspects of road safety.

Addressing the participants of the

Road Safety Seminar participants, Commandant NHMP Training College Mahboob Aslam said that road accident are a global challenge as millions of people lose their lives in road crashes. He further said that road crashes are the eighth leading cause of death by any form of the disease, but if

the current ratio of accidents continues, it will become the fifth leading cause of death by 2030. The participants also informed that road accidents are the leading cause of death among people from five to twenty-nine. Commandant Mahboob Aslam stressed that observance of traffic rules and road safety

measures are the hours needed to save precious human lives and properties.

Talking at the occasion, Mian Safdar Hussain, CEO of Coopergat Cables, said that road safety is a collective issue which requires an active and joint role from all segments of society. He further added that the role of social media is significant in creating road safety awareness among people, and media has always tried to perform its role without fail. The participants were shown different videos relating to important road safety issues by the Road Safety Team of NHMP Training College. In the Road Safety Seminar, a particular focus was laid on the importance of using a helmet while riding a bike, using back view mirrors, fastening seat belts while driving a vehicle, blind spots, dozing at the wheel, distracted driving, and other important road safety issues. The Commandant Training College DIG Mahboob Aslam and CEO Mian Safdar distributed excellence awards among the industrial worker for ten-year celebration and best achievements.

Power suspension schedule for today ISLAMABAD: According to Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO)’s spokesman, System Maintenance/Development Work is in process. Therefore power supply of below mentioned feeders/areas will be temporary suspended as per given schedule: On 25th April 2022,From 06:00 AM to 10:00 AM, Aara Bazaar, Main Bazaar, Park View, Pindi Board, Jail Park-1, Car Chowk, EX-Lair Colony, AOWHS, Mehboob Shaheed, Fuji Foundation Hospital, Morgah, Navy. III, River Garden, Bhara Kahu, Bella Road, Sanghui, Nathwala, Safdar Shaheed, Machine Mohalla, Langarpur, Dorabdhal Feeders, From 06:00 AM to 11:00AM, Shahpur, Kohala, Race Course, Askari XI, Misryal Road, Iqbal Road, Social Security Hospital, Westridge Feeders and Surroundings will remain off. IESCO management apologizes to its esteemed customers for the power outage. If the work is completed ahead of time, the power supply can be restored even before the scheduled time. pr

CPEC campaigner bridging youth to education facilities ISLAMABAD inp

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), fully loaded with expectations of the two peoples, is entering the eighth year since it was officially inaugurated.

Just in the year 2015 when CPEC officially kicked off, Umer Idrees, a young man from Lahore, graduated from Punjab University. So far, he has devoted almost all his career to CPEC. Following CPEC’s development route, Umer Idrees’ work in CPEC started from the infrastructure project Lahore Orange Line Metro Train system, to a project focusing on improving people’s livelihood called the ‘Smart Classroom’, which is hopefully to breathe new life into Pakistan’s education system in the near future.

“The objective of the project is to modernize the classrooms to improve the accessibility of students from one location to the best teachers located at another place, over-

coming the limitation of physical distances,” Umer presented the project with pride. Now he is working as the site engineer.

According to Umer, the smart classrooms use a variety of digital tools including smart screens, smart boards, digital text-

books and audio-visual tools to make classroom learning more effective and engaging.

In the past decade, emphasis has been placed on improving higher education system and educational infrastructure by the Pakistani government.

Currently, a total of 100 smart classrooms are being built at 50 public universities in 49 cities from Hunza in the northernmost to Karachi in the far south, covering all the provinces and regions of Pakistan, which means the state-of-the-art educational resources will be better utilized and distributed for young people over the whole country in the near future.

“This Smart Classroom project will revolutionize our education system which we are following since the 20th century,” Umer has the confidence. Working as the site engineer, actually Umer’s daily work is far beyond engineering. More importantly, he works as a ‘bridge’ of communication between the Chinese and Pakistani sides.

Involving as many as 100 classrooms in Pakistan, there’s a lot of complicated communication work to do during the whole project.

In the view of Chen Chun, project manager from China Railway Signal & Communication Shanghai Engineering Bureau Group Co., Ltd., Umer’s role in the project

is the key to success because it’s him who communicates with the universities as well as the construction team to ensure the whole project advance in a balanced and orderly manner. “His contribution to the project is huge,” Chen Chun said.

Simultaneously, Umer’s life and career have been nourished by CPEC. According to him, his income has been increased more than 50 percent compared with his previous jobs before involved in CPEC projects.

“A good income source is always helpful for us because it brings prosperity to me and my family. It is uplifting our way of living and social status,” he said.

Moreover, his skills of both engineering and communication have been greatly enhanced because the project is of the hightech information industry. “This job is like a training session for me to improve my abilities. Our working environment is very good and seniors always support us and give us confidence to take decisions. My abilities have been much enhanced,” he said.

