Epaper – August 3 ISB 2021

Tuesday, 3 August, 2021 I 23 Zil-Hajj, 1442 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XII No 34 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition

NCOC aNNOuNCes striCter restriCtiONs as COvid-19 Cases rise

News Desk

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ederal Minister for Planning, development, and Special Initiatives and National Command and Operation Centre head asad Umar on Monday announced that restrictions would be imposed in the major cities of Pakistan to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the incoming fourth wave.

Holding a press conference in Islamabad alongside Special assistant to the Prime Minister on Health dr Faisal Sultan, the minister said that all the decisions were taken after the approval of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

These restrictions, which seem to follow a similar pattern as the ones imposed during the previous waves state the following: all commercial activities will be closed by 8 pm instead of 10 pm, while indoor dining will remain banned. utdoor dining will be allowed until 10 pm instead of 12 am Takeaway and home-delivery services from restaurants will be allowed 24 hours a day

Public transport will operate on a 50 percent capacity to avoid crowding inside vehicles Shops and markets will remain closed twice a week, wherein the provincial governments will decide about the safe days Offices will continue to operate on a 50 percent capacity and appealed to the masses to get themselves vaccinated as soon as possible The minister said that the new coronavirus restrictions will come into effect from aug 3 and will remain in place until aug 31. all major cities of the country.

In Punjab, restrictions will be imposed in rawalpindi, lahore, Faisalabad, and Multan; in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Peshawar and abbottabad will have the new restrictions.

In azad Jammu and Kashmir, restrictions will be imposed in Muzaffarabad and Mirpur, while in Gilgit-Baltistan, the new rules will apply to Gilgit and Skardu. as for Sindh, lockdowns are already in place in Karachi and Hyderabad, but after august 8, the NCOC’s new curbs will also apply, the minister said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Monday re-

COrONavirus iN

PakistaN

CONFIRMED CASES:

1,039,695

LAST UPDATED AT 10:43 AM ON AUGUST 2, 2021

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

NEW CASES:

40

4,858

RECOVERED:

DEATHS:

943,020 23,462 SINDH:

PUNJAB:

385,414

357,735

KPK:

BALOCHISTAN:

144,848 AJK/GB: 24,891 / 8,212

30,502 ISLAMABAD:

88,093

ceived another consignment of 1.5 million doses of the Covid vaccine from China. as per details, 300,000 doses of CanSino and raw material for 1.2 million doses have reached Islamabad from China to strengthen Islamabad’s fight against the COVId-19. The recent consignment of the vaccine has been purchased by Islamabad. Moreover, INP reported that Pakistan will supposedly receive 3.5 million further doses of Covid vaccines from China within two days as the country has expedited its vaccination process in the wake of the fourth wave of the infection, sources said on Monday. according to the INP’s sources, the vaccines to be brought to Pakistan included two million doses of Sinopharm and 1.5 million doses of Cansino. “The vaccines will be brought in two phases and the two million doses of Sinopharm is a gift from the Chinese government,” the agency reported, adding that the remaining 1.5 million was purchased by Pakistan from a Chinese company. INP purported that Pakistan would also be receiving 300,000 doses of CanSino besides also getting raw material for 1.2 million doses.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan has expedited the vaccination process in wake of the fourth Covid wave gripping the country and Federal Minister asad Umar Sunday said that they have set another record after 10 million people received the jabs within 16 days.

Taking to Twitter to make the announcement, the NCOC head said that the country having a population of 220 million has inoculated 30 million people with the last 10 million being vaccinated in a record 16 days.

“The first crore [10 milllion] took 113 days.

The second 28 days and the 3rd only 16 days,” he said adding that the pace has rapidly increased.

FO regrets media reports misquoting FM’s remarks on Taliban, IS IsLAMABAD APP

The Foreign Office spokesperson on Monday regretted a certain section of media for misquoting and twisting the remarks of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi about the need for peace and stability in afghanistan through an afghanled and afghan-owned process.

FO Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri in response to media queries on the foreign minister’s comments regarding IS (daesh) and the Taliban said, “His remarks cannot be in any way be misconstrued as advocacy for a particular side in the afghan conflict”.

“In fact, the foreign minister clearly spoke about consensus among the international community, the regional players and the afghans themselves against the menace of terrorism,” the FO spokesperson said.

He said, “We have repeatedly stated that Pakistan has no favourites in afghanistan. We see all sides in the conflict as afghans who need to decide about their future themselves.”

He added that Pakistan would continue to play a constructive facilitation role in the

Zahir sent to jail on judicial remand in Noor murder case IsLAMABAD StAff RePoRt

a district and sessions court in Islamabad on Monday remanded the prime suspect in the murder of the daughter of a former ambassador in judicial custody for two weeks.

Noor Mukadam, 27, was found murdered at the residence of one Zahir Zakir in Sector F-7/4 of Islamabad in July. Zakir, widely believed to be the killer, was arrested the same day for his purported involvement in the gruesome incident. a first information report registered on the complaint of ambassador Shaukat ali Mukadam nominated Zakir under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The suspect was produced in the court of Islamabad (West) Judicial Magistrate Shaista Khan Kundi on the completion of his two-day remand granted on Saturday. during the proceedings, the prosecutor informed Kundi that police had, for now, completed their investigation with regards to the suspect and they no longer required his physical custody. But the judge observed there was nothing like a “complete investigation for now”. “a complete investigation is complete,” said Kundi, adding the police would keep bringing supplementary challans.

“Where is the accused Zahir Zakir Jaffer?” she questioned, asking the suspect if he wanted to say anything to which he responded that his lawyer would speak for him.

Following the arguments, Kundi accepted the request for Zakir’s judicial remand, directing police to produce him again on august 16. last week, Minister for Interior Sheikh rasheed

afghan peace process.

“Pakistan reiterates that right now, all energies should be focused on finding an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive political settlement to the conflict in afghanistan,” he added.

The foreign minister, during a press conference in Multan on Saturday, was questioned on reports of IS militants moving into afghanistan, to which he said: “If they’re moving in from Iraq or Syria then whose responsibility is it to check them? The afghan government’s.”

“Who has to keep a watch on them and monitor them? The afghan rulers and government have to. I hope they won’t neglect their responsibility.”

He further said neither the afghan government nor the Taliban, afghanistan’s neighbours or the international community wanted an IS resurgence.

“There is a consensus of opinion on this. Now they have a responsibility and they should fulfil it,” he added.

Qureshi’s comments, on social media and in afghan press, were reported as if he expected the Taliban, and not the afghan government, to handle the situation.

MORE INSIDE

Arab parliamentary delegation meets FM, appreciates Pakistan’s role for Muslim causes STORY ON BACK PAGE

Probe into ‘abduction’ of afghan ambassador’s daughter completed: rasheed STORY ON PAGE 02

Qureshi, Afridi criticise BCCI for targeting KPL ahmed said the names of the suspects — including Zakir’s parents, Zakir Jaffer and asmat adamjee — will be put on the exit Control list to keep them from fleeing the country.

The parents and the domestic staff of Zakir were arrested on July 25 for “hiding evidence” and “being complicit” in the incident. rasheed disclosed Zakir’s name has already been placed on the Provisional National Identification list, an eCl-like list used to bypass the lengthy process of putting such people on the no-fly list.

STORY ON PAGE 03

Fighting rages in afghanistan as US, UK accuse Taliban of massacring civilians in border district STORY ON BACK PAGE

02

Tuesday, 3 August, 2021

ISLAMABAD

NEWS

Probe INTo ‘AbducTIoN’ oF AFghAN AmbAssAdor’s dAughTer comPleTed: rAsheed ISLAMABAD

m

sTAff RePoRT

INISTER for Interior Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad on Monday said that his ministry would share the actual facts of the alleged abduction case of the Afghan ambassador’s daughter with the Afghan investigation team through Foreign Office, adding that the committee has completed its investigation in the matter.

Ambassador Najibullah Alikhil’s 27year-old daughter Silsila Alikhil was allegedly abducted briefly and tortured by unidentified persons last month while returning from a bakery in Blue Area before being dropped alongside a road with her hands and feet tied and a note that “your turn is next” and “communist”.

In a media briefing in the federal capital,

the interior minister said: “The Afghan team has arrived for investigation of the Afghan ambassador’s daughter’s case. I have instructed the inspector general of police to hand over the [investigation results] based on facts and the truth to the Afghan investigation committee.”

Questioned on the Afghan team’s freedom to operate, the interior minister said “they [are free to carry out] their investigation. Pakistan is a free country and they are in contact with the FO.” Speaking on the Noor murder case, the minister said that they cannot have the Noor Mukadam case suspect killed in a police encounter, according to a report by Geo News. During the Islamabad presser, Rasheed sarcastically said that the “active ladies in Islamabad” and “large social media” have ruled out the possibility of an extrajudicial killing.

PTI secures 32-seat majority in AJK assembly MUZAFFARABAD APP

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on Monday secured three more reserved seats in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, taking its total seats to 32. The AJK Legislative Assembly consists of 53 seats, and to pass lawmaking, 27 votes are required — and now the PTI has a clear majority.

PPP has obtained a total of 12 seats, PML-N seven, and Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party and All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference secured one each. Today, polling was held at Legislative Assembly Hall on three seats reserved for technocrats, overseas Kashmiris, and ulema-o-mashaikh. PTI won all three seats, securing 27 votes for each candidate. PTI’s Raffique Nayar was elected on the technocrat’s seat, Muhammad Iqbal on the seat reserved for overseas Kashmiris, and Maulana Mazhar Saeed on the ulema-o-mashaikh seat. AJK President Sardar Masood Khan has summoned the legislation Assembly tomorrow (Tuesday) during which the newly-elected members will be sworn in. After that, the speaker and deputy speaker will be elected while the leader of the house (prime minister) will be elected the next day (August 4).

After the formation of the government, Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected to address AJK Legislative Assembly on August 5, the day when India in 2019 abrogated the special status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir. A day earlier, PTI had extended its lead in the AJK Legislative Assembly after winning three women’s reserved seats, while PPP and PML-N were able to bag one each. All five candidates won unopposed. From PTI Imtiaz Naseem, Sabeha Sadique, Kausar Taqdees Gilani emerged victorious, while from PPP Nabila Ayub and from PML-N Nasaran Abbasi were the winning candidates. A total of 10 candidates had submitted their nomination papers for the reserved seats, however, five of them withdrew their names later. On July 29, PTI won the LA-16 Bagh 3 seat of the AJKLA, whose results were withheld for re-polling on four polling stations, after clashes brought polling to a halt on July 25. According to unofficial results, PTI candidate Sardar Mir Akbar bagged 23,561 votes, whereas PPP’s Sardar Qamaruz Zaman obtained 23,267 votes — a difference of a mere 294 votes. Of the total 939 votes cast by government employees, PTI received 396, whereas PPP got 421. In the polls on July 25, PTI emerged as the largest winner with 25 seats, PPP came in second place with 11, while PML-N won six seats.

Pakistan to be unhooked from FATF grey list soon, NA informed ISLAMABAD TLTP

The National Assembly was informed on Monday that Pakistan will soon come out of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list as it has largely addressed 26 out of 27 action items. Responding to a question during the Question Hour in the National Assembly, which resumed its session at the Parliament House with Speaker Asad Qaiser in the chair, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan said that Pakistan has undertaken enormous work to strengthen its anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism regime and addressed the strategic counterterrorist financing related deficiencies. He said all the ten action items pertaining to the financial sector and border controls have been addressed. The minister said that action items related to UN designated persons have been partially addressed and Pakistan is dealing with this matter as per its own laws. Replying to another question, the minister of state said the foreign exchange reserves rose from $16 billion to $25 billion in the last three years. Responding to a question, Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam rejected the reports that the government is going to impose a ban on export of rice.

He maintained that the investigation has been completed, the forensic test conducted and all evidence provided to the court. He hoped that the court will hand down a death sentence to Zahir Jaffer, the alleged murderer of Noor. He said that all effective measures would be adopted to maintain law and order, security and harmony during Muharram-ul-Haram in the country.

Rasheed also said that a high-level meeting was being held to make decisions on ensuring peace during Muharram throughout the country. This online meeting will be attended by Inspector Generals to chalk out a comprehensive security plan for the holy month.

He informed that National Database and Registration Authority would issue Covid19 vaccine certificate through its online system to facilitate Pakistanis at airports of 64 countries.

He said that special instructions had been issued to the Capital Development Authority chairman and Islamabad Capital Territory deputy commissioner to make a foolproof security system at Diplomatic Enclave. He added 190 new security cameras would be installed at Diplomatic Enclave to ensure the security of the area.

The minister said that the government would introduce the identification card system for only those who had legal property or for diplomats only in the enclave.

He said that the CDA chairman had also been directed to start 1122 service to ensure immediate help during the flood-like situation in the federal capital as no such quick service was available. Rasheed said that new vehicles would be provided for the purpose. He said that the Islamabad DC had been directed to remove all illegal construction in the federal capital occupying

the nullas causing overflow with loss of lives and property.

The minister said that special directions had been issued to ensure rotation of officials in the Federal Investigation Agency, NADRA and Cyber Crime wing as people had occupied the posts for the last many years. He added that 64 employees of the passport office working in different countries had also been asked to return back to Pakistan by August 20 while other employees would be posted on these posts on merit. He maintained that China was a sincere friend of the country and every possible security would be provided to those Chinese working in Pakistan. The minister said that there was no illegal movement from the Pak-Afghan border as only 208 persons with having legal documents reached Pakistan from Balochistan. with additional input from APP

Kamyab Pakistan Programme to be launched soon: PM ISLAMABAD TLTP

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the government will soon launch an ambitious Kamyab Pakistan Programme for uplift of the weaker segments of the society.

The prime minister said this while addressing the closing ceremony of three-day Interior, Construction, Electrical and Electronics Expo in Islamabad on Monday.

The prime minister said that Kamyab Pakistan Programme envisages technical training for one person from each family, health card for each family and interest free loans. He said that his vision is focused on bringing the poor people out

of poverty.

He said the export industry is being incentivised for wealth creation. This wealth will be used to alleviate poverty in the country.

The prime minister said the PTI government is bringing a revolution in the construction sector. He said the promotion of the construction sector would boost economic activities and wealth creation in the country. He said the incumbent government started a house financing scheme for the lowincome people to have their own houses.

The low-cost housing scheme would give a boost to the construction industry, he added.

Imran Khan said he is also give priority to enhancing forest cover in the

country to mitigate effects of global warming. He said every city will have its

master plan, and urban plantation will be encouraged.

