Epaper – June 22 LHR 2021

Tuesday, 22 June, 2021 I 11 Dhul-Qadah, 1442 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XI No 352 I 12 Pages I Lahore Edition

‘Hypocrisy’: imran calls out West for silence on KasHmir g

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IsLAMABAD

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Staff RepoRt

RIME Minister Imran Khan lamented that Western countries, the self-styled champions of human rights, were ignoring the gross breaches of rights and mass atrocities in Indian-oc-

cupied Kashmir where “hundred thousand” people have been killed by the Indian security forces.

“This is such a big issue […] why are the people of [occupied] Kashmir ignored,” the prime minister said in an interview with Jonathan Swan for Axios on HBO aired early Monday.

Imran, when pressed for a com-

Premier says once Kashmir dispute is resolved, there won't be any need for Pakistan to employ threat of nuclear deterrents Says wearing 'few clothes' in a society like Pakistan's may lead to sexual violence

ment on Uyghurs in Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China, observed that Kashmir was a “much more relevant” dispute where 800,000 Indian personnel had turned the region into an open-air prison for its nine million population.

“Why is this [Kashmir] not an issue?” he said, deploring the “hypocrisy” of the Western societies that have turned a blind eye to Indian treatment of the Muslim people of held Kashmir.

Former PkMAP senator Usman Kakar passes away in Karachi g

Opposition senators demand parliamentary probe in the politician's sudden death to ‘dig out the truth’ News Desk

Senior Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party leader and former senator Usman Khan Kakar passed away in Karachi on Monday. Kakar, 60, had received a head injury at his Quetta residence last week.

According to his physician Dr Samad Penzai, he was shifted to a hospital where he was operated on and put on a ventilator.

He was later shifted to Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi on an air ambulance where he succumbed to the injury. According to Penzai, Kakar was

found by his family lying on a carpet in his drawing room with blood flowing from his head but it was not known what caused the injury.

Kakar was elected to Senate in March 2015 where he remained a vocal member until the completion of his tenure in March this year.

After the news of his death was reported, condolences started to pour in from leaders across the political spectrum. Remembering the deceased, National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri said Kakar was a patriotic political and social leader.

coronavirus in

paKistan

CONFIRMED CASES:

949,175

LAST UPDATED AT 8:18 AM ON JUNE 21, 2021

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

NEW CASES:

30

907

RECOVERED:

DEATHS:

893,148 22,007 SINDH:

PUNJAB:

332,254

345,065

KP:

BALOCHISTAN:

137,075 AJK/GB: 19,967 / 5,813

26,633 ISLAMABAD:

82,368

“Usman Kakar fought for the rights of the people of Balochistan and always voiced their concerns,” he said.

National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar also expressed grief and said that his contribution towards the rights of the people of Balochistan will always be remembered.

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar also sent his commiserations to the bereaved family and prayed for the departed soul.

PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, PPP Vice President Sherry Rehman, and ANP Sindh chapter’s President Shahi Sayed

He further said that once the Kashmir dispute is resolved, there will no longer be any need for Pakistan to employ the threat of nuclear deterrents.

“Intelligence analysts say Pakistan has the fastest-growing nuclear arsenal anywhere in the world. Why?” Swan questioned. “I don’t know where they’ve come up with this. Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is simply a deterrent, to protect ourselves,” he said.

He further said he was “not sure” if

also expressed sorrow.

PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz praised him as a “a strong voice of democracy and a front line soldier of the struggle for civilian supremacy”. She added that she would always remember her conversations with him and the memory of his struggle would be kept alive.

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz said he was “deeply saddened” by Kakar’s sudden demise. He said Kakar had been a “dear friend” whose services for democracy and politics will be remembered forever.

Several other political figures also expressed condolences on the death of Usman Kakar and hailed him as a dedicated democrat.

Meanwhile, members of the opposition in the Senate on Monday raised suspicion over the “sudden death” of the PkMAP leader and demanded a parliamentary probe to “dig out the truth”, Dawn reported.

the arsenal was in fact growing. “As far as I know, it’s not an offensive thing. Any country which has a [hostile] neighbour seven times its size would be worried [for its security].” On Islamophobia, the prime minister said a “big communication gap” persisted between the Islamic world and the West, terming it the main reason behind the rising tide of Islamophobic incidents in those societies.

He said after the 9/11 attacks, the term “Islamic terrorism” came into currency, misleading the “man in the street” in the West into believing that Islam as a religion promotes terrorist activities. He pointed out that with the involvement of few individuals involved in militant activities in the name of Islam, the entire 1.3 billion-strong community became the target.

When asked about “doing vastly better than the United States” on Covid19, Imran said targetted restrictions coupled with comprehensive data analysis helped his government keep the outbreak in control. The smart quarantines were the “best decision” to cope with the situation, he recalled.

He further recalled that with people in Spain and Italy ending up in hospitals, as the pandemic raged through Europe, politicians from the Opposition demanded sweeping lockdowns.

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Speaking on the floor of the house, Senator Muhammad Akram of the National Party claimed that Kakar would always say that he faced the biggest threat from certain security agencies.

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Cleric confesses to sexually assaulting his student News Desk Former Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl leader and cleric Mufti Azizur Rehman on Monday confessed to sexually assaulting his student, Dawn reported.

Citing Deputy Inspector General of Police (investigations) Shariq Jamal Khan, the report stated that said the cleric had confessed that the incident’s video, which went viral on social media a few days ago, had featured him and was secretly filmed by the student who was being sexually abused. “I made the student a target of my lust with the lure of passing him [in his exams],” he admitted to the police. The cleric added that he was afraid and worried once the video went viral on social media and his sons had attempted to threaten the student and stop him from mentioning the incident to anyone. “I released the video statement because I did

not want to leave the madrassah. The madrassah administration had already told me to leave,” the DIG quoted him as saying. Rehman admitted that he had been hiding in Mianwali and was arrested by the police after being traced through his cellphone. “I am very ashamed at what I did,” he said during the interrogation.

The DIG said that all medical and forensic evidence was being collected in the case and “we will try to present a strong challan to secure a punishment.” He added that the cleric’s sons were also accused of making death threats.

The DIG also said that any other affected citizen could reach out and contact the police, adding that there was substantial evidence to prosecute in the case. He said that a life sentence or a prison term of up to 10 years was possible in the case. Prime Minister Imran Khan himself had

taken notice of the case, said the DIG, and was in contact with police officials prior to the cleric’s arrest. “[The] Punjab IG (inspector general of police) informed him about the arrest.”

Earlier in the day, a North Cantt Court in Lahore granted a four-day physical remand of Rehman to CIA Police. The court also ordered a DNA test and medical checkup of the cleric.

On Sunday, the police arrested Rehman, accused of sexually abusing his seminary student, from Mianwali. The police had also arrested Rehman’s two sons from Lahore and Lakki Marwat.

A case has been registered by the Lahore Police against Rehman, his sons and two unidentified persons. A team of the Lahore Police arrested Rehman in a late-night raid in Mianwali.

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MORE INSIDE

Occupied Kashmir’s leaders to urge India’s Modi to restore region’s autonomy STORY ON BACK PAGE

Opposition lawmakers in Balochistan assembly offer arrest

STORY ON PAGE 02

Shehbaz, Hamza granted interim bail ahead of rendezvous with FIA STORY ON PAGE 02

Imran directs action against Hyderabad AIG over corruption allegations STORY ON PAGE 02

02

Tuesday, 22 June, 2021

LAHORE

NEWS

imran directs action against hyderabad aig over corruPtion allegations

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NEws DEsk

RIME Minister Imran Khan has written a letter to Establishment Division, directing action against Hyderabad Additional Inspector General Dr Jameel Ahmed over allegations of corruption.