Monday, 25 April, 2022 | KARACHI

10 FOREIGN NEWS

KyIv SayS top U.S. oFFIcIaLS to vISIt, RUSSIa hItS odeSa aS conFLIct enteRS thIRd Month

U

Agencies

kRAINE on Saturday said two top U.S. officials would visit its capital, while Russia said its forces attacked Odesa to destroy a logistics terminal where foreign weapons were stored, as the conflict entered its third month on Sunday.

Russia launched a “special military operation” to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine on February 24.

Ukraine and its Western allies reject that as a false pretext for an unprovoked land grab. Earlier this week, Moscow said the second phase of the operation had begun, aiming to “completely liberate” the populations of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russia’s forces destroyed a lo-

gistics terminal at a military airfield near Ukraine’s Odesa, where foreign weapons were stored, said the Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday.

“This afternoon, high-precision, long-range air-based missiles fired by

World Bank readies Sri Lanka aid package, IMF calls loan talks ‘fruitful’

the Russian Aerospace Forces disabled a logistics terminal at a military airfield near Odesa, where a large batch of foreign weapons received from the U.S. and European countries were stored,” said Russian Defense Min-

istry spokesman Igor konashenkov.

On Saturday, Russia also resumed its assault on the last Ukrainian forces holed up in a giant steel works in Mariupol, days after it declared victory in the southern city and said its forces did not need to take the plant. A key port city on the Azov Sea, Mariupol has witnessed some of the worst violence since February 24. Its capture would allow Russia to connect the Crimean peninsula, which it took over in 2014, to the pro-Moscow breakaway regions in Ukraine’s east by land.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country’s army was not ready to try to break through the siege of the port city. But he said America’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and U.S. De-

fense Secretary Lloyd Austin would visit kyiv on Sunday and discuss the types of weapons Ukraine needs.

“As soon as we have (more weapons), as soon as there are enough of them, believe me, we will immediately retake this or that territory, which is temporarily occupied,” Zelenskyy told an evening news conference in the kyiv metro. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has not confirmed any travel plans for Blinken and Austin. The State Department and Pentagon declined to comment.

Peace talks stalleD: Zelenskyy reiterated on Saturday that kyiv would withdraw from peace negotiations with Moscow if Russian forces kill Ukrainians trapped in Mariupol or hold pseudo-referendums in the areas they captured in

Macron or Le Pen: France faces stark choice for president

Agencies

Agencies

The International Monetary Fund said on Saturday it held “fruitful technical discussions” with Sri Lanka on its loan request, while the World Bank said it was preparing an emergency aid package for the crisis-stricken country. Sri Lanka, an island country of 22 million people, is struggling to pay for imports amid a crushing debt crisis and sharp drop in foreign exchange reserves that has fueled soaring inflation. Prolonged power cuts and shortages of fuel, food and medicines have sparked nationwide protests. Sri Lankan Finance Minister Ali Sabry has been in Washington this week talking to the IMF, the World Bank, India and others about financing help for his country, which has suspended payments on portions of its $51 billion in external debt. The World Bank’s emergency response package includes $10 million to be made immediately available for the purchase of essential medicines, funds shifted from its ongoing Covid-19 health preparedness project, a World Bank spokesperson said. The global lender, which along with the IMF held its spring meetings this week, did not provide a total value for its package, but Sabry said on Friday that about $500m in aid was being considered. The World Bank spokesperson said the package would leverage existing bank-financed projects and repurpose funds to quickly provide medicines, meals for school children and cash transfers for poor and vulnerable households. Support to provide cooking gas, basic food supplies, seeds and fertilizers and other essentials is also under discussion, the spokesperson said, adding that the World Bank was “deeply concerned” about the situation in Sri Lanka. The IMF said in a statement on Saturday that talks between its staff focused on the need for Sri Lanka to implement “a credible and coherent strategy” to restore macroeconomic stability, and to strengthen its social safety net and protect the poor and vulnerable during the current crisis. “The IMF team welcomed the authorities’ plan to engage in a collaborative dialogue with their creditors,” IMF Sri Lanka mission chief Masahiro Nozaki said in a statement after the country took steps to explore a restructuring of some $12bn in sovereign bonds.

The French began voting on Sunday in an election that will decide whether pro-European Union, centrist President Emmanuel Macron keeps his job or is unseated by far-right eurosceptic Marine Le Pen in what would amount to a political earthquake.

Opinion polls in recent days gave Macron a solid and slightly growing lead as analysts said Le Pen — despite her efforts to soften her image and tone down some of her National Rally party’s policies — remained unpalatable for many.

But a surprise Le Pen victory could not be ruled out, given the high numbers of voters who were undecided or not sure if they would vote at all in the presidential runoff. With polls showing neither candidate able to count on enough committed supporters, much will depend on a cohort of voters who are weighing up anxiety about the implications of a farright presidency against anger at Macron’s record since his 2017 election.