Bilawal slams Centre on petrol price hike

KARACHI iNP

Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari condemned the recent hike in petrol prices by

the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government, and said that the puppet Prime Minister has once again neglected the plight of the poor.

“The government is, in fact, slashing its expenditure by abdicating its responsibility to protect the most

vulnerable, and its policy to raise revenue by unleashing ‘petrol bombs’ and ramping up indirect taxation on a country already reeling from three years of economic malice and incompetence.”

In a statement issued on Monday, the PPP chairman rejected the petrol price hike and revealed that the prices have increased by Rs10 per liter within a month.

He said that the increase in prices of petrol products would further escalate inflation, adding that Pakistan could not afford more inflation.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the incompetence and failures of the selected government are causing obstacles in the progress of the country.

“The selected Prime Minister is unable to run the country – he knows nothing but lies and political victimisation,” he added.

Addressing the selected Prime Minister, he said, “Khan Sahib, have mercy on the people and reverse the increase in petrol prices.”

Bilawal also condemned the increase in taxes and pointed out that the previous PPP governments had kept petrol prices stable even in the most challenging circumstances.

Court extends bail of Shehbaz, Hamza in sugar scandal LAHORE Akif RAshid

A Lahore session court on Monday extended pre-arrest bail facility to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) leaders Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz in the sugar scandal case until August 16.

Both Shehbaz and Hamza appeared before the court amid strict security. At the outset of the hearing, Shehbaz Sharif’s counsel said that the session of NA is underway but his client appeared before the court in honour.

He pleaded with the court to extend the pre-arrest bail of his client for 14 days. During the proceedings, the judge asked Hamza if a session of the Punjab

assembly was underway. “Yes the session is underway,” submitted Hamza.

After hearing the arguments, the court extended the interim bail of Hamza Shehbaz and his son in a money laundering case until August 16.

At the last hearing, the investigation officer had said that they had issued notices to both the suspects and would present the record of the investigation process after its completion. It is pertinent to mention here that a session court approved pre-arrest bail of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz before their FIA appearance in a sugar scam case in June this year.

The development came after PML-

N President Shehbaz Sharif and Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz had decided to appear before the Federal Investigation

Agency (FIA).

The FIA is probing into the Ramzan Sugar Mills case against both the PMLN leaders.

Tuesday, 3 August, 2021

ISLAMABAD

Qureshi, Afridi criticise Bcci for tArgeting KPL ISLAMABAD

M

Mian abRaR

INISTER for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi Monday came down hard over the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for politicisation of Kashmir Premier League (KPL) saying that sports should not be sacrificed for politics.

Speaking to media here at the Parliament House, Qureshi urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) to take notice of the Indian attitude.

“The people are waiting for Kashmir Premier League. I condemn India’s attitude of politicizing Cricket. Events like Kashmir Premier League promote normal healthy life activity. Let us hold events like Kashmir Premier League in Indian Illegally Occupied Kashmir too. Who has stopped you anyone from promoting sports in the IIOJK,” argued Shah Mehmood Qureshi when asked to comment over India’s coercing of foreign cricketers by preventing them from participating in the KPL. “Kashmiri players, whether from Azad Kashmir or Occupied Kashmir, if they move forward, we should encourage them,” said Shah Mehmood Qureshi, adding that BCCI’s attitude was bringing a bad name to India as the BCCI had been threatening international cricketers that if they play KPL, they will not get Indian visas.

He said it would have been better if the KPL

matches in Azad Kashmir had been screened in Srinagar just like when cricket is played in Sharjah, they are screened in Srinagar,” Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi said.

“Why are the Indians so afraid of Kashmir Premier

League? Pakistan Cricket Board should support this activity too,” Shah Mehmood Qureshi said.

Separately, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir Shehryar Khan Afridi in a statement said that politics or disputes between member states has never been allowed to be a deciding factor in the sport.

In a series of tweets posted on social media site, Twitter, the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir Chairman Shehryar Afridi said that the only time cricket has been used in a political issue previously was in Apartheid era of South Africa.

“India’s latest attempt to politicise cricket is a good example of how it is using its influence to force other countries to exceed to its stand on Kashmir. India’s brazen attempt to not allow anything related to Kashmiris come at any level is because it wants to avoid all debate and reference to Kashmir as it will ultimately lead to revelations about its brutality and occupation in Kashmir,” the statement said.

Kashmir Committee said that that provided Indias stand is that the Kashmir Premier League is contentious because the territory is disputed, how did India allow or hold international cricket matches in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir in the past?

“In fact, Kashmiris used those cricket matches, even before armed rebellion began, to show their opposition to Indian presence in Kashmir,” the Chairman Kashmir Committee concluded.

Sindh govt failed in implementing Covid SOPs: Fawad ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Monday said the Sindh government was not able to implement Covid-19 restrictions in the province and decided to impose the quarantine on its own. Speaking to a television channel, the minister said that the federal government has made its position regarding blanket quarantines clear from the very first day.

Detailing the communication between federal and provincial governments ahead of Covid-related restrictions in Karachi, Fawad said Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah contacted Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, who also heads the National Command and Operation Center, and Minister of State for National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan.

“The chief minister conveyed that they are going to impose lockdown,” he said, adding he was conveyed that the provinces could not decide on lockdown without consulting the Centre and were not authorised to take individual decisions.

“We have jointly fought three waves of Covid-19 successfully and why there is a need to change the policy now,” Fawad said.

He said reasons that led to a surge in positivity ratio in Karachi to 30 percent should be thoroughly probed, blaming the province for not implementing guidelines letter and spirit.

He said that the government could not shut down the industries completely and snatch livelihood from daily earners.

“We have to move forward in line with the NCOC policies,” he said, warning if the province did not implement the directives of the NCOC, the federal government would be compelled to use its constitutional options.

Separately, and it emerged that station house

officers in Sindh can now take action against people violating coronavirus standard operation procedures, a notification from the province’s home department said Monday.

In the amended notification, the home department said police inspectors could take action against those involved in violating the SOP at offices, industries, and shops.

The police officials have been allowed to take action under Section 3(1) of the Sindh Epidemic Diseases Act, 2014, the notification said.

The powers were earlier restricted to deputy and assistant commissioners.

“Beside Deputy Commissioners, Assistant Commissioners, Labour Officers concerned as well as personnel of Law Enforcement Agencies not below the rank of Inspector Police (or equivalent rank for other LEAs), the Additional Deputy Commissioners, Mukhtiarkars and Officers Incharge of Police Stations are also empowered under section 3(1) of the Sindh Epidemic Diseases Act, 2014 (The Sindh Act VII of 2015) to take any legal action on any act in contravention of this (original/amended) order or directions/notices issued thereunder and including action under section 188 of Pakistan Penal Code 1860,” it said.

The development comes after the Sindh government had imposed province-wide restrictions to curb coronavirus following a surge in cases due to the Delta variant.

Suspect confesses to killing six-year-old girl after rape in Karachi: police NewS DeSk The main accused in the kidnapping, rape and murder case of a six-year-old girl in Korangi has confessed to his crime after having been arrested a few days prior, police reported on Monday.

Moreover, his DNA samples also matched with the samples obtained from the victim’s body, reported Dawn.

The minor girl had gone missing from her house in Korangi’s Ghous Pak area on the night of July 27. Her body was found the next day from a garbage dump near her residence after a search lasting nearly eight hours.

Zaman Town police had registered the case’s first information report under Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, and sections dealing with kidnapping, rape and murder against unknown suspects.

Confirming completion of the police investigation into the case, DIG East Saqib Ismail Memon explained that the investigators had first conducted geo-fencing of the area before netting suspects.

He said one of the suspects, who also lived in the same locality, was interrogated and his DNA samples were sent to a laboratory at the University of Karachi for forensic testing. “His samples matched with samples obtained from the victim,” the officer added.

He said the suspect had also confessed to the crime.

“The inspector general of police Sindh appreciated the investigation team and announced a reward for them,” the DIG said.

Earlier in the day, adviser to Sindh chief minister,

Murtaza Wahab had tweeted that the suspect in the case admitted to the crime during interrogation.

The case concerning the kidnapping, rape and murder of a six-year-old girl in Karachi’s Korangi area has been registered under terrorism and other charges, while the police have launched a multi-prong investigation into the matter as well, it emerged last week.

They also prepared a sketch of the possible suspect and sent the child’s DNA samples to a laboratory at the University of Karachi, according to officials.

The minor girl had gone missing from her house in Ghous Pak area of Korangi on Tuesday night. Her body was found the next day from a garbage dump in Zaman Town near her residence after a search of nearly eight hours.

“Her autopsy showed that she had been raped, sodomised and then murdered,” said the additional police surgeon at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Dr Summaiya Syed.

There were “multiple injuries to the head and body and private parts”, Dr Syed added.

Landhi SP Shahnawaz Chachar said Zaman Town police had registered the case’s first information report under Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, and sections dealing with kidnapping, rape and murder against unknown suspects.

A DSP-rank officer has been assigned the investigation of the case, the officer added.

East Zone DIG Saqib Ismail Memon said a “multidirectional probe is underway based on the statements of witnesses, family and area residents.” He added that

several suspects had been taken into custody and were being interrogated.

“Technical data is also being analysed, while a dedicated team has been constituted” to probe the case, DIG Memon said.

The senior officer told Dawn.com that DNA samples collected from the girl’s body had been sent to a lab at Karachi University.

He said a sketch of the suspect had been prepared with the help of witnesses.

According to the contents of the FIR reviewed by Dawn.com on Thursday, the victim’s father said that he worked at a private firm and had been living in Korangi’s G-Area for the last 11 years in a rented house and had four children.

The complainant said he along with his three daughters, aged between two to nine years, was sitting outside on a street near his home as electricity had gone out in the locality at around 10:15 pm on July 27. Some time later, he returned home along with two of his daughters, while his third daughter aged six remained outside to play with other children.

At around 10:45 pm, his elder daughter informed him that the six-year-old girl had not come back home.

The complainant said he immediately went outside and looked around for his daughter, but in vain. The neighbours were unable to help as well.

The next day (July 28) at around 5:45 am, he came to know that the body of a minor girl was lying in a garbage dump near the wall of a school in the G-Area market. He went to the spot along with his neighbours and discovered that it was his daughter’s body.

NEWS

03

citizens without cnics eligible for covid-19 vaccination in Karachi NewS DeSk Even without computerised national identity cards, the citizens of Karachi may now receive the Covid-19 vaccines after on-the-spot biometric registration at the Mass Vaccination Centres in the city, the Sindh Health Department confirmed to Dawn on Monday. Earlier on July 30, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had announced that vaccines would be administered to citizens without CNICs, adding that modalities were being reviewed for the purpose. For her part, the Sindh Health Department’s media coordinator, Mehar Khursheed, said citizens can get their biometrics done at the vaccination centre and register the cell phone number they are currently using. Explaining the process, she said, “Every vaccine dose has to be documented. We need to write down the name and details of every person. The biometric facility is available at Expo Centre in Karachi and is being expanded to other 24/7 Mass Vaccination Centres across the city. Where biometric is not available, a valid mobile number will be used.” The health department official said over 2,000 citizens without CNICs have been vaccinated so far in Karachi. Besides the Karachi Expo Centre, the 24/7 Mass Vaccination Centres in the city include Dow Ojha Campus, Khaliq Dina Hall, Jinnah Hospital, Lyari General Hospital, Children’s Hospital, SG Hospital New Karachi, SG Hospital Liaquatabad, Sindh Government Qatar Hospital, SG Hospital Murad Memon Goth, SG Hospital Korangi and SG Hospital Saudabad.

coronavirus kills 40, infects 4,858 in a day: ncoc ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt

Pakistan on Sunday reported 4,858 new Covid-19 cases, the National Command and Operation Center said on Monday. The NCOC said that the number of overall confirmed cases had risen to 1,039,695, including 943,020 recoveries. The number of active cases has risen to 73,213 who are under treatment across the country, including 3,441 patients in critical condition. According to the NCOC, the pandemic killed 40 people on Sunday, bringing the overall death toll to 23,462. Sindh is the most affected province in the country with 385,414 infections, followed by Punjab which has reported 357,735 cases. The municipal government of Islamabad sealed 27 streets in different residential sectors of the city on Sunday after new Covid-19 cases were reported.

Tuesday, 3 August, 2021

04 NEWS

ISLAMABAD

PolICeMan kIlled In attaCk on PolIo teaM PESHAWAR

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UNMEN on Monday shot and killed a police officer assigned to protect a polio vaccination team in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, an official said.

It was the third attack in two days on policemen assigned to protect polio workers.

The deadly attack took place in the town of Kolachi in the Dera Ismail Khan district.

Officer Dilawar Khan was on his motorcycle, heading to escort polio workers taking part in a nationwide campaign aimed at making Pakistan a polio-free state.

The gunmen fled the scene and a police search is underway, according to Mohammad Aslam, a local police official.

Two attacks targeted police working with polio teams on Sunday. In Peshawar, gunmen killed a policeman returning home after security duty with polio workers.

And a roadside bomb went off near a police van escorting a polio vaccination team in the district of South Waziristan, wounding an officer.

None of the medics on the polio teams were hurt in these attacks.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.

Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan

are the only two remaining countries in the world where polio is endemic after Nigeria was last year declared free of the virus.

Last week, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government launched another polio vaccination drive in an effort to eradicate the crippling disease by the end of the year.

According to authorities, as many as 23.6 million children are to be vaccinated in this latest anti-polio drive.

On Sunday, Aimal Khan, a spokesman for the anti-polio program in KP, said the vaccination effort would continue despite the challenges with some 17,000 trained workers going home to home to administer the vaccines in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

According to Shahzad Baig, who leads the anti-polio effort, there has only been one reported case of polio so far in 2021 in Pakistan, compared to 66 during the same time

last year.

On Monday, Baig appealed to the parents to get their children vaccinated to protect them from the crippling disease.

IHC defers bail plea of Mirza for two weeks in sexual harassment case ISLAMABAD TLTP

LAHORE: An illuminated view of the Town Hall building decorated with colourful lights in connection with Independence Day celebrations. Zubair MehfooZ

Cop suspended for abusing woman ISLAMABAD TLTP

Lahore Police Monday registered a case against their colleague over charges of verbally abusing a woman in front of the public.

Local police registered the case after a video of the incident, which took place in the Baba Jatt area of Bhagatpura, went viral on social media a few days ago.

In the video, the Shadbagh police official could be

seen exposing himself in front of the woman who was sitting in the police van to protest against the alleged highhandedness of the police officials after they arrested two individuals.

In another video of the incident, the policemen were seen dragging the two men towards their van parked in the same street. The woman, who was apparently related to the two men, had entered the police vehicle to protest the arrest. At this point, a policeman, who was continuously cussing, flashed his genitals. However, he was taken away

by his colleagues immediately and the van drove away along with the woman.