“Reportedly, the officer is heading 15 districts and allegedly collecting Rs1.5-2mn from each district on a monthly basis; besides taking a share on postings/transfers of under-command police officials,” the premier wrote in the letter.

Geo News reported that the prime minister stated that Dr Jameel has illegally occupied three rooms of the Circuit House in Hyderabad.

The prime minister also accused the police officer’s two sons of using their father’s position to extract unfair advantages.

He said that the police officer’s sons, as per reports, conducted firing practice at the Circuit House, adding that it was a populated area.

Citing examples of the official’s “corruption”, the prime minister asked the

Establishment Division to formally proceed against him under Rule 18(2) of the Civil Servants (Efficiency & Discipline) Rules, 2020.

Dawn reported that the AIG had been in the limelight earlier this year after the province’s top police official had revoked his order regarding the formation of a crime control cell, allegedly staffed by dubious officials.

In April, Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mushtaq Mahar had struck down Ahmed’s official order regarding the formation of a ‘regional crime control cell’,

reach Sindh through Balochistan from Iran where it reaches from India,” the report stated citing an unnamed source.

They were operating what they referred to as “line” in their parlance in the region to ensure the delivery of goods to traders in Karachi and Hyderabad. Iranian oil also passed through this “line”, the report quoted the source as adding.

Also in April, the AIG’s sons had subjected lower-ranking employees of the local circuit house to humiliation as they tied them to a tree to “teach them a lesson”.

The report stated that Sajjan Khaskheli, general secretary of the provincial works and services union, had claimed that AIG’s sons are “very unruly and arrogant and they humiliate the staff every now and then”. They did not even spare policemen, he had added.

The AIG has been staying at a suite in the circuit house which was meant for the Sindh chief minister since Aug 28 last year but he has not paid anything as rent, the report cited an administration official as saying.

referred to as “R3C”, and said the cell had been “maliciously created in contravention of rules and directions issued time and again” by the IGP’s office.

Citing information gathered from Hyderabad and Karachi police officers, Dawn reported that a couple of individuals associated with the AIG office and R3C in one way or the other had dubious backgrounds. They were either retired officers or dismissed from service.

“All these men are involved in smuggling of maava (tobacco mixed mild drug), betel nut, cigarettes, Indian gutka that

Bilawal urges SC to revisit Karachi encroachment verdict NEws DEsk

opposition lawmakers in balochistan assembly offer arrest QUETTA tLtp

Opposition parties’ lawmakers in the Balochistan Assembly have decided to offer their arrest in a case lodged against them for allegedly attacking the assembly and treasury bench lawmakers ahead of the provincial budget on June 18. A private television cited opposition leader Malik Sikandar Khan saying the MPAs who have been booked in the case will surrender themselves to Bijli Ghar police on Tuesday. He said MPAs of the opposition parties will also stage a protest outside the provincial assembly. It is pertinent to mention that police have registered an FIR against 17 MPAs of the opposition parties, including the opposition leader, on charges of attacking the provincial legislature and treasury bench lawmakers. On Friday, in a bid to stop the provincial finance minister from presenting the budget, opposition’s lawmakers held a sit-in outside the Balochistan Assembly‘s building. The atmosphere turned tense after the opposition’s lawyers stopped the assistant commissioner from entering the provincial assembly. They started throwing flowerpots and stones at security officials and government lawmakers. Clashes erupted between the police and the opposition lawmaker when Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan arrived at the assembly.

The opposition MPA’s were of the view that they will not let the budget session be held. Meanwhile, the opposition lawmakers locked all four gates of the provincial assembly to prevent the budget session from taking place.

nab finalises reference against asif LAHORE INp

The National Accountability Bureau has finalised assets beyond declared income reference against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Khawaja Asif, reports citing sources said on Monday. Asif has been accused of amassing wealth while holding public offices between 1991 and 2018. According to the reference, NAB Chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal approved an inquiry against Asif in September 2018, and he was arrested in December last year, following the probe into his assets. His total assets were registered at Rs5.1 million in 1993 but after holding offices during PML-N tenures, the assets recorded a sharp increase and were recorded at Rs404 million, the reference said. Asif earned Rs210.3 million between 1987 to 2018 but showed expenses of over Rs430 million in the same period. The reference further said that Asif bought several properties using his family members and also made several investments. Despite declaring the main sources of his wealth, he failed to provide any documentary proof and refrained from answering the claims regarding money laundering during the investigation, NAB said. The sources said and added that the reference has been dispatched to NAB headquarters in Lahore for final approval. After the approval, the reference will be filed in the accountability court.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has urged the Supreme Court to revisit its recent decision of razing illegal constructions in Karachi, saying his party believes in building homes instead of demolishing them so alternative spaces to the affectees should be given in the city.

Bilawal expressed these views on Monday at a ceremony marking the 68th birthday of her mother and late former PM Benazir Bhutto, saying the PPP constructs homes, not raze them, adding even if it did so, there must have been some legal, constitutional reasons.

“Do not snatch those basic rights of the people hastily,” he said. “We should take care of them with equal, adequate compensation.”

A private television channel reported Bilawal’s comments which came amid multiple anti-encroachment drives in Karachi. These campaigns were launched on the orders of the Supreme Court. Illegal constructions that are currently being demolished in Karachi include Nasla Towers, Aladin Shopping Mall, Pavilion End Club, and houses and other structures along the Gujjar, Orangi and Mehmoodabad nullahs.

“I felt really sorry that outside the steps of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, people had to chant ‘Bahria Town was saved but Orangi Town was razed’ and ‘Bani Gala was saved but Gujjar naala was razed’,” Bilawal said. “This gives a bad impression,” he added.

The PPP chairman said they were not creating this impression. “I know the government is acting on the court orders and we respect the judiciary a lot.” He said they were acting upon those orders but stressed the need to provide alternate spaces to the affectees.

Bilawal also stressed that the Sindh government would ensure that efforts by some “scheming forces” to disturb peace in the province failed, vowing “we will not allow anyone to bring (MQM-London founder) Altaf

Hussain’s politics back in this province”, Dawn reported.

He claimed that an efforts were being made to declare as “terrorists” the intellectuals in Sindh, who always wrote for the people and shaped their opinion.

“Sindh’s youths are identified as terrorists and [associated] with Altaf Hussain’s politics. We will not allow anyone to bring back that type of politics in the province,” he vowed.

“Together, we all established peace in this province and if scheming forces are trying to give a wrong colour, [if they] will try to disturb that peace, then we will defeat it,” he added.

Bilawal said that there was a lot of “out of context” criticism on Karachi, telling the officials present, “your duty is to represent the people of this province,

PeoPle Protest shortage of astraZeneca jabs required for foreign travel

Shehbaz, Hamza granted interim bail ahead of rendezvous with FIA LAHORE INp

A sessions court in Lahore Monday granted interim bails to PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz in money laundering case being investigated by the FIA till July.

Additional Sessions Judge Syed Ali Abbas heard the petition of Shehbaz and his son Hamza Shehbaz seeking interim bail on Monday.

The court granted interim bails to both Shehbaz and his son Hamza till July 10 and ordered them to submit surety bonds worth Rs1 million each.

The petition stated that Federal Investigation Agency made a baseless case of money laundering of Rs25 billion against PML-N president and his son through their sugar mills. It said that the FIA summoned the petitioner on June 22 for questioning.

According to the petition, National Accountability Bureau had already submitted a reference against the petitioner on the allegation of money laundering.

protect their rights and not listen to any nonsense.”

He claimed that misunderstandings had been created among the people and the party would have to make sure that they were resolved through its political efforts and outreach. “[PPP] is the only party that genuinely wants to find solutions to the people’s problems,” he added.