If Le Pen does win, it would likely carry the same sense of stunning political upheaval as the British vote to leave the European Union or the US election of Donald Trump in 2016. Polls opened at 8 am (0600 GMT) and will close at 8 pm (1800 GMT). Initial projections by pollsters are expected as soon as polls close. In Douai, a mid-sized town in northern France where Le Pen was ahead of Macron in the first round of voting two weeks ago, pensioner Andre Loeuillet, 69, said she had voted for Macron, as she did on April 10. “He has his faults but he has qualities too.

He is the one best placed to continue, we are living through difficult times,” she said. Macron, 44 and the winner in the same matchup five years ago, has warned of “civil war” if Le Pen — whose policies include a ban on wearing Muslim headscarves in public — is elected and has called on democrats of all stripes to back him. Le Pen, 53, focused her campaign on the rising cost of living in the world’s

seventh-largest economy, which many French say has worsened with the surge in global energy prices.

She has also zeroed in on Macron’s abrasive leadership style, which she says shows an elitist contempt for ordinary people. “The question on Sunday is simple: Macron or France,” she told a rally in the northern town of Arras on Thursday.

Dislike for Macron: Among early voters in the village of Souille, near the northwestern town of Le Mans, civil servant Pascal Pauloin, 56, said he had voted for Le Pen out of disenchantment with Macron. “Frankly, I am very disappointed. Our France has not been working well for years. Macron has done nothing for the middle classes, and the gap with the rich is getting ever wider,” he said.

Le Pen, who has also been criticised by Macron for her past admiration of Russian President Vladimir Putin, rejects accusations of racism.

She said her plans to give priority to French citizens for social housing and jobs and scrap a number of welfare benefits for foreigners would benefit all French, independently of their religion or origins. Jean-Daniel Levy, of Harris Interactive pollsters, said opinion surveys showed Le Pen was unlikely to win, because that would require huge shifts in voter intentions. If Macron prevails he will face a difficult second term, with none of the grace periods that he enjoyed after his first victory, and protests likely over his plan to continue probusiness reforms, including raising the retirement age from 62 to 65.

If she unseats him, Le Pen would seek to make radical changes to France’s domestic and international policies, and street protests could start immediately. Shockwaves would be felt across Europe and beyond.

Whoever comes out on top, a first major challenge will be to win parliamentary elections in June to secure a workable majority to implement their programmes.

Ukraine. Meanwhile, he also said he supports a diplomatic solution to the conflict with Russia.

“There is a diplomatic path.

There is a military one,” Zelenskyy said, adding he wants to stop the conflict and put an end to it. The first talks between Russia and Ukraine took place in Belarus on February 28, with no breakthrough, followed by rounds of face-to-face or online negotiations between the two sides in Belarus and Turkey in March.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on April 12 that peace talks with Ukraine had hit a dead end, accusing kyiv of derailing the talks by staging what he said were fake claims of Russian war crimes and by demanding security guarantees to cover the whole of Ukraine.

Un calls for ‘stop’ in fighting to allow Mariupol evacuation Agencies The United Nations Ukraine crisis coordinator, Amin Awad, on Sunday called for an “immediate stop” to fighting in Mariupol to allow the evacuation of trapped civilians in the battered city “today”. “The lives of tens of thousands, including women, children and older people, are at stake in Mariupol,” Awad said in a statement.

“We need a pause in fighting right now to save lives.

“The longer we wait the more lives will be at risk. They must be allowed to safely evacuate now, today. Tomorrow could be too late.” His call came after an attempted evacuation from Mariupol by Ukraine had failed on Saturday, with kyiv saying it was “thwarted” by Russian forces. The UN statement said there was an estimated 100,000 civilians trapped in the city, which has been heavily destroyed after being besieged by Russian forces for weeks. An aerial view shows damaged buildings, amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, in Mariupol, Ukraine in this handout picture taken with a drone released on Sunday. An aerial view shows damaged buildings, amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, in Mariupol, Ukraine in this handout picture taken with a drone released on Sunday. Awad said Orthodox Easter, which is celebrated in both Russia and Ukraine, provided an opportunity to halt hostilities. “At a time of a rare calendar alignment of the religious holidays of Orthodox Easter, Passover and Ramazan, it is the time to focus on our common humanity, setting divisions aside,” Awad said. This month UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had urged a pause in fighting for Orthodox Easter. Hopes for an Easter ceasefire were dashed this weekend as fighting raged in eastern and southern Ukraine. Ukraine said on Sunday that Russia was “continuously attacking” the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, where Ukrainian servicemen defending the city are holed up. The nationalist Azov regiment, at the forefront of the battles with Russian forces, has said civilians are also trapped in the plant. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces not to assault the plant this week, but to keep it under siege instead.