Responding to the video of the incident, the official Twitter handle of the Punjab Police stated that the said official has been suspended from service on the orders of the police chief, Inam Ghani.

According to the statement, the police official -whose name was not shared – will be dismissed from service and convicted as well. “What is a crime for others is a crime for a police officer too,” it added.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday adjourned hearing of the post-arrest bail application of an accused of sexual harassment and torture of a couple in Islamabad, Usman Mirza, for two weeks.

Seeking remedy from the IHC in the matter, the counsel of the accused Umar Bilal contended before the bench of Justice Tariq Mahmood that the video involving Usman Mirza harassing and torturing an Islamabad couple went viral and police registered a case, nominating five people in it.

“Neither my client committed the act nor he was present at the incident site,” he said and added that he was also not included in the FIR. The lawyer argued that the trial court had rejected his client’s bail application even after bringing into their notice that he was a university student and could not escape anywhere. Urging the single-member bench the counsel for the accused requested the court to grant bail facility to his client, however, the court adjourned the hearing for another two weeks.

It is pertinent to mention that on 30 July, a district and session court in Islamabad directed police to submit challan against Usman Mirza and other accomplices until September 10, in a case related to sexual harassment and torture of a couple.

The court, while directing the police to submit challan in the case, asked to present them before the court on August 13 and 27.

The accused have been sent to Adiala Jail until September 10.

Islamabad struggles to cope with population boom ISLAMABAD agencies

On Sunday one of the world’s youngest capitals, Islamabad celebrated its 61st anniversary. Build near the ruins of the world’s ancient city of Taxila whose history can be traced from early microlithic communities, experts believe the new city known for its greenery is, however, crumbling under population growth and mushrooming housing societies.

According to official statistics, the city has witnessed 100 percent population growth in the past 20 years. In the last census conducted in 2017, the Islamabad population was recorded as 2 million.

“Due to growth of population, construction of multi-story buildings, plazas, commercial centers, and societies have reduced the beauty and greenery of Islamabad city,” retired Brigadier Said Nazir, a resident of the city, told Anadolu Agency. Many residents said the city was built on the pattern of the Turkish capital of Ankara merging hillocks and plains in the city’s design, with well-kept footbaths and

wide roads.

“Islamabad and Ankara have a resemblance, both are beautiful and silent capitals,” said Shahid Ahmed, a resident of Islamabad. Another resident Sabah Aslam, founder of Islamabad Institute of Conflict Resolution, said some million people have moved from other parts of Pakistan to live in the capital city. She said the city is still regarded among the most beautiful capitals in the world.

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government has launched a plantation drive to save the city’s trademark.

“This is the first site in Islamabad where using the miyawaki technique. A jungle that normally takes 30 years to grow can grow in 10 years and also provides more oxygen,” said Khan.

Miyawaki technique involves planting two to four trees per square meter. The forests, thus grow in two to three years and are self-sustaining. They help lower temperatures in concrete heat islands, reduce air and noise pollution, attract local birds and insects, and create carbon sinks, according to experts.

The city was built in 1960 on a 906 square kilometre area on the foot of

CMYK

Margalla Hills. Till then Karachi, the port city and business hub of the country was the capital.

SEARCH FOR NEW CAPITAL: Nazir recalled that in 1957, the then government formed a commission to identify a suitable location for the capital of the newly born country. “There were several reasons to shift capital from Karachi to any other place in the middle of the country. Karachi was not a suitable place for the national capital, as it was on the seaport, also an industrial hub while far away from northern parts of the country,” he said.

Further, Karachi used to be vulnerable to naval attacks and there was a need to find a safe and strategic place for the capital, said the retired military officer in 1959, Gen Mohammad Ayub Khan, who served as a military chief and president of the country from 19581969, had approved the commission recommendation to build the new capital near the Margalla Hills. The location was also near Rawalpindi, where the Pakistan Army’s headquarter is located.

A Greek firm devised a master plan based on a grid system, with its north-

facing the Margalla Hills. The city was divided into eight basic zones, administrative, diplomatic enclave, residential areas, educational sectors, industrial sectors, commercial areas, and rural and green areas.

“From civil and military, both point of view, the location was suitable because of good weather condition, lush green landscape, also very near to military headquarters while another point that capital could be developed where the dignitaries and the diplomates could live in an atmosphere, which is suiting them,” said Nazir.

The city is also home to several landmarks like Faisal Mosque — the fifth largest mosque in the world — Lok Virsa Museum, Rawal Lake, Pir Sohawa, Islamabad Zoo, Pakistan Museum of National History and the Centaurus Mall.

Since the city does not have its own cultural roots, it gets deserted during long holidays. “You can find only people of Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral in Islamabad during Eid days while others prefer to rush to their home towns,” said Sher Ghazi, who hails from Gilgit.

Tuesday, 3 August, 2021

ISLAMABAD

NEWS

AgriCulturAl mArketS beiNg reFormed to limit middlemAN’S role: gArdezi LAHORE

P

tLtP

UNJAB Minister for Agriculture Syed Hussain Jahanian Gardezi has said that agricultural markets across the province are being reformed to give farmers a fair return for their labour

and limit the role of middlemen.

These reforms will benefit all stakeholders and reduce market problems, added Gardezi during his visit to Badami Bagh Fruit Market, Lahore, on Monday.

The agriculture minister said that farmer platforms have been set up in 105 agricultural markets across the province where farmers are selling

Cement exports increase 3.26pc in FY21 ISLAMABAD APP

The exports of cement witnessed an increase of 3.26 percent during the fiscal year 2020-21 (FY21), against the exports of the corresponding period of the preceding fiscal year (FY20). The cement exports were recorded at $267.910 million during July-June (202021) against the exports of $259.441 million during July-June (2019-20), according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). In terms of quantity, the exports of cement also increased by 9.77 percent by going up from 7,119,834 metric tonnes to 7,815,153 metric tonnes, according to the data. Meanwhile, on year-toyear (YoY) basis, the exports of cement however decreased by 15.42 percent during the month of June 2021 as compared to the same month of last year. The exports of cement during June 2021 were recorded at $14.325 million against the exports of $16.937 million in June 2020. On month-on-month (MoM) basis, the exports of cement also dipped by 49.79 per cent during June 2021 when compared to the exports of $28.528 million in May 2021, the PBS data revealed. It is pertinent to mention that overall merchandise exports increased to at $25.304 billion by 18.28 percent during FY21 as compared to $21.394 billion in FY20. Similarly, imports during the period under review also increased by 26.60 percent by growing from $44.553 billion to $56.405 billion. The country’s trade deficit increased by 34.29 percent during the period under review as compared to the corresponding period last year. The deficit was recorded as $31.101 billion against that of $23.159 billion in FY20.

Soldier martyred in North Waziristan attack NEWS DESK The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Monday said that a soldier was martyred when terrorists attacked a check-post in North Waziristan's Ghariom area, according to a news outlet. "Terrorists opened fire on a military post in Ghariom, North Waziristan District," the military's media wing said in a statement.

"Own troops responded in a befitting manner. During exchange of fire, Naik Ghulam Mustafa, age 37 years, resident of Muzaffarabad, embraced shahadat," added the military's media wing. Following the attack, a search operation was launched in the area to 'eliminate' any terrorists still present. On July 18, a soldier of the Pakistan Army embraced martyrdom during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in South Waziristan. The military's media wing said the operation was conducted in the Senai Narai area of the district on the reports of the presence of terrorists. "During intense exchange of fire with terrorists, Sepoy Junaid, age 20 years, resident of Balakot, district Mansehra embraced shahadat," the statement added. On July 13, an officer and a soldier of the Army embraced martyrdom during an intense exchange of fire with terrorists in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Kurram district, the military had said. Three terrorists were also killed during the ‘area sanitisation operation’ in the Zewa area of the erstwhile FATA, the military’s media wing, the ISPR, said in a statement.

goods directly. In addition, a record of market fee collection is being compiled through the Android application "Mandi App" so that the role of middlemen can be limited and farmers can be fully compensated.

He said that in these markets, the schedule of market fees, commissions, and daily rates are being displayed in

clear places. He added that after the enactment of the Punjab Agricultural Marketing Regulatory Authority (PAMRA) Act, the system of agricultural markets is being modernised which will benefit all stakeholders. Construction work of a model market is underway in Lakhodira, Lahore, at a cost of Rs5 billion in which processing arrangements are being made

05

with the help of modern machinery and this will be the largest market of continental Asia.

This market will prove to be a better market for the farmers. In addition, standard arrangements have been made for cleanliness in the model markets across the province and rates are being fixed on the basis of daily auctions.

Director General Pamra Mohsin Shakir, Chairman Badami Bagh Mandi Malik Nadeem Ishaq, President Badami Bagh Mandi Qaiser Sajjad Bhatti and Vice President Chaudhry Arsalan Zaheer and others were present on the occasion. The minister also took oath from the newly elected union of the market.

Tarin calls for building strategic reserves of food commodities NEWS DESK The National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) has directed the Ministry of National Food Security and Research to take immediate steps for the import of two million tonnes of wheat to ensure adequate stocks of the commodity in the country.

Presiding over the NPMC meeting on Monday, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin reiterated the firm commitment of the government in building strategic reserves of essential commodities (sugar, wheat, pulses, edible oil/ghee etc) to ensure price stability and prevent undue profiteering and hoarding.

He said the strategic reserves would ensure timely availability of basic commodities to bridge the gap between supply and demand. To this effect, he directed the secretary national food security to come up with a firm plan and place before the committee for discussion and requisite approval.

The finance minister highlighted the rising trend in international commodity prices amid Covid-19 pandemic and underscored the efforts being made for keeping the prices of essential items in check. He further stated that any assistance, financial or otherwise, needed in this regard will be provided to the respective provincial administrations and departments concerned for effective monitoring and to lessen the burden of price fluctuation due to international price hike.

The secretary finance briefed the meeting about a slight uptick in weekly Sensitive Price Index (SPI), which increased by 0.03 percent during the week ended on July 29. He said that prices of six items witnessed a decline, 22 remained stable and prices of 23 items increased during the week.

The committee reviewed the monthly inflation trend and noted that the CPI, which is 8.4 percent for July 2021 has declined by 1.3 percent as compared to the last month i.e. 9.7 percent in June 2021. The committee also reviewed the prices of wheat, sugar, pulses, chicken and other essential food items in the country.

The food secretary updated the committee about the wheat procurement process. He apprised that an

order for purchase of 220,000 tonnes of wheat has already been placed.

Similarly, the secretary industries and production briefed the NPMC about the efforts underway for import of 600,000 tonnes of sugar for maintaining buffer stocks. The tendering process has been initiated and adequate stocks of sugar will be available in the country until the next sugar season, he added. The NPMC directed the ministry to expedite the tendering process and update the committee on a weekly basis.

The Secretary Finance briefed the meeting on the prices of petroleum products in the neighbouring countries. The committee commended that per unit cost of petrol and electricity are cheapest in

Pakistan as compared to the regional economies.

The government has absorbed the pressure in order to provide maximum relief to the consumers, the meeting was told.

While reviewing the prices, the finance minister directed the Petroleum Division to analyse the impact of the current escalation in LNG prices on the consumption of other fuels in order to look for alternatives and ensure availability of sufficient stocks.

Federal Minister for National Food Security Fakhar Imam, SAPM on Finance and Revenue Dr Waqar Masood, SAPM on National Food Security & Research Jamshed Cheema, and other senior officers participated in the meeting.

Delta spreads ‘like wildfire’ as doctors study whether it makes patients sicker LOS ANGELES ReuteRs

With a new wave of Covid-19 infections fueled by the Delta variant striking countries worldwide, disease experts are scrambling to learn whether the latest version of coronavirus is making people — mainly the unvaccinated — sicker than before.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that Delta, first identified in India and now dominant worldwide, is “likely more severe” than earlier versions of the virus, according to an internal report made public on Friday.

The agency cited research in Canada, Singapore and Scotland showing that people infected with the Delta variant were more likely to be hospitalised than patients earlier in the pandemic.

In interviews with Reuters, disease experts said the three papers suggest a greater risk from the variant, but the study populations are limited and the findings have not yet been reviewed by outside experts. Doctors treating patients infected with Delta described a more rapid onset of Covid-19 symptoms, and in many regions an overall

increase in serious cases.

But the experts said more work is needed to compare outcomes among larger numbers of individuals in epidemiologic studies to sort out whether one variant causes more severe disease than another. “It’s difficult to pin down an increase in severity and population bias,” said Lawrence Young, a virologist at the UK’s Warwick Medical School. In addition, it is likely that the extraordinary rate of Delta transmission is also contributing to a greater number of severe cases arriving at hospitals, the experts said.

Delta is as contagious as chickenpox and far more contagious than the common cold or flu, according to the CDC report.

Shane Crotty, a virologist at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in San Diego, said the clearest indication that the variant may cause more severe disease comes from the Scotland study, which found that Delta roughly doubled the risk of hospitalization compared to an earlier version.

The majority of hospitalizations and deaths from coronavirus in the United States are occurring in people who have not been vaccinated. But there is evidence that the shots are less

effective in people with compromised immune systems, including the elderly.

For vaccinated, otherwise healthy individuals, the odds are that if they contract Covid-19 they will only experience asymptomatic or mild disease, said Dr. Gregory Poland, infectious disease expert at the Mayo Clinic.

“But they can pass it on to family members and others who may not be so lucky,” Poland said. “We have to be vaccinated and masked or we will, for the fourth time now, endure another surge and out of that will come worse variants.”

‘FULL-ON FLAMES’: The rate of severe illness, especially in regions where vaccination rates are low, is again straining healthcare workers on the front lines of the pandemic. “This is like a wildfire, this is not a smouldering campfire. It is full-on flames right now,” said Dr. Michelle Barron, senior medical director of infection prevention and control at Colorado’s UCHealth.

Research from China suggesting that the Delta variant replicates much faster and generates 1,000 times more virus in the body compared to the original strain highlights the biggest danger of this new wave, Barron said.

“It is hard to tell if they are more

sick because of the Delta variant or if they would have been more sick anyway,” she said.

Other doctors said patients infected with Delta appear to become ill more quickly, and in some cases with more severe symptoms, than those they treated earlier in the pandemic.

“We are seeing more patients requiring oxygen sooner,” said Dr. Benjamin Barlow, chief medical officer at American Family Care, a 28-state chain of urgent care clinics.

At his clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, Barlow said that around 20 percent of patients are testing positive for Covid-19, compared with 2-3 percent a few weeks ago. Patients are assessed at that time for potential hospital admission and oxygen support.