Bilawal said that Sindh was a “peaceful province” where people from all over the country came to live and work. “We will protect the peace but we will have to take steps so the people who have been led astray return to the right path.”

The PPP chairperson said that there “really is a sense of deprivation” among the province’s people, noting it was a valid demand that locals should be prioritised for employment in real estate development companies in Sindh to create a sense of ownership.

“It remains a duty for us to look at [facilities for] health, sewerage, drainage and education. A social contract is very necessary for any kind of project so local people get development and progress and their sense of deprivation is reduced.”

Bilawal said there should be a forum that provides legal aid to citizens who have been defrauded by private real estate developers.

LAHORE StAFF REpORt

ZUBAIR MEHFOOZ

It said that after the failure of NAB to prove accusations against the petitioner, the FIA had started a baseless investigation.

The petitioner prayed that he wanted to participate in the FIA questioning tomorrow that’s why he was seeking interim bail before his appearance before the investigation agency.

The FIA has summoned PML-N President and Leader of the

Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz on June 22 for questioning regarding the sugar scandal.

According to the FIA call-up notice, they had credible evidence of over Rs25 billion fraud case.

It may be mentioned here that the FIA had sent a questionnaire to the PML-N president earlier on December 18 last. Shehbaz had then said that he would submit his response after consulting his legal team.

Schools reopen in Sindh as new infections decline kARACHI StAFF REpORt

As coronavirus cases decline, primary schools across Sindh reopened today with strict standard operating procedures. According to instructions issued by the provincial government, schools will reopen with 50 percent attendance while school teachers and administrators have been directed to ensure the implementation of health guidelines.

Earlier this month, Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra

Pechuho had announced to keep schools in the province closed until the government was certain that coronavirus cases were on the decline.

“This is a numbers game. We have to proceed with caution until the numbers improve and don’t want to risk the lives of our children, their parents and relatives,” she said at the time.

Last month, the National Command and Operation Centre had allowed the phased reopening of educational institutions from May 24 in districts where the positivity rate was less than five percent.

Scores of people Monday took to the Expo Centre in Lahore demanding the provision of AstraZeneca jabs for protection against coronavirus after the administration temporarily halted inoculations due to a shortage. The people who said they intend to travel abroad forced their way into Expo Hall III to vent their frustration after being denied the jabs since most countries require foreign visitors to be vaccinated for Covid-19 with AstraZeneca, one of the vaccines accepted worldwide. The protest started after the unavailability of the vaccine. Protesters stormed the site, demanding the administration to provide the jabs dose so that they could travel abroad before the expiry of their visas and tickets. “We won’t leave until administration starts [the provision of] AstraZeneca vaccine again,” the protesters said. The administration appealed to protesters to leave the site but they refused.

Media reports suggested that the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines are being administered as usual. In Gujranwala, overseas nationals who wanted to travel abroad also protested outside the vaccination centre over the shortage of AstraZeneca stots. A heavy contingent of police has been deployed to avoid any untoward incident.

Tuesday, 22 June, 2021

LAHORE

NEWS

03

govt’s fiscal Plan for 2021-22 to bring economic revolution: PervaiZ khattak IsLAMABAD

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INp

EFENCE Minister Pervaiz Khattak terming the opposition criticism against budget a drama, has claimed that the fiscal plan of federal government for the year 2021-22 will bring economic revolution in the country.

He said on Monday that the government presented pro-public and growth-oriented budget despite multifaceted challenges faced by it. Khattak said that the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had put the province on road of progress and prosperity through introducing landmark reforms.

Owing to the reforms, the people of the province reposed confidence in the PTI leadership and elected them again with

thumping majority which was a big slap on face of the opposition, he added.

The defence minister said that construction and industrial sectors were booming owing to incentives given by the incumbent government led by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

He said the world economy suffered a lot due to Covid-19 pandemic. However, he said that “our economy did not suffer a lot owing to prudent policies adopted by the government under the acumen leadership of Imran Khan”.

Khattak said that PTI government inherited very limited foreign reserves since its inception and had to go to International Monetary Fund for payment of loans taken by the past governments of PML-N and PPPP. He expressed hope that “we would not

only get rid of IMF but also emerged as strong economic power”. The national economy was on right track and the industry was moving on fast track, he added.

The federal minister said the country’s foreign reserves stood at $ 25 billion and record increase was witnessed in the export.

The IT sector exports jumped to over $ 2 billion during PTI government which was only few million dollars in the past, he added.

He said that change was taking place in the country with improvement in the living standards of the people.

Khattak said we had given incentives to the industries and construction and this had started providing job opportunities to the people. If people’s lives were getting better and they had money to meet their expenses, it was an indication that the country was

going forward, he added.

He rejected the opposition parties’ criticism saying they could no longer hoodwink the masses. The PTI would also win the general elections 2023 with overwhelming majority, he hoped.

The defence minister was of the view that the construction industry and other industries generate employment in the country. The government had given record incentive to agriculture sector, he added.

He said that leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif claimed that no university was built in the KP. “I challenge him to have a debate with me and recount what he did in his 20 years and I will lay facts before the house about what I did in just five years,” he said Khattak said that PTI after formation of the government in KP in 2013, did land mark

Ayub accuses PML-N of shelving projects to make money through LNG deals IsLAMABAD App

Minister for Economic Affairs Omar Ayub Khan on Monday said that the previous government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had abolished more than 134 Renewable Energy (RE) projects of 4,000 Megawatts to make a quick buck through the ‘LNG train,’ creating opportunities for loot and plunder of the national wealth.

Participating in the federal budget debate in the National Assembly, he said that the Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaf (PTI) government after coming into power revived all these projects and brought a new RE policy, under which inexpensive electricity was being produced. He said that the PML-N government gave the solar projects’ tariff of Rs23-24 per unit, which the incumbent government brought down to Rs6.5 per unit within the period of one year.

Before completing its five-year tenure, the minister said that the previous government planted ‘landmines’ for the next government by deteriorating all institutions and collapsing the national economy.

He quoted official reports of the Planning Commission and media publications of February 2018, the last year of the PML-N government in power, which showed the previous government had failed to deliver

NCOC DAILY UPDATE

907 new covid infections take total caseload to 949,175 ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday recorded 907 new cases of Covid-19, receiving a transmission rate of 2.61 percent, the National Command and Operation Centre said Monday. The NCOC, the department leading the fight against the pandemic, said that the total number of Covid-19 cases rose to 949,175 in the country, including 893,148 recoveries. The number of active cases dropped to 34,020, and 2,238 of them are in critical condition. According to the NCOC, 30 deaths from the coronavirus were recorded on Sunday, raising the toll to 22,007. Punjab is the worst-hit province by Covid-19 with 345,065 infections, followed by Sindh with 332,254 infections. StAFF REpORt

muhammad tariq malik appointed nadra chairman The federal government on Monday notified Muhammad Tariq Malik as the chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).

According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Interior, he has been appointed the NADRA chairman for a period of three years.

“In exercise of powers conferred under section 3 (3) of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Ordinance 2000, the Competent Authority has been pleased to appoint Mr. Malik as chairman, NADRA for a term of three years in terms of Section 3 (5) of NADRA Ordinance, 2000, with immediate effect and until further orders,” the notification read. On June 8, the federal cabinet gave a goahead to the appointment of Malik as the NADRA chairman. NEwS DESk

in all sectors, and the national economy totally collapsed due to its wrong policies.

“Private investment also fell far below the target of 16.7 percent despite the bonanza of the China- Pakistan Economic Corridor project. While, imports remained far higher than the target of restricting to $31.1 million,” he read from one the reports.