PLA Navy celebrates 73rd birthday with half dozen new warships, hint on third aircraft carrier news Desk The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy celebrated its 73rd anniversary on Saturday by announcing, over the past days, the commissioning of half a dozen powerful warships and two types of advanced vessel-based helicopters, which have already started training to form combat capabilities. These achievements are a reflection of the Navy’s rapid, tremendous growth over the recent years, which is enabling the naval force to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, top officers on some of the country’s mightiest warships said in exclusive interviews with the Global Times.

An official video introducing China’s aircraft carrier program released on Friday also gave a very obvious hint that the country’s third aircraft carrier will be officially revealed soon.

Media reports revealed before the Navy’s birthday that at least six new surface vessels were commissioned, namely a Type 075 amphibious assault ship, three Type 055 large destroyers and two Type 052D destroyers.

Having just recently entered service as China’s second Type 075 amphibious assault ship, the Guangxi will soon join the

Hainan, the first ship of this class that was commissioned exactly a year ago on April 23, in dual-ship formation training, reported the China Central Television (CCTV) on Saturday.

This has significant meaning to the fast development of the PLA’s amphibious combat capabilities, as it shows that the PLA is rapidly achieving the capability of multi-domain, multidimensional landing, Senior Captain Wang Yanguang, political commissar at a naval vessel training center, said in the report.

While the first Type 075 amphibious assault ship Hainan entered service with the Southern Theater Command that faces the South China Sea, the second ship Guangxi entered service with the Eastern Theater Command, which is in charge of the East China Sea and the Taiwan Straits, according to a press release by the PLA Eastern Theater Command.

The Guangxi has already started basic training including navigation organization, combat rescue and damage control, as well as integration practices with helicopters, am-

phibious armored vehicles and air-cushioned landing craft, CCTV reported. Military analysts told the Global Times that the ship will gain combat capability very fast, as the first ship has already gathered valuable experience.

A total of three 10,000 ton-class Type 055 large destroyers were announced and are now in service with the Navy, namely the Anshan and the Wuxi with the Northern Theater Command and the Yan’an with the Southern Theater Command, taking the total number of Type 055 in service to six.

The Anshan and the Wuxi recently joined the Lhasa, the second ship in the Type 055 class, in a series of examination drills in the Yellow Sea, meaning that three new powerful large destroyers were gathered in the same region at the same time, reflecting how fast China has been building new warships, CCTV reported on Friday.

Having just entered service a month ago, the Wuxi aims to achieve operational capability within 2022, the report quoted Senior Captain Zhao Shuqian, the skipper of the ship, as saying.

The Navy also revealed the commissioning of two Type 052D destroyers, namely the Shaoxing and the Baotou. The Shaoxing recently joined a series of realistic combat drills organized by the Eastern Theater Command Navy, while the Baotou recently

joined a five-day live-fire drill in the Yellow Sea, according to official media reports.

Senior Captain Zhou Minghui, skipper of the Nanchang, the first Type 055, told the Global Times in an exclusive interview shortly before the Navy anniversary that his ship is taking every opportunity to carry out a wide diversity of missions to test the ship’s reliability and find problems, so future ships can be improved.

Over the past 10 years, warships of the Navy have seen great developments, and the concepts of how they are used have also changed, as new vessels are bound to sail to far seas and face more challenges, Zhou said.

Zhou used to be the executive officer on the Type 052 destroyer Qingdao and skipper of the Type 052D destroyer Xining, and is now the skipper of the Type 055 Nanchang. He said that China’s fast speed of shipbuilding reflects its high level of industrial strength and the growing capability of national defense.

The Navy has also recently enlisted a number of auxiliary vessels like replenishment ships, rescue ships and new-type aircraft, the CCTV said.

Two shipborne variations of China’s domestically developed Z-20 medium-lift helicopter were revealed for the first time in a CCTV report on Saturday.

Monday, 25 April, 2022 | KARACHI

Barcelona crusH WolfsBurg in cHaMpions league

BARceLOnA

H

Agencies

OLDERS Barcelona continued their torrid scoring form as they tore Wolfsburg apart in the first half of their women’s Champions League semi-final on the way to a 5-1 first leg win at the Camp Nou on Friday.

Before a women’s world record crowd of 91,648 at the Camp Nou, Barcelona repeatedly caught Wolfsburg flat footed in the first half.

“One of the keys was to start off well and get the crowd involved. Both attitude and our level of play were the best we could give and the crowd pushed us on to do that. We had three chances in the opening five minutes, which helped

us and demoralised the opponent,” said Barcelona coach Jonatan Giraldez.

The attendance broke the record of 91,553 set three weeks ago at the Camp Nou as Barcelona beat Real Madrid in the quarter-finals. “We will remember this as we grow old. It’s so special to experience a day like this,” said Barcelona midfielder Patricia Guijarro. The Wolfsburg captain agreed. “for women’s soccer, iT’s exTraordinary,” said dominique Janssen: Barcelona scored 146 goals in 27 matches as they won the Spanish league title and had hit 32 in the Champions League, but they had not scored in four previous meetings with Wolfsburg.