David Montefiori, director of the Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine Research and Development at Duke University Medical Center, said the Delta variant is more infectious and leads to faster onset of illness — particularly for the unvaccinated.

“Frankly there’s a severity that comes from this variant that is a little more severe,” Montefiori said on a webcast last week. “It’s not just easier to transmit, it makes you sicker.”

Tuesday, 3 August, 2021

06 COMMENT

Fiction vs. fiction

The rise and decline of opposition alliance Coping with a hybrid system

With a few words on facts

T

HE opposition currently poses little threat to the government inside or outside Parliament. The PDM, which had effectively challenged the government for months, is dead thanks the internecine rivalries between the PM-n and PPP. The PML-n which is the largest opposition party in the nA stands divided over whether to take a conciliatory or a confrontational stand. In case the division persists, some of its current MnAs might decline to apply for its ticket in 2023 elections. The PTI government has meanwhile emerged stronger than any time before. The government, however, has no reason to rejoice. At a time of great regional upheaval, and need for policies that are likely to have consequences for years ahead, a dysfunctional working relationship between the government and the opposition remains a major obstacle in the way of formulating widely acceptable strategic policymaking.

A shrinking democratic space led the opposition to form Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). Within three months the new alliance held eight massive rallies in all the four provinces. The PDM’s growing focus on the security establishment marked a major change in the country’s political environment. This led to the opening of the doors that had remained closed so far. Then came disclosures that the opposition leaders were regularly meeting the army chief leading to the revival of old suspicions between the PPP and PML-n.

When the PML-n made the unrealistic demand that all PDM constituents jointly resign from the nA, knowing well that PPP that ruled Sindh would not resign, this amounted to the wrecking of the PDM. PTI’s tricky move to acquire the office of the Senate Opposition Leader with the help of progovernment Senators created more bad blood. Both in gilgit-Baltistan and AJK, PML-n and PPP fought as much against one another as against the government.

The PML-n is badly divided, with one section demanding conciliation while another supporting confrontation. The PPP faces the threat of PTI making entry into rural Sindh. Unless the opposition parties sit together to evolve a joint strategy, which seems unlikely, the PML-n may be deprived of some of its electables in 2023 elections while the PPP might lose seats in rural Sindh.

HASAN AFTAB SAEED

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n the 1950s, eminent philosopher Bertrand Russell dabbled for a while in novel writing.

He later remarked that novel writing was not much different from philosophy, his major interest, which also happened to be nothing more than another kind of fiction. Russell was great enough to have no insecurities about his life’s work, which cannot be said about the average philosopher, who tends to take himself a tad too seriously. Besides, Russell had a wicked sense of humour and may merely have been joking. If so, like all good jokes, the joke could not have been closer to the truth.

The distinction between fact and fiction, of course, is that the former deals with things as they are, while the latter with things as somebody desires them to be. In novels for example, the writer moulds the story as he wishes. Of course, he includes some facts as well – he would not be credible otherwise: for example, even in a narration straight out of his fantasy, people would drive on a certain side of the road, and would eat certain foods characteristic of the city the story is located in. But apart from this, his imagination is the only limit to the strange turns the circumstances

Conflict spillover

take. Fact, on the other hand, does not offer this type of luxury to a narrator, for it seldom seeks the authors’ opinions (even if they are philosophers). Karl Marx, who is regarded worldwide as the philosopher who gave a new interpretation to materialism for explaining the movement of history, can equally be seen as a fiction writer. Like all fiction writers, he presents some facts, which he then surrounds by a lot of fiction.

Like all fiction writers, he is more partial to some truths as compared to others. Like all fiction writers, his temperament nudges him in a certain direction to the exclusion of all other directions. This is by no means to singe Marx out, for he is only one example; all philosophers are storytellers.

It is well known that philosophy started with a much broader view than what is now generally considered its subject matter. Aristotle’s works included what we would now categorize under science, logic (mathematics) as well as what we are apt to refer to as ‘philosophy’. But it is rather easy and very tempting, to oversimplify the process. Because philosophy is never quite eliminated from any subject matter, even as ‘scientific’ as quantum mechanics.

Also, as was the case with psychology, many scientists (and philosophers) in their enthusiasm were guilty of declaring it a science when it was obviously too early to do that. And all that based merely on experiments on mice in cages and on men and women pushing buttons under various stimuli! The aim of reducing mental processes to experimental testing was a noble one indeed, but since mental phenomena are infinitely more complex than physical phenomena encountered in physics and chemistry, what has re-

sulted is merely behaviourism. The basis for the rest of psychology is still for the most part fiction.

So spectacular was the progress made in science owing to Descartes’s dualism that it was easy for many to forget that the neat classification was after all an artificial one. From ‘there is a mechanistic world consisting of measurable phenomena’ to ‘there is only a mechanistic world with nothing outside it’ was the next (predictable) step. This is despite the fact that the purely mechanistic worldview never explained the origin of the universe, origin of life, biological development, and consciousness. To which objection the standard answer was, and to date is: ‘We are working on it.’ Which brings one back to the only limit when it comes to fiction: imagination.

According to ‘modern’ philosophy, apart from other things, it is a sign of extreme rationality to believe that a man is constrained to do what he does (he has no freewill); that oft-times he is unaware of even his own motives; and that the whole concept of punishment and rewards is therefore not only unfair but grossly irrational.

All the while when, in real life (as opposed to fiction), the whole world and intelligent life therein (including philosophers, I dare say) is based squarely on responsibility, reward and punishment. There is nothing new about this brand of ‘rational’ materialism, which is exemplified in Sam Harris – philosophy has this way of repeating itself cyclically.

Hume had famously taken reason to a similar extreme, and Kant had no option but to retort that there were two sorts of reason: pure and practical; and that Hume could merely have been talking about pure reason. For all Kant’s failings (and he had a good many) he was intelligent enough to know that only fiction could counter fiction.

It is well known that philosophy started with a much broader view than what is now generally considered its subject matter. Aristotle’s works included what we would now categorize under science, logic (mathematics) as well as what we are apt to refer to as ‘philosophy’.

The writer is a connoisseur of music, literature, and food (but not drinks). He can be reached at www.facebook.com/hasanaftabsaeed

Okara sexual assault case

Foreign flags appearing on Pakistan’s soil is worrisome

F

Gory plight of the differently-abled girls exposed

OLLOWIng the United States’ abrupt exit from Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly mobilized and started capturing territories across the war-torn country. Their recent advance towards cities like Herat and Lashkar gah and sensitive installations like Kandahar airport suggests that it may not be too long before Kabul falls. Afghan forces are engaged in fierce street battles with Taliban forces to stop any such eventuality but the progress the latter has made so far does not bode well for the ghani government and the future of the Afghan people. Since May of this year, when the US withdrawal began, giving the Taliban the opportunity and confidence to begin their campaign to seize power, support for their cause has been witnessed in Pakistan as well. Two weeks back, the Afghan Taliban seized a major border crossing with Pakistan following which celebratory rallies were taken out in Peshawar and Quetta showing people chanting slogans and waving Taliban flags. Yesterday, a group of 20 to 25 young men were found waving Afghanistan’s national flag as well as that of the Taliban at a public park in Islamabad. While the officers present at the scene may have brushed off the incident as a minor one as waving another country’s flag is ‘not a crime’, such events cannot be taken lightly.

Pakistan has suffered immensely due to the US starting a conflict across the border in Afghanistan and exiting prematurely, leaving behind a dangerous mess that causes death and destruction. This was the case following the end of the 80’s Afghan War and is being repeated as the US exits Afghanistan after 20 years with hardly anything to show for it. The recent uptick in terrorist activity across Pakistan indicates that a wave of terrorism, similar to the bloody violence witnessed between 2013 and 2018, may be on the horizon. It is unfortunate that parallel to this, a significant and worrying amount of support for the Taliban is being witnessed in various cities of the country. It is perhaps still not too late that aggressive action is taken by the relevant authorities to get a hold of the situation before it completely unravels and becomes uncontrollable. There is precedent for such an outcome, the result of complacency and procrastination. Hopefully the same mistakes are not repeated this time round.

MEHMil KHAliD KuNwAr

O

n June 21, a minor girl with disabilities was sexually assaulted by a man in Okara. The mother of the victim, while complaining to the Pakistan’s Citizen Portal about the incident of her daughter, also condemned the immorality of corrupt officials. She told the Prime Minister that the investigation officer who was probing the matter attempted to take bribe from her. The PM ordered the concerned authorities to take immediate action against the criminals and asked the DPO of Okara police to resolve the matter of bribe legally. As a result, the DPO dismissed the corrupt investigation officer.

Observers say that although the PM ensured a severe response for the culprits, yet the case underlines a multipronged disregard for humanity. Activists reiterate that the crime reported is not only an attack on the safety of women but is also a gory violation of human rights. They maintain that the country does not provide separate facilities to the differently-abled children, nor does it make relevant policies in this regard.

Many special children have been observed to suffer in silence, as their parents and guardians look after them by using whatever they have at their disposal with a lack of government support and effort.

As per the 2017 census, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics reported one million people in Pakistan that suffer from different kinds of disability. Unluckily, the differently-abled people face a lot of hurdles to be able to live a normal life like others.

A person with special needs said, “I face difficulties in accessing health services as well as rehabilitation and welfare services. There are no ramps in public buildings to facilitate us as most of the places are completely inaccessible for us.”

According to World Health Organization (WHO), children with disabilities are four times more vulnerable to abuse than non-disabled children. In day-today matters, many people when dealing with them, look at them with pity and treat them inhumanly that makes them more depressed. Some even inflict violence upon them taking advantage of their inability to respond and being naïve. Observers say that schoolteachers and even the school bus conductors

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do not treat them fairly and subject them to strict harangues that make them more scared and deprive them of the confidence to move in the society.

In Pakistan, persons with disabilities (PWD) are not given the due rights owing to the fact that there is no proper classified data present with the government. Experts say that without a full-scale investigation, no one can gauge the severity of situation that besets this community. Usually, the disabled person especially women, children and minorities need vast attention as their grievances go unheard due to their marginalized status in the society.

Last year, the government introduced a stipend for the families of the disabled people to provide them financial stability.

The Ministry of Human Rights is also engaged to protect this segment and submitted the bill “The ICT Rights of Persons with Disability Act 2020” that was passed by the national Assembly of Pakistan. The Act was lauded on all platforms and considered as a remarkable achievement for the Human Rights Ministry. It aims to help the disabled persons to unleash their potential by according to them the basic services with much more ease. Activists say the inclusion of such people in society will enable them to take respite from the continuous struggle in which they have been living for decades.

Observers say there is a pressing need of creating a healthy and safe environment for the differently-abled children, especially girls, as they are unable to protect themselves. Pakistan is a signatory of various international conventions that stress upon the state to strictly follow them and recognize a separate status for such people. For instance, Pakistan ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which recognizes the rights of children with disabilities. The clauses of the convention also include girls in the category of children.

“Pakistani law requires that 2 percent of people employed by an establishment be ‘disabled persons’” noted Saroop Ijaz, the Senior Counsel, Asia Division

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

at Human Rights Watch.

“In the absence of reliable data, estimates of the number of people living with disabilities in Pakistan wildly vary from 3.3 million to 27 million. Pakistan ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2011.”

The Department of Economic and Social Affairs at United nations also lays focus on ensuring equal rights to disabled children. The Article 7 explicitly states that the children with disabilities will fully enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms on equal basis with other children.

Also, they hold the right to express their views freely on all matters affecting them, and their views should be given due weight in accordance with their age and maturity on equal basis with other children. It expects the states to enable the implementation of these clauses and bring the disabled children at par with the normal ones.

“Persons with disabilities need encouragement and support to enable them to be viable and productive part of society,” said national Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser.

“Concentrating on health and education of special persons would change the fate of the nation,” he added.

Observers maintain that state protection is the fundamental right of every citizen.

It is the responsibility of the state to create equal opportunities and provide safe routes of growth to all its nationals on equal footing without any sort of discrimination. Therefore, experts say, Pakistan being a democratic country, must work towards ensuring the rights of its people that are enshrined in the constitution and strive to strengthen the socio-economic development especially of the disadvantaged population whose grievances often remain unnoticed.

Observers say there is a pressing need of creating a healthy and safe environment for the differently-abled children, especially girls, as they are unable to protect themselves. Pakistan is a signatory of various international conventions that stress upon the state to strictly follow them and recognize a separate status for such people.

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Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

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The writer is a polymer engineer with a profound interest in politics. She works on social issues and gender bias. She can be reached on Twitter @mehmilkhalid

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Tuesday, 3 August, 2021

COMMENT 07 Editor’s mail Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively

The culture of Pakistan is not abuse I want to draw your attention towards an important issue that is Just two day ago, the news of the Islamic Parties of the Assembly, Jamiat Ulema-eIslam Fazl (JUI-F) and Jamaat e Islami (JI), rejected the The Domestic Violence Bill, on the grounds that the bill is a threat to Pakistan's social and cultural norm. What are these norms they're referring to? To physically and mentally abuse the women ? Is that a cultural aspect of Pakistan. Is this the culture we have been trying to create since the independence?

Just recently, a clip of two brother harassing their sister over heritance dispute was all over social media. So it means that our islamic party leaders, support the brother, who were abusing the ladies with hammer, rather the women, who were just asking for their right given to them by islam. It is immediate, that better knowledge and understanding of the world is given to them for them to understand whats wrong, as well as better education facilities and the bill needs to be passed for the women of Pakistan to feel safer in this country of peace.

Wania aShraf KaraChi

Cruelty against women

Sino-US relations And Ortega’s Mass Man SHAziA ANwEr CHEEMA

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n July 31, military delegates from India and China held a nine-hour long inconclusive meeting at Moldo on the Chinese side in the Ladakh region and no official statement was released by either party after the meeting. Some Indian media outlets known for their fair reporting indicate frozen high altitude Himalayan borders between India and China are getting hot.

Military delegations of both countries met with a pause of three months and it was a top military leadership where the Indian delegation was led by Leh-based XIV Corps chief Lt gen P.g.K. Menon and Additional Secretary (East Asia) in the Ministry of External Affairs, naveen Srivastava, and the Chinese military delegation was led by the Commander of the PLA’s Western Theatre Command, Xu Qiling.

Did this meeting have any connection with the meeting of the U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken with a representative of the Dalai Lama in new Delhi that took place on July 28? This is an appropriate question one should think about.