Ayub said that the PTI government inherited a $20 billion current account deficit from the previous government that also failed in controlling the fiscal deficit. He said that Matiari to Lahore High Voltage Director Current (HVDC) transmission line was near to completion, adding that the government was dealing with the issue of capacity charges ‘fixed-payment’ so that it could be matched with the quantum of planned supply. The minister said that in 2013, the capacity payment [whether you use or not] was Rs185 billion that increased to Rs468 billion in 2018, due to the PMLN government’s wrong agreements of ‘take or pay.’

“Today 70 percent energy-mix of the country depends on the imported fuel,” he observed, adding this year the capacity payment would reach Rs 860 billion and by 2023 it would be Rs1,455 billion due to faulty strategy and policies of the previous government.

The PTI government, Ayub said, had renegotiated the agreements which would help save Rs4,000 billion

in the next 15 years.

He said that during the PML-N tenure the Residual Fuel Oil (RFO) usage in power plants remained 29 percent, which the PTI government brought down to 4 percent. “With this, we saved billions of rupees.”

Ayub said that an amount of Rs64 billion was payable to the Pakistan State Oil by the Nandipur Power project management, but when the record was checked, it came to know that the payment had been made but misappropriated by the previous government.

Recounting the incumbent government’s achievements, he said this year the flow of circular debt had been reduced by Rs100 billion as compared to 2018, by shutting down inefficient plants and renegotiating the agreements.

He said that the PTI government spent more than Rs49 billion in up-gradation of electricity transmission lines, and during last summer as many as 25,000 MW electricity was transmitted through the system, which at 18,000 MW in 2018 – the last year of the PML-N government.

Commenting on LNG, he said that in 2017, the Punjab government approved the 4th LNG-based power plant at a cost of Rs80 billion without any agreement and keeping in view its viability. He said the National Power Control Centre had informed in writing that the plant would remain 90 percent closed in a year.

‘No confusion’ in bin Laden’s status as terrorist, says Fawad IsLAMABAD StAFF REpORt

A day after Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi received flak for refraining from calling Osama bin Laden a militant during an interview, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Monday categorically said that those who kill innocent people are “terrorists”.

In a tweet, the minister said that there was “no confusion at any level” regarding those who carried out terrorist activities and killed innocent

people.

“That is terrorism and the perpetrators are terrorists. We have suffered the pain of terrorism in our own land and can understand the pain of all who have lost their loved ones in these cowardly attacks,” he said.

Qureshi, when the interviewer quoted Prime Minister Imran Khan as calling the former al Qaeda leader a “martyr”, said: “Out of context. He [prime minister] was quoted out of context.”

But when asked if he would disagree, the foreign minister paused for a while and then said: “I

will let it pass.”

In June last year, Prime Minister Imran landed himself in hot waters after he told parliament that bin Laden had been “martyred” in 2011 by US forces.

Bin Laden, who masterminded the 9/11 attacks on the United States, was killed in a raid on his hideout after eluding detection for nearly 10 years.

“I will never forget how we Pakistanis were embarrassed when the Americans came into Abbottabad and killed Osama bin Laden, martyred him,” he had said in his speech.

The prime minister’s speech had come as the Foreign Office hit out at a US State Department report that accused Pakistan of being a “safe haven” for “regionally focused terrorist groups”.

Pakistan calls for ‘immediate cessation’ of Houthi attacks on Saudi IsLAMABAD StAFF REpORt

The Foreign Office on Monday condemned recent attacks launched by the Houthis toward a southern Saudi region over the weekend and called for their “immediate cessations”.

Saudi air defences destroyed as many as 17 drones launched toward its southern region. A booby-trapped drone targeted Khamis Mushait city early in the morning before seven more targeting the southwestern region were intercepted in Yemeni airspace during the afternoon.

Khamis Mushait was again targeted by two drones in the evening. Another drone targeted southwestern Najran city late in the evening before six more were shot down near midnight.

“It is commendable that the coalition forces successfully intercepted the explosive-laden drones and destroyed them,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.

“These attacks threaten the lives of innocent people,

besides violating the territorial integrity of the Kingdom.

We call for immediate cessation of such attacks.”

The statement reaffirmed Islamabad’s “full support and solidarity” with the Kingdom against the threats to its “security and territorial integrity”.

The Saudi-led coalition that intervened in Yemen’s war in 2015 against the Houthis. It entered the war after the Houthis ousted the internationally recognised government from the capital Sana’a.

The movement, which holds most of north Yemen, has kept up cross border attacks on Saudi Arabia and a ground offensive in Yemen’s Marib region at a time the United States and the United Nations are pushing for a ceasefire agreement.

Riyadh and Sana’a have welcomed a truce but the Houthis want the full lifting of a sea and air blockade.

The conflict, seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed the Arabian Peninsula nation to the brink of famine.

legislations including introducing Right to Information Act, Right to Public Service Act, Whistleblower Act and Police Act, etc. to “ensure rights for our people”.

He went on to say that the provincial government set up 12 new universities besides setting up campus of various universities in various district of the province.

He said that there were 180 colleges in KP before PTI government and they started work on new 90 colleges. Out of which, 50 colleges had already been set up while work on remaining was in progress, he added.

The defence minister said missing facilities were provided in over 22,000 primary schools with an estimated cost of Rs30 billion. Similarly, all higher secondary schools in the province were up-graded which cost Rs60 billion, he added.

covid-19 vaccine batch to Pakistan from covaX deferred till july IsLAMABAD INp

A vaccine consignment to Pakistan from Covid19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) scheduled to be received this month, has been delayed, sources said on Monday. Sources privy to the situation, have said that Pakistan has been informed about the delay in the vaccine delivery.

Pakistan had to receive the vaccine consignment in the end of June but the delivery has been deferred to the beginning of the next month due to unavoidable reasons, sources said. Pakistan will receive the third batch of vaccine in July under the GAVI/WHO COVAX vaccine initiative. The country has already received two consignments under the vaccine initiative.

Pakistan received the first batch under the COVAX initiative on May 08 and the second batch on May 28, sources said. COVAX vaccine initiative will provide third batch of 1.238 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine to Pakistan in July. Another batch of 1.238 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine will be delivered to Pakistan in August, according to sources. The vaccine initiative has so far provided mostly AstraZeneca Covid vaccine and limited doses of Pfizer’s vaccine. The vaccine initiative will provide free-of-cost Covid-19 vaccines for the 20 per cent population of Pakistan and the country is expected to get an overall 45.5 million doses of vaccines. Covax is co-led by the World Health Organisation, the Gavi vaccine alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

iran hands over 400 illegal migrants to Pakistan QUETTA StAFF REpORt Iranian authorities on Monday handed over 400 migrants to Levies Force through Raahdari Gate at Taftan border in Chagai district. Initial investigation revealed that these people had crossed the border illegally in an attempt to reach Turkey and Europe for a better livelihood, while some others were working in Iran on daily wages. According to official sources, the Levies Force authorities later handed over them to the Federal Investigation Agency for further investigation and prosecution accordingly. The agency will further investigate and prosecute the illegal migrants. A Levies Force official said that migrants who did not have national identity cards were handed back to Iranian authorities and they would be received once they proved that they are Pakistani nationals. Islamabad and Tehran are engaged in strengthening cooperation to stop illegal cross-border movements.