After two minutes, Aitana Bonmati changed that. Left back Fridolina Rolfo

lofted a free kick from deep in the Barcelona half into the gap behind the Wolfsburg centre backs, as they turned ponderously and uncertainly, Bonmati scampered past and tucked the ball home.

“We knew what their shortcomings were defensively,” said Giraldez.

Caroline Graham Hansen added a second after 10 minutes. Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic stole the ball and played it into the Norwegian who had plenty of time to pick her finish.

In the 33rd minute, Marta Torrejon cut in from the right and once again was allowed time to choose between teammates in front of goal, cutting the ball back to Jennifer Hermoso, who curled a shot into the far corner.

Inevitably, Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas joined the scorers, out-

pacing and out-muscling the centrebacks as she ran on to a through ball and shot through goalie Almuth Schult.

“It’s probably one of the best first halves we’ve had so far this season,” said Giraldez.

Crnogorcevic had a close range strike disallowed for offside at the start of the second half and even though Barcelona continued to create chances, their finishing touch was less sure as Schult pulled off a string of saves.

Jill Roord gave Wolfsburg hope as she broke through to score after 73 minutes But Putellas restored the four-goal lead with five minutes to play. She broke into the box and drew a clumsy challenge from Janssen. Then rolled the penalty into the corner of the net.

“We had never even scored against Wolfsburg, let alone beat them, but we have shown our ambition and that is the beauty of football,” said Guijarro. “They knocked us out two years ago and today we have played like this.”

Barcelona had 20 shots on target over the match while the Bundesliga leaders managed just three.

“It was incredible to experience this atmosphere tonight, but it can’t be seen as an excuse,” said Wolfsburg striker Tabea Wassmuth.

The teams meet again in Wolfsburg on April 30. The winner will face either Lyon or Paris Saint-Germain in the final. The French teams play their first leg on Sunday “It is quite clear that Barca can already plan their trip to the final,”said Wolfsburg coach Tommy Stroot. “Our job will be to show a different face.”

Afghan women players make football debut in Australia Agencies

Hamilton still 100 percent committed to Mercedes iMOLA ReuteRs

Seven times Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton has dismissed as “a bunch of nonsense” speculation about his future and said he remains fully committed to Mercedes despite receding title hopes. The 37-year-old Briton was 50 points adrift of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc after Saturday’s Emilia Romagna sprint race, with that gulf set to widen further after only four of the season’s 23 races. Mercedes are struggling with a “porpoising” car that bounces on the straights as aerodynamic downforce is gained and lost, and Hamilton qualified only 14th for Sunday’s main race at Imola. Asked whether he would see out his contract, which runs to the end of next year, Hamilton said such comments were silly. “I am 100 percent committed to this team. There’s nowhere else that I want to be. Just because we’ve hit a rough patch, it’s just not in my DNA to back out,” he told reporters. “We are still world champions and we can fix this. It’s just going to take longer, it’s going to take a painful year. “I think, ultimately, this is going to be a painful year that we’re going to have to ride out together with belief that we can rectify it at some point, maybe through the year or even the worst-case scenario, at least for next year.” Hamilton said his current Mercedes was one of the worst he had driven in Formula One. “There are people that watch and say that I’ve never had a bad car. And I can assure you I have. The 2009 (McLaren) car was very, very far off, and was the worst car that I’ve had,” he said.

“This car currently is not far off that experience, but I think has a lot of potential, as did that car.

We fixed it eventually and got back in the fight, or in the game. And I have the utmost faith that my team can do that here, too.” Hamilton, who won his first title with McLaren in 2008, failed to reach the podium in the opening nine races of 2009 before winning in Hungary.

Players from Afghanistan’s national women’s football team competed in a local league match in Australia on Sunday for the first time since fleeing the Taliban.

The result was a scoreless draw after an Afghan goal was disallowed for being offside in a lower league amateur match in the eastern state of Victoria.

But for the Afghan women it was a powerful, symbolic victory as they returned to the pitch together after leaving their homeland to rebuild their lives in Australia.

The game showed that the Taliban could not stop the players, said team captain Nilab, who like her teammates did not give a family name so as to protect relatives living in Afghanistan.

“We still continue our fight and our combat just to play for the Afghanistan people,” she told AFP. “We fled the country but we are still thinking of our country and we are still working for our victory for our country.” Australia helped dozens of Afghan national women’s team players and their relatives to escape when the Taliban swept back to power eight months ago.

The Taliban have since severely curtailed the freedoms of women, banning girls’ education and preventing women from even boarding planes without a male relative.

As players fled to different countries, the women’s national team was fragmented.

‘TogeTher and powerful’: But many settled in and around Melbourne, capital of the eastern state of Victoria, where professional A-League Women’s side Melbourne Victory helped them to return to the field.