Asian news International reported that after face-off at Pangong Lake, India and China eased out the situation and they disengaged from the banks of Pangong lake but gogra Heights and Hot Springs areas are left to be resolved as these friction points were created last year. Chinese Media saw this meeting as “important” while Indian media portrayed this meeting as a part of ongoing military deliberations. What is going on at the Indo-Sino Line of Actual Control (LAC) is another question because reports coming from both countries cannot be considered neutral or authentic as stakes are high on both sides.

Understanding the real situation at Indo-Sino needs a functional approach as well as to look it from an international perspective. Blinken’s meeting with a representative of the 14th Dalai Lama has been taken by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a serious interference in China’s internal affairs. Meeting of top military leadership just after three days of Blinken’s meeting in new Delhi look interlinked and interconnected because Indian media indicated this border meeting was not scheduled. nevertheless, Indian media is silent about who called this meeting?

European Think Tanks are of the view that India must play logically because it can be collateral damage to the forecasted rough weather engulfing the US-China relationship.

The United States has placed Tibetan Policy and Support Act to twist the arm of China diplomatically because this Act can put sanction on any Chinese individual or group under the global Magnitsky Act, including denial of entry into the United States of any individual or group is found involved in meddling with Dalai Lama and his government in exile. US President Biden

is very clear to curtail China through his Strategic Partner in South Asia—-India and any ColdWar like situation between the United States and China will influence all regional stakeholders, particularly Pakistan and India because Pakistan is captaining the Belt and Road Initiative in the form of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and India is hosting Tibetan conflict in the shape of Dalai Lama.

China and United States had never been in a faceoff situation but now a Cold War-like situation has arisen between China and the United States. now things are altogether different for China, Pakistan, and India in South Asia. In past, the US never placed China as its immediate concern but today the US considers China an immediate threat. The US has never been contested by anybody ever in past even by the former Soviet Union in as it is contested by the Chinese economy and money is the most important issue in Capitalism.

China has threatened the core of US Capitalism by taking away sources of money from the western world.

According to the list of countries by merchandise exports, based on Un COMTRADE and ITC statistics for the year 2020, China is at the top doing 13.3 percent of total global exports while the US stands second with 8.8 percent of the total share of global exports. germany is third on the list with a 7.9 share of global exports. Data indicates that the difference between germany and United States is very thin while the difference between China and the US is quite significant that is 4.5 percent. This situation has made the US restless and its Capitalism-driven Foreign Policy has been defeated so far by the Chinese vision of development. Will the US let China move at the same pace economically? The logical answer is no.

I take the United States as the ‘Mass Man’ of Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y gasset who says that technological and political advances in society are caused by the unusual individual who is separated from the “mass” of humanity by his “interior necessity…to appeal from himself to

some standard beyond himself, superior to himself. Ortega defines the “mass man” is not synonymous with the common man. He is not a member of any particular socio-economic class, but rather is an individual who “regards himself as perfect.” The mass man “feels the lack of nothing outside himself.” He feels no compulsion to follow principles of legality when they are not in his self-interest. He regards the benefits of civilization as his natural right rather than as the result of a complex chain of social interactions. The mass-man believes in “direct action.” When he rules “the homogeneous mass weighs down on the public authority and crashes down, annihilates every opposing group,” because the mass “has a deadly hatred of all that is not itself.”

The US as a mass man of Ortega cannot accept Chinese economic advances and will use all its force to curtail China while China having a philosophical history of thousands of years knows the art of survival. USChina cold war would be altogether different than of Russo-US Cold War because that war was between two ideologies —- Capitalism and Communism, while US-Sino emerging Cold War will be between economic opportunities offered by China to developing countries and threats the US can pass to them.

One of the most popular ancient Chinese proverbs is: “If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people.”

This is what China did in the last 20 years when the United States was busy inflicting conflicts in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and other places.

The United States has placed Tibetan Policy and Support Act to twist the arm of China diplomatically because this Act can put sanction on any Chinese individual or group under the Global Magnitsky Act, including denial of entry into the United States of any individual or group is found involved in meddling with Dalai Lama and his government in exile.

The writer Shazia Cheema is an analyst writing for national and international media outlets. She heads the DND Thought Center. She did her MA in Cognitive Semiotics from Aarhus University Denmark and is currently registered as a Ph.D. Scholar of Semiotics and Philosophy of Communication at Charles University Prague

IT hurts me a lot to mention that Balochistan is the only province where girls are suffering a harsh life because cruelty on women is increasing day by day. They are surviving a fearful and painful life in order not be chased by the cruel men of our society. They have left their school owing to our monstrous society. Their vitality is snatched so that they can’t raise their voice. But unfortunately yet our men are unaware of the dignity of women.

Most importantly, they are told some statement by their own surrounding that hurts a lot don’t wear such clothes because they are thick, laugh less because you are a women and sit property so that no one should blame you. What’s this? Don’t women have the rights to live the world in their own ways? Why so much cruelty on women? If they are just born to do the home chores, then kill them the time, then give birth in this cruel world - what kind of life is that?

It is hard to say that I belong to a society where women are deprived of their rights and where they are just considered workers who manage the work. Therefore, I urge the government to give their due rights and request to male to please treat them well so that their fear should be finished. rizWana riaz ahmEd TurbaT

Roadside begging THIS refers to the beggar’s mafia in the city. They are teasing the passerby people. Their place of begging is a petrol pump, the gate of the shopping malls, and the entrance place of the religious gates and parking areas. They have an eye on the person when they come to such places. As it is a practice that when they stand at the petrol pump for inserting petrol into their cars. The petrol purchaser gives money. They are surrounding the person who is paying the money to the petrol boy. They are targeting the person who is paying money from his wallet. They don’t see that he is with his family or any person who is special to him. Beggars are compelling him to pay him money by all means. Beggars are demanding amounts that they want. But when we refuse then they curse us. They say that you are with wealth and riches. Why you are not giving us money.

They bargain and pass the comments. Their attitude is unusual and causes a misdemeanor. So the government must take action against them.

This has also been observed that they are professional beggars. They are not needy. They have become habitual of begging. Though they are fit in health. If they do any work other than begging it could be better for them.

Due to them, the needy person is suffering. It is therefore requested to the district administration look after the professional beggars who are exploiting the people. As it is law in the other developed countries like Saudi, Japan, and Arab countries that begging is a ban. The police and city administration take strict vigilance. They arrest the beggars sitting in crowded places. So these countries take the responsibility to give security to the person. They see the needy person and pay the monthly remuneration from the treasure. mujEEb ali Samo larKana

Femicide in Pakistan LATELY, three innocent women were murdered by ruthless men. Killing helpless Khadija and noor does not show that they have conquered the world rather it reflects their cowardice. This is not the only case, many such cases have occurred in the country. According to an estimate of the Women’s Peace and Security Index, Pakistan ranks in 164 out of 167 countries. This highlights a very bad picture of Pakistan in the world.

Another report shows that more than 32 percent of women have gone through physical violence in Pakistan. Pakistan’s government is very lazy in giving peace and harmony to women. So, it needs to work on that. The murderers of innocent women must be punished.

WaSEEm ahmEd hub

A remarkable victory AFTER the persistent rainfall forced the abandonment of the first T20 International of a four-match series between West Indies and Pakistan with no-result at Kensington Oval in Barbados on Wednesday, the Men in green got victory of seven runs over West Indies in the second T20 International at the national Stadium in guyana on Saturday. I appreciate the praiseworthy performances of entire team of Babar Azam. However, the remarkable scores of 51 and 46 runs by captain Babar Azam and wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan respectively deserve our appreciation since duo scores helped the Men in green to set up the great target of 158 for the against team as well as both Men in green are the backbone of batting line for the team.

We Pakistanis believe that the Men of Babar Azam will make the victories in the remaining matches of the series to win the series. muhammad baKhTiyar KECh

Tuesday, 3 August, 2021

08 WORLD VIEW

THE ENDGAME IN AFGHANISTAN: DARKER CLOUDS GATHER

oozy.com

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JohN mclaughliN

he last time I wrote about Afghanistan, I tried to offer a balanced look at the arguments for both pessimism and modest optimism regarding Afghanistan’s future after the U.S withdrawal. Since then, the omens for the mountainous South Asian country have grown darker, with Afghan forces suffering major losses, significant desertions, and the Taliban expanding its influence and control. There are still a few unknowns, but the ones supporting hope are declining in number and credibility.

Taliban commanders are almost certainly exaggerating when they claim to control 85 percent of Afghanistan. It’s probably closer to 50 percent, but that is still worrying, and there’s little question they have made sizable gains. They appear to have the “strategic momentum,” as Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said in a Pentagon news conference last week.

Their important gains? A border crossing into Iran and, most impressively, a successful hard push in the northeast, where the Taliban had not previously been strong. There, 1,000 Afghan troops fled across the border

earlier this month into Tajikistan, and many local officials scrambled aboard planes to escape. Such gains and momentum doubtless spurred the U.S. decision to carry out airstrikes in support of Afghan forces last week, and the U.S. Central Command chief is leaving open the possibility that such strikes could continue after their scheduled end on Aug. 31.

Taliban leaders have been playing a double game.

On the one hand, they are pushing ahead militarily to strengthen their position in any dealings with the existing government. On the other, they suggest they remain open to peace talks and agreement with the Kabul administration. They played this out most recently in Tehran, where on July 7 Iran hosted the first round of talks between the Taliban and the Kabul government in months. Nothing came of it, other than an opportunity for the Iranian media to slam the U.S. for leaving Afghanistan “emptyhanded after two decades” in circumstances they compared to Vietnam.

Looking ahead, Afghanistan’s internal state and potential return as a terrorist hub depend largely on four factors in the weeks and months after the U.S departure at the end of August.

First, the Afghan security forces will have to hold and gain ground. Logistics will be key, and they face a few big obstacles. With their air force stretched thin and without U.S. assistance, they will have trouble getting to combat, resupplying troops under fire and evacuating the wounded. Maintenance issues will multiply in the absence of U.S. contractors who managed the supply system and repaired equipment. Morale could become fragile under

A new revolution in the Middle East

centre for Strategic and international StudieS (cSiS)

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JoN B alteRmaN

O hear some people describe it, the global energy transition is nigh. Widespread awareness of climate change has galvanized consumers and governments alike to get serious about abandoning hydrocarbons. The financial world has read the new sentiment and pivoted away from oil and gas. Investors are now pouring billions into renewables, and China sees renewable energy as a national security imperative. Soon, oil production will outstrip demand, and as prices fall, producers will produce even more to make up for lower volumes, suppressing prices still further. Oil prices are going to drop off a cliff.

An alternative view is that the energy transition will take decades, and the built infrastructure to consume hydrocarbons ensures a robust market for many years. While electric cars get attention, approximately 90 percent of new car sales are still gas-fueled, and charging infrastructure is still billions of dollars and decades away. existing homes have gas furnaces and gas stoves, and they last decades. Virtually all of the world’s jet fuel is petroleum based, and the world is becoming ever more reliant on plastics, which are derived from oil. That is to say nothing of the developing world, where most of the world’s population lives, and which often operates on smaller economic margins than wealthier nations. These countries’ consumption is rising sharply as incomes increase, and they are likely to rely on existing equipment and technology for longer.

While the wealthy can spend thousands on green products, for much of the world’s population, oil and gas will remain the affordable and available fuels.

There are reasonable arguments for both of these views, and no one can say with any certainty how technology, regulation, or consumer behavior will unfold.

For the Middle east, which scenario comes closer to fruition is of profound importance. Oil and gas revenues drive the region’s economies, since the region is comprised almost entirely of energy-exporting states and labor-exporting states. Poorer states send workers to the richer ones, and workers send billions back home to their families. The world’s strategic attention to the region is also contingent on energy production. Religion and tourism will keep the region in the public’s mind, but for governments, the region’s irreducible significance is a product of global energy markets.

The idea that oil prices will drop off a cliff is predicated on the notion that oil is a market, and even small imbalances have large economic consequences. Today,

global oil consumption is approximately 100 million barrels/day, and the system has relatively little capacity to produce more. When consumption threatened to outstrip supply in 2008, oil reached $140/barrel. When the Covid-19 pandemic suppressed demand in the spring of 2020, the world began to run out of storage, and oil prices plunged. Saudi Arabia took the biggest hit, cutting production by about 20 percent while prices still dropped below $30/barrel, less than half of their previous level. It took more than six months of reduced global oil production to work through the oversupply.

A sustained drop in global consumption, however small, would pressure Gulf countries to boost production in an effort to drive higher-cost producers out of the market and ensure that they are not left with even lower-value barrels in the ground when consumption drops still further. This partly explains the spat over production this month between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab emirates.

We don’t know who the winners and losers of the next decade will be in the Middle east. The increased volumes of low-cost producers might make up for lower prices, leading to a renewed strategic focus on Middle eastern producers. Alternatively, the imperative of market discipline may fall to Middle eastern producers, who would need to constrain production to prevent prices from collapsing. how this plays out will matter.

Governments throughout the Middle east have been preparing for a post-oil world for years, but they remain far from their targets. In the Gulf states, the transition from high-productivity, low-wage workers subsidizing the efforts of low-productivity, high-wage workers will take years. Private sectors strain to provide jobs for new entrants to the workforce, and youth unemployment tops 30 percent in many countries. Youth alienation is a problem every government is considering in the decade since the Arab uprisings. It is a problem no government is convinced it has under firm control.

And the energy transition will matter for more than just the Middle east. energy security drives much of China’s recent investment in the region. If the Chinese government decides that its energy security derives from mines in Africa and not wells in the Middle east, we should expect Chinese attention and capital to shift.

If there is a more enduring role for oil and gas in the global energy picture, more contestation between the United States and China for regional influence is possible. Finally, it is possible that Western states will turn away from hydrocarbons for ecological reasons, while China and the developing world remain devoted to them for economic reasons. This could manifest almost as a U.S. abdication of a future role in the Middle east, with China picking up much of the slack.

What is especially important to grasp here is how much of how this develops is beyond the ability of Middle eastern governments to shape. The principal drivers of the global energy transition will come from outside the region. They will have a profound impact inside the region, and they will shape the way the region relates to the rest of the world. To hear some people tell it, that change could be profound, and it could be coming very soon.

Jon B. Alterman is a senior vice president, holds the Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy, and is director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

growing pressure — as a former U.S. ambassador has pointed out, Afghan wars have typically ended when people decided “that one side was going to win and stopped fighting.” In the same vein, a former student of mine, a veteran of multiple deployments, reminded me that the Afghan army does not have the long traditions or ingrained commitments of the U.S. Army. Afghans, he said, can just take off their uniforms and go home.

Second, it is unclear how the population and the Taliban will interact in a country that is very different, at least on the surface, from the Taliban-ruled country of 2001.