Tuesday, 22 June, 2021

04 NEWS

LAHORE Freight trAin cruSheS tWo kidS to deAth SUKKUR: In a tragic accident, a speeding freight train crushed two children to death while injured two others in Sukkur on Monday. According to police, four children were grazing their cattle near Mando Dero Railway Station when the accident happened. The bodies and injured were shifted to a nearby hospital, the police said. There was no immediate word on their identities and ages. Last year in March, five people were crushed to death when a train had hit a rickshaw near Rohri, Sukkur. INP

one kiLLed in buS-motorcycLe coLLiSion in SheikhupurA SHEIKHUPURA: A motorcyclist was killed by an overspeeding passenger bus, local police said on Monday. According to details, a reckless driven passenger bus knocked down a motorcycle at Narowal Road near Kirto Pindori Town.

Motorcyclist, Mohammad (53), was killed on the spot in the accident. The body was earlier shifted to a nearby hospital and later handed over to the heirs after completion of legal formalities. INP

WASA claims improvement in Lahore’s groundwater level

LAHORE: Security personnel wearing 'Mughal-era' uniforms are seen patrolling in a market near Dehli Gate. ONLINE

Four copS ArreSted over FAke poLice encounter in kArAchi KARACHI

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INP

oUR cops were arrested and booked on Monday in a case of fake police encounter in Sachal area of Karachi. Earlier on Sunday, the encounter had caused injuries to two youngsters. The police had claimed to have injured two muggers in a police encounter near Sachal Goth area of the city.

However, an FIR, registered with the police under the attempt to murder charges on the complaint of a victim’s father, stated that 15-year-old Baitullah and 14-year-old Asif were injured after the police opened fire on them for not stopping during a snap checking.

“After sustaining bullet injuries, the police shifted them into their van and personnel present there tried to

kill the students,” the FIR read as the injured are currently receiving medical treatment at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC). The personnel, who are identified to be a part of the fake police encounter, are ASI Asghar Ali, Constables Sabir and Bahadur, and another cop Abdul Qadir.

The sources said that the SHo of the Sachal police station and the four cops continued to misguide the higher officials after the encounter and termed it a police encounter, besides labelling the students as muggers.

“The officials were not provided with the photos, video, or any other detail on the encounter,” they said, adding that the entire matter was busted when a divisional officer doubted and interrogated the matter. The police said that they would record testimonies of the injured youngsters to bring further clarity in the matter.

LAHORE: The Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) has claimed that the groundwater level of the provincial capital has been improved and it will benefit the future generations. A press conference was held at the WASA office here on Monday, in which WASA Managing Director Zahid Aziz and Vice Chairman Sheikh Imtiaz briefed the media on the groundwater situation. The MD said that the groundwater level in the provincial capital, which was falling rapidly, has been maintained. “There is no precedent in the world regarding the return of declining water. We have saved groundwater. If relentless use of water and carelessness had continued, the city's land would have collapsed and many problems would have arisen, including water scarcity. Before 2018, anyone in the city could install a tube well and draw as much water as desired. As a result of this practice, the city's water was being depleted rapidly and the groundwater level was declining. However, WASA imposed a license requirement for tube well installation after 2018 and imposed charges on the use of tube wells.

The court system gave us a lot of guidance in this regard. Now the groundwater level has been improved,” Aziz said. While briefing the media, the WASA vice chairman informed that in the past, underground water was being pumped round the clock, which has now been brought under control.

“The government is planning for water treatment plants. Water is also being used in parks and mosques. Underground water tanks have been built. The use of tube wells has reduced and groundwater level has improved. The government has made many reforms in WASA and fruits of the reforms are now showing,” he said. SHAHAB OMER

Bibliographic literature in Urdu SYED AFSAR SAJID R Haroon Rashid Tabassum is a noted scholar, litterateur, biographer, educationist, and social worker from Sargodha. He is a prolific writer.

Lately he has published six books in a series–Ahange Kutub, Tohfae Qartas o Qalam, Makhzane Kutub, Irfane Kutub, Taa’ire Afkaar and Liaqate Kutub–that contain his short but pithy reviews of some of the books that he has been receiving or collecting over the years as an avid bibliophile besides cataloguing the rest of them with necessary annotations with a view to cursorily acquainting the reader with their content and context. It is a commendable exercise which bespeaks his herculean creative gusto as an author, compiler, critic, and reviewer.

Endowed with a keen sense of (literary) history and research, Dr Tabassum has penned down his views on the books in the manner of a surveyor whose eyes are fast fixed on substantive facts in a given textual milieu and who can also reproduce them coherently in a readable form adding to the knowledge and information of the reader.

The compiler has sequenced the bibliographic material spanning a period of two decades, year-wise in the aforementioned six volumes, in the following order; (1) 2000-2009, (2) 2010-2015, (3) 2016-2017, (4) 2018, (5) 2019, and (6) 2020.

It would be interesting to mention here some noted authorial names whose works have been reviewed or listed in these anthologies; Hassan Askari Kazmi, Khurshid Shahpuri, Zahida Jabeen, Dr Inamul Haq Javed, Dr Asif Mahmud Jaah, Dr Shaukat Ali Qamar, Jameel Yusuf, Dr Khurshid Rizvi, Ashraf Zaki Awan, Mohammad Asif Bhalli, Dr Syed Qasim Jalal, Dr Zahid Munir Aamir, Dr Tahir Taunsvi, Waheed ur Rahman Khan, Dr Tariq Hashmi, Mohammad Rafiuddin Hashmi, Taab Aslam, Samina Gul, Prof Yusuf Khalid, Dr Mahmud Aseer,

D

CMYK

Maher Ghulam Rasool Maher, Mohammad Hamid Siraj, Dr Shafiq Asif, Dr Mohammad Asif Awan, Dr Abid Khurshid, K.K. Aziz, Shahida Latif, Nasim Sehar, Dr Anwar Sadeeed, Shakir Kundan, Mohammad Hameed Shahid, Irfan Siddiqi, Gul Bakhshalvi, Afzal Raz, Bismil Sabri, Dr Sh Mohammad Iqbal, Kh Razi Haider, Ram Lal, Mahmud Akhtar Khan, Malik Maqbool Ahmad, Farrukh Sohail Goindi, Zulfiqar Ahsan, Malik Ram, Najma Mansoor, Mohammad Zaigham Mugheera, Ikhlaq Ahmad Dehlavi, Mujahid Barelvi, Dr Ghulam Mustafa Khan, A Hameed, Syed Anees Shah Jeelani, Mushfiq

Khawaja, Dr Sikandar Hayat Mekan, Prof Ghazi Ilmuddin, Father Mukhtar Alam, Mazhar Mahmood Shirani, Mohammad Musharaf Hussain Anjum et al.

Dr Tabassum has done a yeoman’s service to the cause of bibliographic literature in Urdu by briefly commenting on or listing (with relevant details) the selected works of some past as well as present writers, critics, compilers, and translators. This is a valuable legacy that the future generations of writers and readers would look up to as an exemplification of T.S. Eliot’s concept of ‘tradition and the individual talent’.

r

a

Tuesday, 22 June, 2021

LAHORE

NEWS

Exports risE 14.05pC to $22.576bn in 11 Months; iMports surgE 22.5pC

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NEWS DESK

HE exports of the country increased by 14.05 percent to $22.576 billion during the first eleven months of the current fiscal year 202021 as compared to $19.795 billion during the corresponding period of last financial year. According to the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the exports during July–May 2020–21 in rupee term totalled Rs3,615.857 billion as against Rs3,105.799 billion during the corresponding period of last year showing an increase of 16.42 percent, according to the provisional figures of PBS. Meanwhile, exports from Pakistan during May 2021 amounted to $1.671 billion as against $2.218 billion in April 2021 and $1.396 billion during May 2020, showing a decrease of 24.66% over April 2021 and an increase of 19.70% over May 2020. In rupee term, the exports from Pakistan during May 2021 amounted to Rs256.115 billion as against Rs339.498 billion in April 2021 and Rs223.512 billion during May 2020, showing a decrease of 24.56% over April 2021 but an increase of 14.59% over May 2020.