Goalkeeper Fatima said people who had seen social media images of Afghanistan after the Taliban’s return could understand something of the courage required by players to leave their homes.

“They can understand how hard and how challenging that was for all of us to be in that situation,” she told AFP. “Today, we are playing as a team and together and powerful. It’s incredible.”

Team coach Jeff Hopkins praised their performance against amateur Melbourne side ETA Buffalo SC — a club established in 1982 by friends who had migrated from East Timor — in the Football Victoria State League 4 West competition. “These young women, all they want to do is to be given the chance to just be treated equally, to be able to play the game they love,” Hopkins told AFP. “That obviously wasn’t happening for them in Afghanistan — they were being persecuted for it,” he said. A few days ahead of Sunday’s match, Melbourne Victory presented the Afghan Women’s Team with their new predominantly red kit, complete with shirts showing off the Afghan national flag.

The shirts are marked with numbers but no names for the safety of players’ families in Afghanistan.

Cristiano Ronaldo dedicates 100th Premier League goal to late son Agencies Returning to the field for a Premier League game, Cristiano Ronaldo paid a heartfelt tribute to his and Georgina Rodriguez’s late son after scoring his 100th goal of the league.

The Portuguese footballer raised his left hand to the sky to mark his big achievement a few days after losing his newborn son.

Taking to Instagram, Ronaldo shared a picture in which he could be seen looking at the sky and pointing his finger towards it.

To show solidarity with the player, his fans also applauded at the seventh minute

of the game.

Earlier, Ronaldo shared a family photo, informing his followers that his newborn baby has made the journey back from hospital following birth on Monday.

The player wrote: “Home sweet home.

Gio and our baby girl are finally together with us. We want to thank everyone for all the kind words and gestures.”

Thanking the followers for supporting him during his tragedy, Ronaldo said: “Your support is very important and we all felt the love and respect that you have for our family. Now it’s time to be grateful for the life that we’ve just welcomed into this world.”

SPORTS 11

‘Disappointed’ Virat Kohli seeks batting tips from Brian lara neW DeLHi news Desk

Disappointed with back-to-back flop innings and a poor performance during the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL), India’s former captain Virat Kohli received batting tips from West Indies’ legendary former player Brian Lara. After being dismissed for the second time in a row on the Golden Duck, Virat Kohli on Saturday approached Brian Lara, batting coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad and sought batting tips at the stadium. He told Lara about the difficulties he was facing during the IPL. Meanwhile, Lara gave his tips and suggestions to overcome the issues. Virat Kohli has not smashed even a single half-century during the ongoing IPL. Earlier, India former skipper Mohammad Azharuddin and other cricketers suggested Kohli take a break from the game.

Kohli flops again but Bangalore confident star ‘will come back strong’ neW DeLHi AFP

Virat Kohli’s second successive golden duck in the IPL saw Royal Challengers Bangalore crash to 68 all out and lose to Sunrisers Hyderabad by nine wickets on Saturday but the team insisted their star batter will bounce back. Kohli, who also fell to a first-ball duck against Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday, came to the crease in the second over after South African pace bowler Marco Jansen bowled Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis for five. Kohli pushed hard at a ball angled across him by the left-arm quick, and edged to Aiden Markram at second slip, who pouched a comfortable catch. Kohli, the standardbearer for Indian cricket who has been replaced by Rohit Sharma as India’s captain across formats, has now scored just 119 runs from eight matches. “He is somebody who has performed consistently for a number of years at this franchise. I think he is going through a rough patch in the sense things are not going his way at the moment,” said Bangalore head coach Sanjay Bangar. “It’s a tough phase for him certainly but we are very confident that he will come back strong.” Former India coach Ravi Shastri had suggested that an “overcooked” Kohli should take a break from the sport, but Bangar said he is taking enough breaks (in international cricket) and needs “a bit of luck to get going”. ‘game needs Kohli To score’: “It’s very a lonely, lonely place, especially when you have got all eyes,” said Pietersen on Saturday. “That camera not only right here but every single thing is Kohli, Kohli, Kohli and so he is in that dark place. I just hope it ends quickly because the game needs him to score runs.”

Three balls after Kohli’s dismissal, the same JansenMarkram combination accounted for opener Anuj Rawat to leave Bangalore reeling at 8-3. Jansen finished with 3-25 from his four overs. Bangalore were unable to recover and kept losing wickets to go down to the lowest total of this season in 16.1 overs. It was the sixth-lowest total ever in the IPL. Only Glenn Maxwell (12) and Suyash Prabhudessai (15) got into double figures. Hyderabad romped home with 12 overs to spare and move second in the 10-team table led by Gujarat Titans who beat Kolkata Knight Riders by eight runs in the first match of the day.