With 70 percent of the country under the age of 25 and 15.6 years the median age, most of today’s Afghans have grown up knowing two things: war and, especially in urban areas, the growing freedom that came with the influx of Western business and values. They want the first to end and the second to continue. Meanwhile, women, who were not allowed to work outside the home when the Taliban ruled before, now comprise 30% of the civil service. But in the newly Taliban areas of the north, the signs are not good: Women now report directives telling them to leave their houses wearing a hijab and only with a male companion. If this clash of values expands nationwide, the Taliban would probably revert to forced submission — but this could just as easily spark a civil war.

Third, how the international community deals with the Taliban will condition its actions. The best chance for moderating Taliban behavior would come through a successful U.S. campaign to orchestrate concerted pressure on the group by an unlikely coalition of neighbors and great powers. To do so, Washington would have to

overcome the reflexive tendency of many of these — India, Pakistan, Russia, Iran — to see Afghanistan as a kind of geopolitical chessboard on which to enhance influence or checkmate another’s.

Finally, detecting and neutralizing any threat of terrorism again taking root will depend on how well the U.S. can shift from 20 years of a close, richly resourced presence to remote operation, which is always more difficult. This will require a robust human and technical intelligence collection, coordinated with capabilities ranging from drones to special operations launched from facilities outside Afghanistan and coordinated with basing countries.

This is theoretically feasible. The reality though is that successful counterterrorism is almost always the result of rapid detection and rapid response.

On my final official visit to Afghanistan in 2004, I left with a sense of guarded optimism — I knew the country’s reputation as the “graveyard of empires,” but the Taliban had been vanquished, we had al-Qaida on the run, and the country had an elected president. But an Afghan colleague had the day before cautioned me with an old Afghan proverb: “One flower does not make it spring.” The succeeding 17 years have certainly proven that prophetic.

John McLaughlin is the former deputy director of the CIA. He writes a regular column on OZY called “Global Eye: Foreign Affairs Through an Intelligence Lens,” and teaches at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Globalisation strikes back THE ONGOING PANDEMIC AND GLOBAL CLIMATE-RELATED DISASTERS DEMONSTRATE THE INADEQUACY OF EFFORTS TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEMATIC ASPECTS OF GLOBALISATION Project Syndicate

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RichaRd N haass

he summer of 2021 has come to be largely defined by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and accelerating climate change. Both are manifestations of globalisation and the reality of a world increasingly defined by the vast and fast cross-border flows of just about everything, from goods, services, and capital to data, terrorists, and disease.

Little nowadays stays local for long. The lethal coronavirus that first appeared in Wuhan, China did not remain there, and greenhouse gases emitted anywhere warm the atmosphere and ocean everywhere.

These two crises demonstrate the woeful inadequacy of efforts to address the problematic aspects of globalization. The so-called international community has again shown itself to be anything but a community. The supply of COVID-19 vaccines is billions of doses short of what is needed. The funds to pay for global immunization are likewise billions of dollars short. Governments are putting their countries first, even though fast-spreading variants are emerging in under-vaccinated populations elsewhere and are indifferent to political borders.

As a result, the pandemic remains an intense threat. The death toll thus far is said to be over four million, but the real figure is several times higher, owing in some cases to flawed reporting systems and to deliberate undercounting by populist leaders in Brazil, India, hungary, Russia, and elsewhere. The economic consequences are likewise substantial, with the pandemic estimated to have reduced global GDP by over 3%. Approximately 100 million people have fallen back into extreme poverty. Inequality between and within countries has spiked.

What makes these developments all the more frustrating is that we know what to do about COVID-19 and possess the means to do it. Several safe and extraordinarily effective vaccines exist. What remains to be done is to scale up production to meet global demand.

In some countries, such as the United States, what needs doing is the opposite: to increase demand to meet the available supply. Vaccine hesitancy, fueled by partisan politics or misinformation circulating on social media, television, and talk radio, has become dangerously widespread. If vaccination were complemented by public-health measures known to slow the spread of disease – masking, social distancing, readily available and accurate testing and contact tracing, and quarantining – there would be far fewer and less severe infections, and the pandemic as we know it would fade away.

The effects of the other crisis, climate change,

have arrived sooner than many anticipated. For years, the tendency has been to put off any concerted response to the threat, despite clear and growing evidence that the planet is warming. As is often the case, the urgent crowded out the important. But the summer of 2021 is showing that climate change is both important and urgent.

Its effects are many. In the US, wildfires in the West rage out of control as the temperature climbs, and smog has blanketed swaths of the country. europe and China are the scenes of massive flooding. In Africa, Latin America, and the Middle east, there are signs of prolonged drought. The loss of life has been relatively modest, but it could well grow. economic effects will likewise mount. The number of people who are being internally displaced or forced to migrate is rising sharply as large tracts of territory become inhospitable to human life.

There is much talk about how to slow or stop climate change, but it is mostly just that. The United Nations climate-change conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November will continue to emphasize an approach whereby individual countries offer voluntary commitments to reduce their emissions.

This is important, but it is obvious that many countries are focused more on economic growth at all costs, and are unable or unwilling to adopt energy paths that will meaningfully reduce their contribution to climate change. It remains to be seen whether there is the will to adopt tariffs that raise the prices of goods made in factories fueled by coal, or to impose sanctions against governments that refuse to stop the destruction of rainforests that absorb carbon dioxide. Also to be determined is whether wealthier countries are prepared to make available the funds and technologies that poorer countries need to shift to a greener energy mix.

At the same time, focusing on slowing the rate of climate change, however necessary, is insufficient. A good deal of climate change has already happened, and more will happen regardless of what is decided in Glasgow. efforts to adapt to existing or inevitable effects of climate change, to make cities and rural areas alike better able to withstand pervasive heat and sprawling wildfires, more frequent storms and floods, and more severe drought, will also be needed. Resilience will be as important as prevention.

Lastly, we must accelerate both the development and regulation of new technologies that promise to remove CO2 from the atmosphere or reflect sunlight away from earth. Such potential responses to climate change are unproven and controversial. But if the collective failure to deal with COVID-19 is any indication, we had better be prepared to consider them sooner rather than later. There is no escape from globalization; the only question is whether and how we choose to manage it.

Tuesday, 3 Auguast, 2021

BUSINESS 09

ISLAMABAD

PakiStan’S exPoRtS to italy RecoRd 49Pc gRowth ISLAMABAD

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APP

AkISTAN’S exports to Italy recorded a 49 per cent growth on a year-on-year basis to $786 million in the outgoing fiscal year 2020-21 (FY21) despite the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic had hit the Italian market.

According to details, Ambassador of Pakistan to Italy, Jauhar Saleem while talking to the media through a zoom link webinar organised by the embassy of Pakistan in Rome on Sunday said that the country posted a trade surplus of $300 million with Italy in FY21, adding that the trade surplus has been created by export enhancement and import contraction.

Italy has been among the first countries in Europe that were severely hit by the pandemic. Italian GDP fell as low as 9.6pc in 2020, which is the highest fall since World War II. Moreover, Italian imports from nonEU countries declined by 14pc.

Saleem said that despite these difficult conditions, Pakistan has not only recovered from the pandemic-led export challenges, but also registered impressive growth during the period under review.

“The value-added sectors were the main drivers of this growth,” he added.

While responding to a question, the ambassador stated that despite the Indian false

PAK-ITALY SEE NEW DIMENSIONS TO ENHANCE TRADE, ECONOMIC TIES

claim over Basmati`s exclusive Geographical Indication (GI) rights in the EU and Italian market, Pakistan maintained its position as market leader in rice with 37.4 per cent share whereas India supplied only 12 per cent of the total imported rice in Italy.

FBR issues draft rules for new export facilitation scheme LAHORE

SINGAPORE

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has notified draft rules for the Export Facilitation Scheme (EFS), 2021, which will be effective with effect from August 14. The new scheme has been approved by the federal government and passed by parliament under the Finance Act, 2021. This scheme will run parallel with existing schemes like manufacturing bond, DTRE and other export oriented schemes for two years. The existing old schemes shall be phased out in the next two years and will be fully replaced by the new scheme, rules for which can be accessed at the official website of FBR. The new EFS-2021 includes minimum documentation and encourages new entrants and SMEs. Users of this scheme will include manufacturers cum exporters, commercial exporters, indirect exporters, common export houses, vendors and international toll manufacturers, who will be subject to the authorisation of inputs by the collector of customs and Input-Output Organisation (IOCO) director general. Inputs include all goods, imported or procured local, for the manufacture of goods to be exported. These include raw materials, spare parts, components, equipment, plant and machinery. No duty and taxes shall be levied on inputs imported by authorised users and local supplies of inputs to the authorised users shall be zero-rated. Through this new scheme, common export house will import inputs duty and taxfree for subsequent sale to authorised users, especially SMEs. This scheme has also allowed international toll manufacturing within Pakistan. Under the said scheme, minimum but necessary documentation and securities based on category and profile of the applicant, user or exporter will be required. This scheme will encourage new entrants and SMEs and will be completely automated under WeBOC and PSW wherein users and regulators shall be integrated and communicate through these systems.

AGENCIES

MONITORING REPORT The rise of the United States (US) dollar in the interbank against the Pakistani rupee continued on Monday as it crossed the Rs163 mark. According to details, the US dollar was traded at Rs163.05 in the interbank after witnessing an increase of Rs0.62 on the first day after the weekend when it was traded at Rs162. The Pakistani rupee had touched an all-time low of 168.43 against the greenback last year in August before recouping some losses to hit a 22-month high of Rs152.95 in April, 2021. However, it has since been on a decline, facing a downturn for the past week after the central bank announced that the current account deficit would widen to 2-3 per cent of GDP in current fiscal year 2021-22 (FY22) compared to 0.6pc in FY21.

The drop would be seen on the back of surge in imports,

pared with the annual figure of FY 2019-20 that was $ 369 million. “It has made Italy, Pakistan`s seventh largest destination for workers remittance globally and number one from the EU.” He expected this growth streak to be

Oil prices slide on worries over China economy and higher crude output

STAFF REPORT

US dollar crosses Rs163 mark in interbank market

He informed that Italy hosts the largest Pakistani diaspora in the EU countries. “In FY21, workers remittances from Italy reached $601 million which is an all-time high figure,” he added.

He said it is 66 per cent higher if com-

continued in FY22.

Furthermore, Saleem said Pakistan-Italy bilateral relations are looking at new dimensions to enhance mutual cooperation and economic activities in different sectors.

Negation between both of the sides on enhancing cooperation in the fields of trade, labour market, tourism, agriculture, energy, investment, innovation and skills and media sectors are in the final stages.

He said that Italy and Pakistan have agreed in principle to negotiate a labour agreement that will give Pakistan comprehensive market access to Italian labour market. He informed that Pakistan has been included in Italian seasonal work visa for 2022 which would offer an immense opportunity for our labour force working in the agriculture and services sector to come and work in Italy with legal entry mode.

He informed me that Italian firms are investing in energy, food processing, leather, textile, construction and furnishing.

He added that the mission is promoting joint venture (JV) mode for Italian investment in Pakistan that will help in technology and skill transfer to our businesses. There will be an increased number of Italian investor delegations to Pakistan once travel restrictions are eased.

He also highlighted the initiatives that have been taken to promote tourism, especially capacity building of Pakistan`s tourism sector stakeholders through Italian experts.

On the multilateral front, the ambassador informed that Pakistan has been elected as president of International Development Law Organisation (IDLO) for two years which would help promote the country`s leading role on different forums along with taking advantage of IDLO`s technical assistance for Pakistan.

Oil prices fell by more than $1 on Monday on worries over China’s economy after a survey showed growth in factory activity slipped sharply in the world’s second-largest oil consumer, with concerns compounded by a rise in oil output from OPEC producers.

Brent crude oil futures skidded $1.12, or 1.5%, to $74.29 a barrel by 0156 GMT while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures dropped 97 cents, or 1.3%, to $72.98 a barrel after slipping to a session low of $72.87.

“China’s been leading economic recovery in Asia and if the pullback deepens, concerns will grow that the global outlook will see a significant decline,” said Edward Moya, senior analyst at OANDA. “The crude demand outlook is on shaky ground and that probably will not improve until global vaccinations improve.”

China’s factory activity growth slipped sharply in July as demand contracted for the first time in more than a year, in part on high product prices, a business survey showed on Monday, underscoring challenges facing the world’s manufacturing hub.

The weaker results in the private sur-

vey, mostly covering export-oriented and small manufacturers, broadly aligned with those in an official survey released on Saturday that showed activity growing at the slowest pace in 17 months.

Also weighing on prices, a Reuters survey found that oil output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose in July to its highest since April 2020, as the group further eased production curbs under a pact with its allies while top exporter Saudi Arabia phased out a vol-

untary supply cut. While coronavirus cases continue to climb globally, analysts said higher vaccination rates would limit the need for the harsh lockdowns that gutted demand during the peak of the pandemic last year.

The United States will not lock down again to curb COVID-19 but “things are going to get worse” as the Delta variant fuels a surge in cases, mostly among the unvaccinated, top US infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday.

Bitcoin attracts high-profile interest LONDON AGENCIES

Tesla, Twitter and maybe Amazon: Big tech companies are interested in bitcoin and it could take off again after several weeks of laying low. Bitcoin soared close to $40,000 on Monday after electric carmaker Tesla expressed fresh support for the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.

It leapt 15 percent in Asian trade to a one-month high at $39,681, buoyed also by reports that US retail titan Amazon was mulling the use of crypto technology. Bitcoin later eased back to $38,880 in European deals.

Analysts said the sudden jump was the result of several developments. The US investment group Ark Invest organ-

ised last week what it called “The B Word”, an event aimed at promoting the virtual currency. The group had Tesla founder Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey of Twitter reaffirm their interest in bitcoin.

Musk has been ambivalent about

the digital currency, sometimes singing its praises, while also expressing concern about its environmental impact.

This time he said Tesla would likely start accepting bitcoin as payment, which helped rekindle a flame under it.

India’s daily gasoline consumption exceeded pre-pandemic levels last month as states relaxed COVID19 lockdowns while gasoil sales were low, signalling subdued industrial activity in July.

The United States and Britain said on Sunday they believed Iran carried out an attack on an Israeli-managed petroleum product tanker off the coast of Oman on Thursday that killed a Briton and a Romanian, and pledged to work with partners to respond.