The main commodities of exports during May 2021 were knitwear (Rs44,936 million), readymade garments (Rs29,864 million), bed wear (Rs27,746 million), cotton cloth (Rs20,641 million), cotton yarn (Rs11,050 million), rice others (Rs10,001 million), towels (Rs9,473 million), madeup articles (excl. towels & bedwear) (Rs7,460 million), Basmati rice (Rs6,264 million) and

fish & fish preparations (Rs4,766 million).

Meanwhile, imports during July–May 2020-21 in terms of US dollars totalled $50.039 billion (provisional) as against $40.849 billion during the corresponding period of the last year, showing an increase of 22.50 percent. In rupee term, imports during July–May 2020-21 totalled Rs7,992,202 million (provisional) as against Rs6,418.372 billion during the corresponding period of the last year showing an increase of 24.52 percent.

Meanwhile, in terms of the US dollars, the imports in May 2021 were $5,308 million (provisional) as compared to $5,242 million (provisional) in April 2021 showing an increase of 1.26 percent and by 85.79 percent as compared to $2,857 million in May 2020.

In term of rupee term, the imports into Pakistan during May 2021 amounted to Rs813,622 million (provisional) as against Rs802,443 million (provisional) in April 2021 and Rs457,399 million during May 2020 showing an increase of 1.39% over April 2021 and of 77.88 percent over May 2020.

Main commodities of imports during May 2021 were petroleum products (Rs86,724 million), petroleum crude (Rs48,626 million), natural gas, liquefied (Rs42,396 million), palm oil (Rs39,108 million), plastic materials (Rs33,563 million), iron & steel (Rs33,219 million), electrical machinery & apparatus (Rs29,707 million), mobile phones (Rs26,903 million), medicinal products (Rs23,834 million) and Power generating machinery (Rs22,845 million).

trade deficit widens to $27.463bn in 11 months

CoNtINuED fRom pAgE 01 The 70-year-old religious cleric and the JUIF’s deputy ameer in Lahore is now in police lock-up after an FIR was lodged against him for sexually assaulting one of his seminary pupils. Lahore Police said that Rehman’s student Sabir Shah lodged an FIR in North Cantt Police Station in which he claimed his teacher blackmailed him after he failed in one of his examinations and demanded sexual favours in return. The video went viral on social media and was widely condemned with people demanding immediate action. Tearyeyed Sabir Shah in the video said that his life was in danger as Rehman’s sons threatened to kill him for exposing Rehman. JUI-F has also suspended the membership of Rehman. The case has been registered at the North Cantt police station on the complaint of the student under Section 377 (unnatural offences) and Section 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code. The victim said that during the exams, Rehman had accused him and another student of cheating by getting someone else to sit for the exams.

“Over this, I was also banned from giving exams at the Wafaqul Madaris for three years,” he said in the complaint. Also, the victim said he complained to the madrassah’s administration but they refused to believe him as Rehman was an “elder and a pious man”. Rehman had denied the accusation of sexual abuse in a video statement and claimed that he was drugged by his student before he was filmed. “In fact, the boy gave me sedatives in my tea and after that I was not in my senses,” he had said. “The biggest proof is that my body was not even moving.

If I were in my senses, how could I have not known that he was making a video from his phone?” The cleric had claimed that the videos were a conspiracy to remove him from Jamia Manzoorul Islamia, Lahore. He was terminated by his madrassa and his party, the JUI-F, suspended his party membership after the videos went viral.

Food exports fall 24.49pc YoY in May to reach $242.67m NEWS DESK Food exports of the country in May 2021 remained $242.668 million as compared to $321.361 million in May 2020, showing a decline of 24.49 percent on a yearon-year basis. According to the latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), on a month-onmonth basis, the group witnessed a dip in exports by 37.14 percent compared to the same period of the last year. The overall contribution of this group remained 17.54 percent of the total exports during July-May FY21 which stood at $4 billion, dropped by 2.36 percent YoY when compared to the same period last year.

Commodity-wise, rice remained to be the major source of foreign exchange earnings in May 2021 as its exports valued at $106 million, fell by 44 percent on a month-on-month basis. Likewise, on a year-onyear basis, the export value of the same commodity witnessed a sharp cut by 49 percent.

The export of fish & fish preparations stood at $31

million, depicting a decline of 35.51 percent monthon-month basis. However, on a year-on-year basis, the export increased by 9.53 percent. Meanwhile, the export volume of meat and meat preparations shrank by 17.97 percent month-on-month basis whereas, on a year-on-year basis, the export of similar products surged by 28.45 percent. Similarly, the export volume of vegetables expanded by around 70 percent on a year-on-year basis whereas, on month-on-month basis, the same commodity witnessed a slash of 40 percent to stand at 18.8 million. Likewise, total fruits’ exports declined by 25 percent on a month-on-month basis, while exports of fruits increased by 18.41 percent yearon-year compared to the same period of the last year.

On the import side, the total import bill of the food group amounted to $650.74 million, marking an increase of 54.44 percent on a year-on-year basis against the same period of last year due to increased demand after the lockdown situation amid the Covid19 pandemic.

PSX turns bearish, sheds 226 points KARACHI

Pakistan’s trade deficit during the first 11 months (July-May) of the current fiscal year 2020-21 has reached $27.463 billion as compared to $21.065 billion over the same period of the last financial year. According to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), in terms of rupee, the balance of trade figures cumulative from July-May 2020-21 remained Rs4,376,345 million. Based on the provisional figures of imports and exports, the balance of trade in May 2021 was Rs557.507 billion while in terms of the US dollars, it remained $3,637 million. The exports of the country remained $22.576 billion during the first eleven months of the current fiscal year 2020-21 as compared to $19.795 billion during the corresponding period of last financial year. Likewise, the imports during July– May 2020-21 in terms of US dollars totalled $50.039 billion (provisional) as against $40.849 billion during the corresponding period of the last year. news desk

Cleric confesses to sexually assaulting his student

05

TLTP

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) turned bearish on Monday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index shedding 226.15 points (-0.47 percent) to close at 48,012.52 points.

The market opened on a positive note; however, it entered the red zone and remained there till the end of the session. The KSE-100 Index traded in a range of 406.5 points, showing an intraday high of 48,370.4 points and a low of 47,963.9 points.

Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index shed 146.19 points (-0.44 percent) to close at 32,723.04 points, while All Share Islamic Index shed 193.83 points (-0.82 percent) to close at 23,568.02 points.

A total of 390 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 151 closed up, shares of 220 closed down while shares of 19 companies remained unchanged.

The overall market volumes increased by 88.63 million to 839.19 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 11,747 to 162,340, while value traded decreased by Rs4.79 billion to Rs15.88 billion. The overall market capitalisation decreased by Rs37.33 billion.

Among scrips, SILK topped the volumes with 235.1 million shares, followed by HUMNL (60.3 million) and WTL (58.4 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes include SILK, HUMNL, WTL, PIBTL and FFL, which formed 53 percent of total volumes.

Sector wise, the index was let down by cement

with 64 points, commercial banks with 33 points, chemical with 25 points, fertilizer with 24 points and oil & gas marketing companies with 20 points.

The most points taken off the index were by LUCK which stripped the index of 33 points followed by PSO with 22 points, MCB with 20 points, COLG with 15 points and ENGRO with 14 points.

The sectors propping up the index were food & personal care products with 16 points, investment banks / investment companies / securities companies with 9 points, textile spinning with 4 points, transport with 3 points and power generation & distribution with one point. The most points added to the index were by SYS which contributed 19 points followed by FCEPL with 12 points, MEBL with 6 points, SNGP with 6 points and HUBC with 6 points.