Monday, 25 April, 2022

PRayeR tImINgS

NEWS

PTI To STagE ProTEST dEMoS ouTSIdE ECP oFFICES ToMorrow ISLAMABAD

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Staff RePoRt

AKISTAN Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Fawad Chaudhry announced on Sunday that the party will stage protest demonstrations outside the offices of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) across the country on April 26 against the conduct of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikander Sultan Raja.

Chaudhry, thorough his official Twitter account, said a meeting of the party’s political committee was held on Sunday wherein issues pertaining to the ECP were deliberated upon.

He accused the CEC of being “partisan and dishonest” and alleged

that a declaration to de-seat the PTI’s dissident assembly members had still not been issued by the ECP.

Sharif family taken off ECL

“In this connection, the PTI will hold a protest in front of the ECP offices across the country on Tuesday

against the behaviour of the election commissioner,” Chaudhry said.

A day ago, PTI Chairman Imran Khan had asked the CEC to tender resignation, saying the party believed him to be “biased”. Addressing a press conference at his Bani Gala residence, Imran had said the PTI did not trust the CEC, alleging all his decisions were against the party.

Last week, he had also stated that the PTI would file a reference against the CEC, as the ECP had displayed “incompetence” by not completing the delimitation of constituencies on time, which delayed early elections.

Meanwhile, CEC Sikander Sultan Raja, speaking to media on Saturday night, said that he had no intention to resign, and would continue to work in the “best interests of the country”.

PML-N plan to bring contempt plea against president hits snag

ISLAMABAD INP

The Ministry of Interior deleted from the Exit Control List (ECL) some 100 names including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, his brother Nawaz Sharif, PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz and other party leaders.

The ministry has also issued a notification in this regard.

Those politicians were put on the no-fly list on the recommendation of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) who are pursuing a host of graft cases against them.

In addition to political leaders, the names of some bureaucrats and corporate leaders have also been taken out.

A couple of days ago, the government amended the rules controlling people from leaving the country in a bid to end the practice of keeping people on the no-fly list for longer periods.

In a press conference, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan said a person’s name put on the ECL would automatically be removed after 120 days. However, the duration can be extended for another 90 days if there is concrete evidence.

The changes have been made to Rule 2 of Exit from Pakistan (Control) Rules, which define grounds to prohibit a person from going abroad.

A new rule (4-A) has been added under which a representation seeking review will be decided within 30 days.

As many as 4,863 people were on the ECL and the new rules would benefit around 3,000 people.

Bilawal likely to take oath as FM this week ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has returned Sunday after completing his London visit and would be taking oath as Foreign Minister this week.

The PPP chairman reached Islamabad on a chartered flight.

During his visit to London, Bilawal held meetings with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif.

Other PPP leaders including Khurshid Shah, Naveed Qamar, Qamar Zaman Kaira, and Sherry Rehman had accompanied Bilawal in those meetings. Bilawal is expected to take the oath of Foreign Minister after his return from London. Staff RePoRt

ISLAMABAD Staff RePoRt

As the constitutional crisis in Punjab involving the swearing-in of chief minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz lingers on, the plan to file a contempt plea against President Arif Alvi for not implementing the court order hits a snag.

According to legal experts, there are several legal complications involved in filing a contempt plea against the president.

Under Article 248 of the Constitution, the president and the governor both enjoy indemnity.

They are not answerable to courts of the country, they added.

On Friday, LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti ordered the President to appoint a representative for administering the oath to Shehbaz as Governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema had expressed his inability to do so.

Saturday, rumours were rife that President Alvi had appointed Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani to administer the oath and preparations were afoot at Punjab Governor House for the swearing-in ceremony of Hamza which was

expected at 4 pm.

But by the end of the day, no ceremony was held and rumors died down with the tweet of President Alvi uploaded just before 4:00 pm in which he stated that he received a summary from the PM Office on April 23 regarding the court order and it was under consideration as per the Constitution.

The Punjab administration Saturday had already sent a plane to Islamabad Airport to bring Sanjrani to Lahore for the oathtaking ceremony. But the plane flew back sans Senate chairman.

The PML-N leadership became edgy as the long-awaited ceremony was once again put on hold.

After the emerging new situation, PML-N leaders Atta Tarar, Malik Ahmad Khan, Awais Leghari, Khalil Tahir Sindhu and others held a press conference in Lahore and rued that the delaying tactics were being used despite the Lahore High Court order on the matter. They announced that a contempt of court petition would be filed in the Lahore High Court on Monday.

In the heat of the moment, though the PML-N spokesmen an-

nounced to bring a contempt plea against the president but the legal experts don’t reckon that they could be able to do so in the light of constitutional indemnity enjoyed by the President and Governor.

The experts say that the Constitution provides protection to the President and courts cannot issue any order or advice to the Head of the State.

The Lahore High Court has not issued any order or instructions to the President regarding the appointment of a representative who could administer the oath to the chief minister-elect, experts say adding that even the President was not made a party in Hamza Shehbaz’s petition.