Bitcoin had shot up by 290 percent over a one-year period to an all-time high of almost $65,000 in April, before falling back by about 40 percent. “The bulls are back in town, and this time it seems like they are back with a vengeance,” said Naeem Aslam, an analyst at AvaTrade. The second development that caused a social media buzz was a posting by Amazon for a job related to digital currencies and blockchain strategy. “Bitcoin is flying once again and it would appear the credit is going to Amazon, or more specifically a job posting at the company,” remarked Craig Erlam, an analyst at the online brokerage Oanda.

“What that actually means is anyone’s guess but what it does do is excite crypto enthusiasts and gets the rumour mill pumping,” he added. Erlam suggested that traders who needed to buy bitcoin to fulfill contracts coming due might also have played a role.

Tuesday, 3 August, 2021

10 FOREIGN NEWS

ISLAMABAD

DEAth toll In tUrkEy wIlDfIrES rISES to EIght, CoAStAl rESortS AffECtED ISTANBUL

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REUTERS

HE death toll from wildfires on Turkey’s southern coast rose to eight on Sunday as firefighters battled for a fifth day to contain blazes still raging in coastal resort towns.

Two more people died on Sunday due to wildfires in the southern town of Manavgat, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, adding that 10 others were receiving treatment in a hospital in the area.

Most of more than 100 blazes that erupted in Turkey in the last five days have been contained, authorities said. However, fires were still blazing in Manavgat and in Marmaris and the inland town of Milas, Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said, prompting the evacuation of some residential areas and hotels.

In the popular resort town of Bodrum,

a group of tourists and hotel staff was evacuated by boat as flames spread and plumes of smoke filled the sky, footage showed.

Pakdemirli said the blaze in the area had been contained by Sunday morning.

The fires had already claimed the lives of five people in Manavgat and one person in Marmaris in recent days. Efforts were being made to put out six fires still blazing in Turkey on Sunday, according to Forestry Ministry data.

Since Wednesday thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes. Locals, as well as support teams from Russia, Ukraine, Iran and Azerbaijan, were deployed to help firefighters. The Turkish government pledged to rebuild damaged homes and compensate for losses in areas affected by the fires.

Pakdemirli said at least 13 planes, 45 helicopters, drones, and 828 fire-fighting vehicles were involved in firefighting efforts.

US to begin new Afghan refugee programme: sources WASHINGTON

The EU said it had helped mobilise three fire-fighting planes on Sunday, one from Croatia and two from Spain, after Turkey activated a disaster response scheme to request help from other European countries. Turkey is not a member of the EU. In neighbouring Greece, firefighters were trying to contain a wildfire burning in the west of the country that destroyed houses and left 15 citizens in hospital with breathing problems on Saturday, authorities said. Temperatures have been high in much of the country in recent days and are expected to reach 44 degrees Celsius on Monday and Tuesday.

On the Italian island of Sicily, firemen said on Saturday they were battling for second straight day wildfires that reached the town of Catania, forcing people to leave their homes and the local airport to temporarily shut down.

Russian and Uzbek militaries begin joint Afghan border drills

REUTERS

MOSCOW

US President Joe Biden's administration will launch a new programme to resettle certain Afghans as refugees in the United States, an administration official and two knowledgeable sources said on Sunday. The US State Department was expected to announce the setting-up of the so-called Priority Two refugee programme on Monday, the three sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The programme comes as fighting surges in Afghanistan ahead of the formal completion of the US troop withdrawal at the end of this month, with the Taliban pushing to capture key provincial capitals. Biden has faced pressure from lawmakers and advocacy groups to aid Afghans at risk of Taliban retaliation because of their association with the United States during the 20-year US war. The administration official said the new refugee programme would cover Afghans who worked for US-funded projects, US-based non-government bodies and media outlets. Those Afghans do not qualify for the Special Immigration Visa (SIV) programme that covers interpreters and others who worked for the US government, and their families. About 200 SIV applicants whose visas are in the final stages of processing and family members flew into the United States last week at the start of an evacuation effort dubbed "Operation Allies Refuge" that could include as many as 50,000 people or more. They were taken to stay at a military base in Virginia to complete their final formalities before being resettled around the country. The administration official said the new programme for Afghans would differ from a Priority Two refugee programme for Iraqis that has been indefinitely suspended while US officials pursue a sweeping fraud investigation. The new Afghan programme will require applicants to be referred by US agencies, senior US officials, nongovernment bodies or media outlets, the official added. The referral requirement is a key difference between the new Afghan programme and the Iraqi programme, which allows Iraqis to apply directly without a referral, the official said.

REUTERS

UAE rolls out Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine to children aged 3-17 ABU DHABI REUTERS

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will start providing China's Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine to children aged between three and 17, the UAE government said on Twitter on Monday. It cited the health ministry as saying that the decision comes after clinical trials and extensive evaluations, without providing any details. Authorities said in June the trial would monitor the immune response of 900 children. The Gulf Arab state, which has one of the world's highest immunisation rates, was already providing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 12-15. The health ministry said on Sunday that 78.95 per cent of the UAE population of roughly nine million had received one vaccine dose while 70.57pc had been fully vaccinated. The UAE, the region's tourism and trade hub, registered 1,519 new coronavirus infections on Sunday to take its total to 682,377 cases and 1,951 deaths. It does not provide a breakdown for each of its seven emirates. It led Phase III clinical trials of the vaccine produced by China's stateowned drugmaker Sinopharm and has started manufacturing it under a joint venture between Sinopharm and Abu Dhabi-based technology company Group 42.

Troops from Russia and Uzbekistan began joint military drills on Monday near the Afghan border amid fears in both countries over a worsening security situation in Afghanistan that could spill over into Central Asia. Russia said 1,500 Russian and Uzbek troops would take part in the five-day exercises that began at the Termez military site in Uzbekistan, the TASS news agency reported.

In a sign of how serious Moscow is taking the potential threat from Afghanistan, it said it would send a much bigger military contingent to Tajikistan for separate trilateral exercises due to begin there later this week. Those separate drills are due to take place on August 5-10 and involve Russian, Uzbek and Tajik forces.

Security has rapidly deteriorated in Afghanistan amid a U.S. troop withdrawal. Moscow fears that could destabilise its southern defensive flank and push refugees into its Central Asian backyard.

On Monday, Russia's defence ministry said that 1,800 of its soldiers would take part in the Tajik drills, instead of 1,000 as initially planned. More than 2,500 troops would be involved in total, it said.

Moscow will also use 420 units of military hardware for the drills, double the quantity originally planned, it said.

Indian states agree to resolve border dispute after deadly clash NEW DELHI AFP

Two states in India's north-east have agreed to resolve their differences peacefully after their long-running border dispute erupted into deadly violence last week.

Last Monday clashes on the demarcation between Assam and Mizoram left six police officers dead in a major embarrassment for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

The two regions' chief ministers tweeted on Sunday that they would now seek an “amicable” approach to the dispute.

Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga urged locals to stop posting “sensitive messages” on social media while his Assam counterpart HimantaBiswaSarma highlighted the “spirit of the northeast.”

“What happened along the Assam-Mizoram border is unacceptable to the people of both states... Border disputes can only

be resolved through discussion,” Sarma tweeted.

The six Assam policemen were shot dead in the clashes that also left 60 people injured. Both states have blamed each other for the violence which erupted after Mizoram alleged Assam had encroached on its territory.

Assam in turn accused Mizoram villagers of encroaching instead on reserve forest land.

Sarma belongs to Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party while

Zoramthanga, who uses only one name, heads the Mizo National Front — an ally of the ruling BJP alliance.

Mizoram was part of Assam till 1972 and became a state in its own right in 1987. The border argument has been going on since then with sporadic violence.

Indian media on Monday said the government might rely on satellite mapping to define the boundaries to help settle the dispute and others in the region.

Bangladesh, India restore rail link DHAKA TLTP

A rail link between Bangladesh and India suspended since the Pakistan-India 1965 war has been restored after over five-and-a-half decades. Railway operations between Bangladesh’s border district of Chilahati and Haldibari in India’s West Bengal province had been halted since the 1965 war between South Asian rivals Pakistan and India. Bangladesh was part of Pakistan at the time and known as East Pakistan. It became an independent country six years later in December 1971. A goods train carrying stone chips was dispatched from India and will be the first to use the Haldibari-Chilahati route in 56 years, the Indian High Commission in Dhaka said in a statement. This is now the fifth operational rail link between India and Bangladesh, the statement added. Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi greenlit the revival of the railway corridor last December, hailing the move as another mark of the growing friendship between Dhaka and New Delhi. “We expect that the resumption of this commercial train service will give new momentum to bilateral relations in terms of trade and people-to-people connectivity between our two friendly countries,” Nurul Islam Sujon, railway minister of Bangladesh, told reporters.

Tuesday, 3 August, 2021

SPORTS 11

ISLAMABAD

Politics and drama as Biles, Belarus and new Zealand's HuBBard in focus TOKYO

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REUTERS

HREE women dominated the focus at the Olympics on Monday - US gymnast Simone Biles, Belarus sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya and New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard - as politics and personal issues played out at the Tokyo Games.

China's team sprinters took the first gold on offer in the track cycling programme, powering to victory and helping solidify China's leading medal haul. In gymnastics, American Jade Carey won the gold medal in the women's floor event.

In athletics, Netherlands' Sifan Hassan unleashed her sizzling pace in the final lap to leave a gaping distance to the chasing pack and claim the women's 5,000 metres gold, kicking off her bid for an unprecedented Olympic treble.

Biles will compete in the balance beam competition, officials said on Monday, in what would be the superstar gymnast's last chance for gold in Tokyo after pulling out of other events citing mental health issues.

Biles shocked the world last week when she withdrew from several events, putting a focus on athletes' mental health and deepening the drama at a Games that have seen plenty of controversy. Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was granted a humanitarian visa by Poland after taking refuge in the Polish embassy in Tokyo. She had refused her team's orders to board a flight home early from the Games on Sunday.

Tsimanouskaya plans to leave for Poland

in the coming days, a Polish deputy foreign minister, Marcin Przydacz, told Reuters. She is "safe and in good condition" after walking into the embassy on Monday morning, he said.

New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard made history on Monday by becoming the first openly transgender athlete to compete at an Olympic Games, but suffered disappointment with an early exit from the women's +87 kg final after failing to make three lifts.

USA Gymnastics said Biles will take part in the balance beam final and they were "excited" about the prospect.

The 24-year-old Biles, who won four golds at the 2016 Rio Games, dropped out of the all-around, floor exercise, vault and asymmetric bars finals in Tokyo.

STRICT MEASURES: The Games are tak-

england tour of Bangladesh postponed indefinitely NEWS DESK England's white-ball tour of Bangladesh, which was originally scheduled for September and October this year - shortly before the start of the men's T20 World Cup - has been postponed indefinitely, ESPNcricinfo reported. That will now allow the England players who are a part of the IPL to take part in the tournament when it resumes in the UAE on September 19, after being postponed following the first 29 matches earlier in the year when there was a number of positive Covid-19 tests in several teams' biobubbles. The players not involved in the IPL, meanwhile, will get a chance to rest before England embark on a packed winter touring schedule that includes the T20 World Cup, which begins on October 17 in the UAE (some first round games will also be played in Oman), and the Ashes in Australia. England are also scheduled to tour Pakistan for two T20Is on October 14 and 15 as part of their preparations for the T20 World Cup. Though the status of that series is currently unclear too, the PCB is planning for it to go ahead.

Originally published on ESPNcricinfo

ing place without spectators and under strict measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic, an unprecedented event in the history of the modern Olympics.

The Tokyo Olympics have already been hit by public opposition, as polls have shown that most Japanese people oppose holding the Games amid the worsening pandemic.

China has pulled ahead on the medals tally with 29 golds, followed by the United States with 22 and Japan on 17. Even as Biles stole the spotlight, China's Liu Yang, South Korea's Shin Jea-hwan and American Carey all claimed gold in gymnastics.

China's cycling team sprinters, Bao Shanju and Zhong Tianshi, broke their world record in the first round and although they were fractionally slower in the final, it was

enough to beat Germany and retain the title.

Fans are allowed into the venue, which is outside Tokyo and the only indoor arena at the Olympics to permit spectators.

POWERED BY COFFEE: Dutchwoman Hassan began the day by falling on the last lap of her 1,500 metres heat, only to spring up and charge through the field to finish first.

Fuelled by caffeine, she returned to the track in the evening and was in total control of a slowly-run 5,000 metres, sitting in the pack before unleashing her trademark last-lap burst.

"Before the race here I didn't even care.

I was so tired. Without coffee I would never be Olympic champion," she said.

In the 100 metres hurdles, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn won the first Olympic gold medal in athletics for Puerto Rico at the Games. She exploded off the blocks to finish in 12.37 seconds despite hitting one hurdle, beating American world record holder Kendra Harrison who came in second with 12.52.

MiltiadisTentoglou of Greece won the men's long jump in spectacular fashion as he leapt 8.41 metres in his final attempt to snatch the gold medal from Cuba's Juan Miguel Echevarria.

Tentoglou was the world leader coming into Tokyo with an 8.60 metres leap at a domestic competition in May but struggled to find his form and was outside the medals positions as he hit the runway for the final time.

The World Cup-winning United States suffered a surprise 1-0 defeat by Canada in the women's soccer tournament semi-finals, with Jessie Fleming grabbing the winner with a 75th minute penalty.

PROTEST AND SPORT: The International

KPL 2021 schedule announced NEWS DESK The Kashmir Premier League (KPL) management has announced the schedule for the inaugural season of the tournament,Express Tribune reported on Monday.

Total six teams will contest in the 10-day tournament, which will run from August 6 to 17 in Muzaffarabad. Nineteen matches will be played in the tournament.

The teams include Rawalakot Hawks, Kotli Lions, Mirpur Royals, Muzaffarabad Tigers, Overseas Warriors and Bagh Stallions. In the first match, ShahidAfridi’sRawlakot Hawks will take on Shoaib Malik’s Mirpur Royals on August 6.

GIBBS COMING TO PAKISTAN: KPL CHIEF: Meanwhile, according to a news outlet, KPL President Arif Malik said that former South African batsman Herschelle Gibbs is coming to Pakistan despite threats from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Malik said India should understand that players are coming to play cricket in the KPL and this is not politics.

"Herschelle Gibbs is coming to Pakistan despite threats [from the BCCI]," he said,

adding that India has also stopped international commentators from participating in the KPL and that the league is trying to bring in more foreign players for the tournament.

He hoped the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will not block players' NOC for the tournament.

PANESAR PULLS OUT OF TOURNAMENT: On the other hand, former England cricketer Monty Panesar succumbed to the pressure of the BCCI and announced to pull out of the KPL. Panesar in a video message declared that he would not be participating in the KPL. “They are saying that if I play in KPL,I may face the consequences…… As I am just starting my career as a sports journalist. I [also] want to be a sports broadcaster and do commentary everywhere in the world, including India. I would like to avail the opportunity. So, I can’t jeopardize that [opportunity] by taking such a big decision,” he said, adding that “it will be a risky decision [to play in KPL]”.