Former PkMAP senator Usman Kakar passes away in Karachi CoNtINuED fRom pAgE 01 The senator added that Kakar’s sudden death may have “some background to it”.

Senator Saleem Mandviwala of the PPP said that Kakar’s family believed his death was a “murder”. He said that doctors were also skeptical about how such profuse bleeding in the head could be caused by a mere fall.

He demanded the Sindh and Balochistan governments to conduct a thorough investigation into his death.

PPP’s Shahadat Awan also said that doubts were being raised about certain security agencies after the death of Usman Kakar.

Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani informed the house that medical teams were conducting a post-mortem on Kakar on the family’s request.

Senator Kamran Murtaza, belonging to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan, said that Kakar’s family were demanding a probe into his death. His family have not,

however, registered an FIR of the incident yet.

“He was alone at the time he fell in the house, and if somebody was there, he should not have been lying there for an hour or so,” said Murtaza.

The senator said that the nature of Kakar’s death had raised questions, adding “it is now responsibility of the House to order a probe into his ‘suspicious’ death.”

He demanded that a committee comprising members of the House be formed to investigate the matter.

Maulana Attaur Rehman of the JUI-P claimed that Kakar had received several threats in the past and now his death was shrouded in mystery. He said that it was “perceptible until the last time that he will be ‘taken out’ of the way.” He said that if someone was involved in the death of Kakar, he should be brought to justice. He also demanded a parliamentary committee to probe the matter. Senator Haji Hidayatullah also voiced his concern on the death of Kakar and sought an investigation into it.

Ali Muhammad Khan, state minister for parliamentary

affairs, said that he was deeply grieved to discover about the passing of Kakar. “I had ideological differences with him, but he remained firm to his ideology. I still can’t believe he is no more.”

Later, a resolution was also passed by the house, expressing condolence on the former senator’s demise and hailing his services as a democrat.

The resolution, presented by leader of the opposition Yousuf Raza Gillani, appreciated Kakar for his services for the supremacy of democracy. “He joined the PkMAP in 1996 and being a senator, he delivered speeches on matters of national and international significance. He was a human rights activist and his services shall always be remembered,” reads the resolution.

Meanwhile, MNA Mohsin Dawar quoted observations from doctors and suggested that the injury to Kakar’s head “was too severe to result from a fall.” He extended support to the ex-senator’s family and demanded a “complete investigation”.

‘Hypocrisy’: Imran calls out West for silence on Kashmir CoNtINuED fRom pAgE 01 However, the prime minister said, his government in Pakistan opted for smart restrictions so as to keep the economy afloat and keep the poor from struggling.

He told Swan that the working of the National Command and Operation Centre with daily data monitoring and input by provinces, army deployments, doctors and healthcare specialists helped the government arrest the spike in new daily infections.

Talking about the recent visit of Central Intelligence Agency chief William Burns, the prime minister said that since 9/11, the intelligence agencies of the two countries have been in “constant touch”.

He also confirmed the reports of a denied meeting with the Burns.

“Would you allow the American government to have CIA here in Pakistan to conduct cross-border counterterrorism missions against Al-Qaeda, ISIS or the

Taliban?” asked Swan.

He responded that his government would “absolutely not” offer any military bases to the United States, ruling out the use of Pakistan’s soil for cross-border operations inside Afghanistan.

“Absolutely not. There is no way we are going to allow any bases, any sort of action from Pakistani territory into Afghanistan. Absolutely not.”

In a story earlier this month, the New York Times reported that Central Intelligence Agency chief William Burns visited Islamabad last month where he met Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and the Inter-Services Intelligence Director General Lt Gen Faiz Hameed.

During the visit, Burns had requested an audience with the prime minister but was refused. Reports citing insiders said the Prime Minister’s Office informed the spy chief that he will only talk to his counterpart, US President Joe Biden.

Asked if he was “happy” about the

US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Imran said: “Happy in one way because there was never gonna be a military solution in Afghanistan.” He went on to say that there were also feelings of anxiousness.

“Without a political settlement, there is possibility of a civil war [inside Afghanistan].”

He said that in his view, a political settlement would mean a coalition government between the Taliban and the Afghan leadership. “There is no other solution,” he observed.

When asked whether the US had made a mistake by announcing the date of the withdrawal, the prime minister said: “They have got themselves in such a big mess. They had to give some sort of timeframe.” “But the moment they gave a timeframe, the Taliban would have considered that a victory.”

Asked to respond to his comments linking the incidence of rape to obscenity, the premier said: "It is such nonsense. I

never said that [...] I said the concept of purdah which is to avoid temptation in society." He said that Pakistan had a completely different society and way of life.

"If you raise temptation within society and all these young guys have nowhere to go, it has consequences."

"Do you think that what women wear has any effect, that it is part of this temptation?" Swan asked. "If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on men unless they are robots. I mean it's common sense," he said. If you have a society where people haven't seen that sort of thing it will have an impact on them, he said.

When the interviewer brought up his past as an international cricket star, PM Imran said: "This is not about me. It's about my society. My priority is how my society behaves [...] so when I see sex crime going through the roof we sit down and discuss how to tackle it. It is having an impact in my society."

Tuesday, 22 June, 2021

06 COMMENT

Posthumous poetry

Don’t force the opposition to take to streets Improve the working of the NA

A

In praise of Urdu poets

FtER a three-day long confrontation between the government and the opposition in the National Assembly both sides reached an agreement to run the house peacefully. A PtI committee headed by Defense minister Pervez Khattak conceded the opposition’s demand to review the passage of 21 bills passed in haste last week. the opposition in return agreed to withdraw its noconfidence motion against the Deputy speaker. While the opposition duly carried out its part of the agreement, adviser to the Prime minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan refused to withdraw any legislation. there is a perception that the Pm was unhappy over his party leaders yielding to the opposition’s demand and therefore directed to rescind the agreement. the failure to honour the agreement would not only damage PtI’s credibility but also create doubts about its avowed seriousness to run the parliamentary proceedings smoothly.

After losing by elections all over the country the PtI is at a loss over how to perform better in elections due two years hence. With opposition unwilling to accept the electronic voting system with a malleable NADRA playing a key role, the government leaders are at their wits’ end.

Despite claims of rising GDP, the common man finds no improvement in his livelihood. With an ImF mission due to arrive in August, failure to raise enough finances could again bring back the era of austerity accompanied by more taxes, rise in prices and increase in unemployment.

What information minister Fawad Chaudhry said at a press conference in Karachi revealed the government’s desperation. unlike Punjab where the ruling PtI lost byelections, those conducted in sindh showed the ruling PPP was still on a winning spree and could snatch some of the PtI’ seats in the next elections. Fawad Chaudhry fulminated against the provincial government calling it corrupt and maintaining that the Center would monitor the use of funds allocated to sindh. While keeping silent about local bodies elections in Punjab and KP, Fawad Chaudhry wanted sC to enforce Article 140 in sindh, underlining PtI leadership’s double standards. the way the PtI is pressurizing the opposition parties is likely to force the dissenters to rejoin the PDm. If the opposition is driven to the wall in the NA and the center pesters the sindh government too much, the opposition might again be on the roads.

HASAN AFTAB SAEED

P

osthumous poetry is one of several features that set urdu poets apart from their non-urdu counterparts. No, I am not alluding to a creative man’s works managing to keep him relevant after his death; I am talking about a poet speaking from his grave.