They say that the court even did not give any timeframe for the appointment of a representative in its ruling.

The legal brains are of the view that instead of filing a contempt plea against President, the PML-N can file a petition requesting the court to issue another order for implementation on its earlier order regarding the appointment of a representative for oath-taking administration.

FAJR SUNRISE

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ASR MAGHRIB ISHA

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fiqah-e-hanfia lahore sehr: 3:57 am iftar: 6:38 Pm

islamabad sehr: 4:00 am iftar: 6:44 Pm

karachi sehr: 4:41 am iftar: 6:59 Pm

fiqah-e-jafaria lahore sehr: 4:07 am iftar: 6:48 Pm

islamabad sehr: 4:10 am iftar: 6:54 Pm

karachi sehr: 4:51 am iftar: 7:09 Pm

Explosion at Nigerian illegal oil refinery kills over 100 More than 100 people were killed overnight in an explosion at an illegal oil refining depot on the border of Nigeria’s Rivers and Imo states, a local government official and an environmental group said on Saturday.

“The fire outbreak occurred at an illegal bunkering site and it affected over 100 people who were burnt beyond recognition,” the state commissioner for petroleum resources, Goodluck Opiah, said.

The bunkering site was in the Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area of Imo state in the Abaezi forest that straddles the border of the two states.

Unemployment and poverty in the oil-producing Niger Delta have made illegal crude refining an attractive business but with deadly consequences. Crude oil is tapped from a web of pipelines owned by major oil companies and refined into products in makeshift tanks.

The hazardous process has led to many fatal accidents and has polluted a region already blighted by oil spills in farmland, creeks and lagoons.

The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre said several vehicles that were in a queue to buy illegal fuel were burnt in the explosion.

The border location is a reaction to a recent crackdown by the Rivers state governor on illegal refining in an effort to reduce worsening air pollution.

“The Rivers state governor has made a push recently to stamp out illegal refining in Rivers so it has to move to the fringes and neighbouring states. In the last month or two, there were several raids and some security agents involved were tackled,” Ledum Mitee, former president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), said.

At least 25 people, including some children, were killed in an explosion and fire at another illegal refinery in Rivers state in October. In February, local authorities said they had started a crackdown to try put a stop to the refining of stolen crude, but with little apparent success.

Government officials estimate that Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer and exporter, loses an average of 200,000 barrels per day of oil – more than 10% of production – to those tapping or vandalising pipelines.

That has forced oil companies to regularly declare force majeure on oil and gas exports. ageNcIeS

PM to visit Saudi arabia on april 27: sources

After reportedly having his name removed from the Exit Control List (ECL), Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will embark on a trip to Saudi Arabia on April 27, sources privy to the matter said Sunday.

During the visit, the premier will perform Umrah (Islamic pilgrimage) on the sidelines of the visit.

PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz and JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman will accompany the premier, sources said.

The newly elected government has removed the names of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shahbaz, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz from the Exit Control List (ECL) under a new policy.

On April 22, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah had announced the newly elected government had brought about changes in the rules for having an individual’s name on the ECL, and through it, several thousands of people will have their names removed from the list. Staff RePoRt

FO rejects India claim of Kartarpur corridor being used for espionage ISLAMABAD Staff RePoRt

The Foreign Office dismissed the claim that Pakistan’s spy agencies are using the Kartarpur corridor to engage with the pilgrims coming from India being peddled by New Delhi through its proxy media networks.

A report published in Wion, an online Indian English-language news portal, claimed

the intelligence services and officials in Pakistan “are seen trying to interact with Indian pilgrims in an attempt to cultivate them.”

The special border crossing, called the Kartarpur corridor, allows Sikhs from India to visit holy sites in Pakistan, despite continued hostile relations between the two countries.

In a statement issued on Sunday, a Foreign Office spokesperson said Islamabad has

not used the “Kartarpur corridor for any sort of business meetings and such propaganda statements are part of India’s conscious campaign against Pakistan.”

“Pakistan alone hosted over 2,000 Sikh pilgrims recently at Baisakhi Mela held this year from April 21-22 and provided them ample facilities to visit their holy sites. And Sikh community globally appreciates Pakistan’s measures towards the

Sikh pilgrims,” he said.

“The Kartarpur corridor was a gift from Pakistan to the Sikh community and the propaganda is tantamount to sabotaging the opening of the Kartarpur corridor for Sikh pilgrims.”

The spokesperson categorically rejected the propaganda campaign to put blame on Pakistan for using the corridor other than facilitating the pilgrims.

Pakistan said Indian propaganda against Kartarpur — the corridor of peace — will never succeed.

He said the attempts of New Delhi are not new to divert the plight and injustice towards minorities, especially Muslims.

“India has been mercilessly targeting the minorities in the country; however, Pakistan gives top priority to its minorities,” the statement read.

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