SCHEDULE: August 6: Mirpur Royals vs Rawlakot Hawks August 7: Bagh Stallions vs Kotli Lions

August 7: Overseas Warriors vs Muzaffarabad Tigers August 8: Mirpur Royals vs Bagh Stallions August 8: RawlakotHawks vs Kotli Lions August 9: Overseas Warriors vs Mirpur Royals August 9: RawlakotHawks vs Muzaffarabad Tigers August 10: Muzaffarabad Tigers vs Kotli Lions August 10: Bagh Stallions vs Overseas Warriors August 11: RawlakotHawks vs Bagh Stal-

USA stun Mexico in extra time to win Gold Cup final LOS ANGELES AFP

The United States claimed their seventh CONCACAF Gold Cup title on Sunday night with a thrilling 1-0 extra time win over defending champion Mexico in Las Vegas.

Miles Robinson headed in the winner, soaring over Mexican defender Edison Alvarez deep into the extra time and bouncing it past goalkeeper Alfredo Talavera to set off a wild celebration at the Allegiant Stadium.

"I am happy we got the win," said Robinson. "Just awesome, crazy emotions. I knew if I could get open and get a half step then I could finish it."

Matt Turner was also superb in goal for the upstart Americans, who finished undefeated in the biennial North American showcase tournament.

This was the American team's first Gold Cup title since 2017, and avenged their de-

Olympic Committee (IOC) is meanwhile looking into the gesture US shot putter Raven Saunders made after the silver medallist raised her arms in an X above her head on Sunday, IOC spokesperson Mark Adams told a briefing.

Saunders later said the gesture was intended as a sign of support for the downtrodden, while the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) said it did not breach IOC rules. While the IOC forbids overt political expression or interference, last month it relaxed its Rule 50 that prevented athletes from protesting. Athletes are allowed to make gestures on the field, providing they do so without disruption and with respect for fellow competitors.

However, the threat of sanctions remains if any protests are made on the podium during the medal ceremony.

"Let them try and take this medal," Saunders said in a late night post on social media in an apparent reference to the IOC's rules restricting protests.

PAKISTAN’S NAJMA PARVEEN FINISHES LAST IN 200M HEAT: Pakistani Olympian Najma Parveenran in heat 2 of the women’s 200m and finished at seventh position, the last place. The top Pakistani athlete, who holds the national record of women’s 200m at 23.69 seconds, was 2.88 seconds behind the athlete who finished at number 6 in the Tokyo Olympics.

On the other hand, Pakistani shooters Ghulam Mustafa Bashir and Khalil Akhtar were eliminated from the Olympic race to medal stages after failing to remain in the top six in two stages of qualifiers.

feat to Mexico in the 2019 final.

The USA has now defeated Mexico in back-to-back tournaments for the first time.

They also beat Mexico in extra time in the CONCACAF Nations League final in early June. The game was played in Las Vegas but

it might as well have been Mexico City, with the flag-waving, sold-out crowd of over 60,000 a sea of Mexican supporters in green and red.

It was a familiar scene for the American team, used to being treated like a visiting team on home soil whenever they play Mexico.

Seeking their ninth Gold Cup win, Mexico controlled the first half but the USA fought back after the break, carrying their momentum into extra time.

Robinson scored the winner in the 118th minute after teammate Kellyn Acosta sent a deep free kick into the 18 yard box.

The USA made the final thanks to Turner's heroics, despite fielding one of their youngest lineups ever in a Gold Cup. Both Turner and Talavera made huge saves Sunday, to keep it scoreless through regulation.

Turner, who plays for the New England Revolution of the MLS, started every game and posted five shutouts.

lions August 11: Kotli Lions vs Mirpur Royals August 12: Bagh Stallions vs Muzaffarabad Tigers August 12: RawlakotHawks vs Overseas Warriors August 13: Overseas Warriors vs Kotli Lions August 13: Muzaffarabad Tigers vs Mirpur Royals August 14: Qualifier August 15: Eliminator 1 August 16: Eliminator 2 August 17: Final

He is hoping his performance in the Gold Cup will earn him a spot on the national team for World Cup qualifying.

Turner was frequently tested in Sunday's game, especially in the first half, when he kept his team in the contest. One of his best saves came in the 30th minute, when he stopped Mexico's Rogelio Funes Mori from close range.

Funes Mori headed the ball to himself to get behind the US defence, but he couldn't beat Turner in tight.

Turner, who was named Best Goalkeeper of the event, also made a brilliant save on a Funes Mori header off a corner kick in the 11th minute, diving to keep the ball out of the net.

Mexico came out flying to start the second half and had a trio of chances in the first seven minutes but were unable to find the target.

That's when the US started to create some quality chances that were missing in the first half for them.

Talavera's best save came in the 74th minute when American Paul Arriola won a footrace to a loose ball but couldn't beat the Mexican keeper, who somehow managed to block it with his upper body.

Tuesday, 3 August, 2021

PRAyeR timingS

NEWS

FAJR SUNRISE

ZUHR

ASR MAGHRIB ISHA

3:47

12:14

5:05

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ArAb pArliAmentAry delegAtion meets Fm, AppreciAtes pAkistAn’s role For muslim cAuses ISLAMABAD

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APP

HE Arab parliamentary delegation led by its President Adel Abdulrahman Al-Asoumi called on Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, appreciated Pakistan’s role for Muslim causes and discussed scope of diversifying ties with Pakistan.

The foreign minister welcomed the Arab Parliament’s delegation that arrived in Islamabad on Sunday on a five-day visit.

Terming the Arab Parliament, a main body of the League of Arab States, Qureshi said Pakistan had excellent relations with Arab countries based on common religious and cultural values.

He mentioned that Pakistan had strong bilateral relations with the countries of the Middle East, where a large number of Pakistanis were residing.

Pakistan, he said, wanted peace and stability in the Middle East and as a founding member of the Organization of Islamic Co-

operation was committed to playing a positive role in the unity of the international community.

He said Pakistan considered a just solution to the Palestinian issue essential for peace in the Middle East.

The foreign minister recalled of meeting the leadership of Arab countries during his official visit to Egypt, where he discussed bilateral matters with them.

He apprised the visiting Arab delegation on Pakistan’s geopolitical priorities that included building and developing partnerships with friendly countries and striving for peace and stability.

Qureshi updated the Arab parliamentary delegation on the grave human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, which he said were a threat to peace of the region.

He expressed confidence that the visit of the Arab parliamentary delegation would prove as an important milestone in the development of bilateral parliamentary relations.

Pakistan ‘watchful’ as India assumes UNSC presidency NEW YORK StAFF RePoRt

A day after India assumed the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council for August, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the global body, Munir Akram, said Islamabad will be “watchful, but not concerned” during New Delhi’s spell at the forum.

During its presidency, India will host signature events related to various issues on the UN agenda with a focus on maritime security, peacekeeping, and counterterrorism, NDTV reported.

The presidency of the 15-member Council rotates monthly, going alphabetically among member states. India took over the presidency from France on Sunday, and it’s only coincidental that it has coincided with the second anniversary of the annexation of occupied Kashmir and the completion of the withdrawal of foreign troops from war-battered Afghanistan.

This is India’s eighth stint on the UNSC. “India will obviously use its SC Presidency to promote its own narrative on various issues, in-

cluding terrorism and UN reform,” Akram told Dawn early Monday morning.

“We will watch its conduct carefully and ensure that no moves that are against Pakistan’s core interests are allowed to succeed.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually preside over the body’s meeting on “Maintenance of international peace and security: Enhancing maritime security — A case for international cooperation”, in which member states will discuss coordination to tackle maritime crime and security issues such as piracy and drug trafficking.

Modi will be the first Indian prime minister to preside over a UNSC meeting.

It is possible that at the behest of its Western allies, New Delhi may also raise the issue of navigation in the South China Sea. Washington wants its regional allies and other Asian nations to take a more united stance against China over the waters, where tensions have spiked in the wake of Beijing’s construction of seven man-made islands in the Spratly archipelago.

In return, China accuses Washington of seeking maritime hege-

mony in the name of freedom of navigation.

If such an eventuality arises, the Chinese ambassador is expected to give a strong response.

India will also organise a minister-level meeting titled, “Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts” at the end of the month.

Diplomatic observers expect India to push its baseless narrative of being a victim of terrorism and may go to the extent of targeting Pakistan. If it does, Pakistan will be ready with its response with a statement, as allowed to nonmembers.

Meanwhile, back in Islamabad, Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri expressed hope “India will abide by the relevant rules and norms governing the conduct of the Security Council Presidency”.

In view of the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, observers believe the issue may be raised in the Security Council as well. The Taliban have secured vast swathes of land as the United States and NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan.

FO rejects former Canadian minister’s remarks about Pakistan ISLAMABAD AnAdolu Agency

Pakistan has rejected allegations by a former Canadian minister on the cross-border movement of Taliban fighters, terming it “unwarranted” and “misleading.”

Chris Alexander, who was minister of citizenship and immigration from July 2013 to November 2015, in a tweet claimed that Taliban fighters were waiting to cross into Afghanistan from Pakistan.

“Anyone still denying that Pakistan is engaged in an act of aggression against Afghanistan is complicit in proxy war and war crimes,” said Alexander, who also served as Canada’s first residential ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005.

The Foreign Office late on Sunday termed Alexander’s assertion “a complete lack of understanding of the issue as well as ignorance of facts on the ground.”

“We strongly condemn the unwarranted comments by former Canadian Minister Chris Alexander making unfounded and misleading assertions about Pakistan’s role in the Afghan peace process,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said in a series of tweets.

“Now when the world has acknowledged what Pakistan and [Prime Minister] Imran Khan have consistently maintained about there being no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, and the need for an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive political settlement, such gratuitous commentary is deplorable,” he went on to say.

The matter, Chaudhri added, has been taken up with the Canadian side.

“We have urged the Canadian authorities to take steps to address this motivated and malicious smear

campaign,” he maintained.

The Taliban have launched a sweeping onslaught across Afghanistan following the final phase of the US pullout from the war-torn country, with the district after district falling to the militia.

Kabul accuses Islamabad of patronising the Taliban. Pakistan denies the charge and accuses Washington of “messing it up” in Afghanistan through its hasty pullout.

In December 2018, Pakistan arranged rare direct talks between Washington and the Taliban, paving the way for the Doha peace deal between the two sides.

Pakistan also facilitated the landmark first round of direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Islamabad in July 2015.

Fighting rages in Afghanistan as US, UK accuse Taliban of massacring civilians in border district KABUL AFP

Afghan forces battled to stop a first major city from falling to the Taliban Monday as the United States and Britain accused the insurgents of "massacring civilians" in a town they recently captured near the Pakistan border.

Taliban fighters assaulted at least three provincial capitals overnight -- Lashkar Gah, Kandahar and Herat -- after a weekend of heavy fighting that saw thousands of civilians flee the advancing militants.

Fighting raged in Helmand's provincial capital Lashkar Gah, where the Taliban launched coordinated attacks on the city centre and its prison -- just hours after the government announced the deployment of hundreds of commandos to the area.

The war has intensified since early May, with the insurgents capitalising on the final stages of the withdrawal of US-led foreign forces after almost 20 years.

As the country's security forces struggled to keep the Taliban at bay, President Ashraf Ghani blamed Washington for the deteriorating security.

"The reason for our current situation is that the decision was taken abruptly," Ghani told parliament, referring to the withdrawal of foreign forces.

Ghani said he had warned Washington that the withdrawal would have "consequences".

His comments came as the United States said it will take in thousands more Afghan refugees as violence surged across the country. "In light of increased levels of Taliban violence, the US government is working to provide certain Afghans, including those who worked with the United States, the op-

portunity for refugee resettlement," the State Department said in a statement.

Washington has already started evacuating thousands of interpreters and their families who worked with the military and embassy over the past two decades.

'LIFE IS AT A STANDSTILL': The United States and Britain on Monday accused the Taliban of atrocities that may amount to "war crimes" in the town of Spin Boldak, which the insurgents captured last month along the border with Pakistan.

"The Taliban massacred dozens of civilians in revenge killings. These murders could constitute war crimes," the embassies of Washington and London said in separate tweets.

"The Taliban's leadership must be held responsible for the crimes of their fighters.

If you cannot control your fighters now, you have no business in governance later."

The diplomatic lashing comes after Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission said the insurgents had indulged in revenge killings in Spin Boldak.

"After taking over Spin Boldak district, the Taliban chased and identified past and

present government officials and killed these people who had no combat role in the conflict," the group said, adding at least 40 people had been killed by the Taliban.

Fighting meanwhile continued in the southern Afghan city of Lashkar Gah overnight as Afghan forces beat back a fresh assault from the Taliban.

"Afghan forces on the ground and by air strikes repelled the attack," the military in Helmand said. Resident Hawa Malalai warned of a growing crisis in the city: "There is fighting, power cuts, sick people in hospital, the telecommunication networks are down. There are no medicines and pharmacies are closed."

Medical charity Doctors Without Border said casualties were mounting in Lashkar Gah. "There has been relentless gunfire, air strikes and mortars in densely populated areas. Houses are being bombed, and many people are suffering severe injuries," said Sarah Leahy, the aid group's coordinator for Helmand, in a statement.

Helmand for years was the centrepiece of the US and British military campaign in Afghanistan -- only for it to slip deeper into instability.

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The vast poppy fields in the province provide the lion's share of the opium for the international heroin trade -- making it a lucrative source of tax and cash for the Taliban.

The loss of Lashkar Gah would be a massive strategic and psychological blow for the government, which has pledged to defend provincial capitals at all costs after losing much of the rural countryside to the Taliban over the summer.

CONCERNS ABOUT AFGHAN MILITARY: Fighting also surged in some districts of Kandahar province, the former bastion of the insurgents, and on the outskirts of its capital.

In the west, hundreds of commandos were also defending Herat after days of fierce fighting.

Kabul has repeatedly dismissed the insurgents' steady gains over the summer as lacking strategic value, but has largely failed to reverse their momentum.

The capture of any major city by the Taliban would take their current offensive to another level and fuel concerns about the ability of the Afghan military.

"If Afghan cities fall... the US decision to withdraw from Afghanistan will be remembered as one of the most notable strategic blunders in American foreign policy," Australia-based Afghanistan expert Nishank Motwani told AFP. The Taliban have seized Afghan cities in the past but have retained them only briefly.