Consider this representative sample:

to spare the moths from the fate of getting killed on his grave, the poet is requesting his anonymous beloved (or somebody else) to stop lighting candles on his grave. observe how concerned the poet is about insect rights even after his own untimely demise. the poet in this instance happens to be Qamar Jalalvi but there is an unbroken tradition of this sort of thing from mir taqi mir through the inimitable Ghalib down to the present day. It is in this very spirit, for example, that mir warns the object of his unrequited love regarding the inevitable tide of affairs

Coronavirus funding

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AKIstAN has fortunately fared well in its ongoing fight against the Covid-19, having survived three deadly waves that have so far claimed 22,000 lives, a figure that is quite low given our population density and the variety of problems associated with implementing social distancing, mask wearing and lockdown protocols in a country of 220 million. however, the fight is far from over and the only truly sure shot way of returning to some form of normality, as exemplified by the us, is to vaccinate a significant proportion of the population, around 70%, as quickly as possible to reach herd immunity. Pakistan too is targeting to reach this number by the end of this year but going by the vaccine rollout effort so far, this seems unlikely, with only 1.7% of the population fully vaccinated. one of the major hurdles in gaining the efficiency and speed required to reach a higher daily dose administration rate, are serious supply chain deficiencies in vaccine procurement. Despite having allocated funds for Covid-19 and receiving relief funds from various international institutions including the ImF and World Bank, the PtI government remains largely dependent on vaccine donations, mostly from China and the Who’s Covax program.

Although the latest shortage of vaccines hitting Punjab over the weekend, forcing people to line up at various closed vaccination centres, has now been resolved with a batch of 1.5 million doses airlifted from China, there are valid concerns over where the funds earmarked for buying vaccinations have gone. opposition parties are demanding a ‘forensic audit’ of how the money was utilized. Last year, the supreme Court raised similar concerns and called upon the NDmA chief at the time to explain irregularities in Covid-19 equipment and PPE procurement practices. Not only do those questions remain unanswered, but the person being asked for those answers has since been replaced.

When new vaccines like Russia’s sputnik-V came to market, local private pharmaceutical companies, after getting necessary approvals from the government, procured batches and sold them to those able to afford the higher price tags. What is stopping the government from doing the same is unclear. In the absence of a steady supply chain, that is made up of both donated and purchased doses, the government is unlikely to achieve the stability required to run an effective national inoculation program.

ATTiyA MuNAwEr

T

hIs is not the first time that the Biden administration has sought to establish bases in neighboring countries to monitor and take action against terrorist groups in Afghanistan since the withdrawal of us troops from the country. the issue has been raised several times over the years by various sources and in its statements; such baseless impressions have been mixed that Pakistan is considering any such permission. In the past, these assumptions have been rejected by Pakistan on relevant forums, and now Prime minister Imran Khan in an interview with an American tV channel has categorically rejected the issue of giving military bases to the united states, but it should be borne in mind that the united states is looking for a place near Afghanistan where it can keep an eye on it even after withdrawal, the us strategy shows that it is not ready to leave Afghanistan and will continue to intervene even after leaving Afghanistan. how will the united states be able to deal with the threats that it has not been able to deal with despite

Arif Nizami Editor Joint Editor

Umar Aziz Executive Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965

here, the poet (none other than hafeez Jalandhari) notes with an unmistakable hint of irony in his tone that the beloved, who remained a picture of indifference and cold-bloodedness while the poet was alive, has dutifully turned up to bury him. Jalandhari, the creator of the national anthem and the author of the epic Shahnama-e-Islam here demonstrates that he is very much at home in the field of posthumous running commentary as well.

Although it is not my topic today, let me end by mentioning in passing that posthumous poetry is not the only envy of poets of other languages. Not only do urdu poets routinely speak from their graves, but they can also equally effortlessly address (while they are alive) and have conversations with those who have already passed on – souls of people long dead; address inanimate objects and abstract entities – arz e watan (‘soil of the homeland’), etc; and I dare add, talk to those animate entities as are least likely to be interested in what they have to say – raqeeb (rival in love), for example, who, depending on the situation, is selflessly offered useful advice in light of the poet’s own experiences and failures.

Urdu poets are as much concerned about their legacy as they are certain of their mortality, so they make it a point to plan ahead.

Therefore, they have a great deal to say from their graves, so to speak.

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

Even after leaving, it wants to keep an eye on Afghanistan

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Managing Editor

there can hardly be any doubt about the fact that it is beyond the capacity of Keatses and Wordsworths of the world to come up with anything that could come close to rivalling this sentiment. of course, these couplets are ‘said’ while the poet is very much alive. (unlike poetry in other languages, urdu poems are never written; they are ‘said’, or better still, they ‘happen’ – another distinction of urdu poetry). urdu poets are as much concerned about their legacy as they are certain of their mortality, so they make it a point to plan ahead. therefore, they have a great deal to say from their graves, so to speak. It is true that while they are alive it does sound somewhat silly – a poet narrating his afterdeath sentiments. But once he dies (as we all must), it gives a haunting effect to his words, something impossible to match unless one has had the foresight and the skill to plan equally ahead. unlike poets of other languages, the urdu poet is least bothered about nature.

Death and decay are more appealing to him than growth and flowers. Even when he talks about spring, it is merely to remind himself that it is time to rend his shirt collar again, rather than anything to do with the delights associated with springtime. When he mentions the famed bulbul – and he mentions it a lot – he does not exactly know what he is talking about. he has never seen a bulbul and will not recognize one if it landed on his head. Knowing bird species is not the strong suit of urdu poets. Knowing any other animal or plant species for that matter is not their strong suit either. But what they lack in knowledge of nature, they more than makes up for in passion. Bulbul (whatever it looks and sounds like, and wherever it is found) is a symbol of altruistic and tragic love, and

that is that as far as our poet-lover is concerned. to return to posthumous poetry, the first rule of business for urdu bards after their untimely demise then is to observe the conduct of the beloved on the funeral itself – starting with whether ‘he’ (this usually means a ‘she’ – another quirk of urdu poetry) repents after being indifferent to the poet during his lifetime or continues being a heartless monster.

US must change its desire to control the world

Has the money been used responsibly?

Yousaf Nizami Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

in these immortal words:

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Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

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its 20-year occupation of Afghanistan? how will it be able to deal with cross-border operations? the united states has failed inside Afghanistan. the people are not ready to tolerate us intervention. the threat of us intervention and action could be a major blow to lasting peace in Afghanistan. It will also make it harder for Afghans to take matters into their own hands. And the world powers that are America’s adversaries will also face obstacles in stepping into Afghanistan and participating in the reconstruction process.

Afghanistan’s infrastructure is in a state of disrepair at the time of the us withdrawal. the united states has spent more than $2 trillion on the Afghan war, but no significant money has been spent on Afghanistan’s infrastructure projects in the last 20 years. most of the money went back to the united states through the accounts of us contractors. At a time when the united states is about to leave Afghanistan, the country is in dire need of large-scale infrastructure and human development projects, otherwise, Afghanistan will once again sink into the same depths of destruction and devastation that it has sunk for the past four decades.

As a neighbor, Pakistan is naturally concerned about the situation in Afghanistan.

Pakistan wants the country to have the support of sincere regional powers after the withdrawal of foreign troops, industries to be set up in Afghanistan, agriculture to flourish and the Afghan people should be economically strong, but the anti-peace forces in the region want to keep the chaos in Afghanistan. Ashraf Ghani’s government continues to be a puppet of the Indian government’s gestures and blames Pakistan.

What will happen to the fate of Afghanistan if Indian conspiracies succeed due to the changing attitude of the united states? It is not difficult to predict yet, a

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

failed chaotic state could bring the entire region to the brink of disaster. the new form of us intervention has the potential to pose a threat to the prospects for development in Afghanistan. the us strategy of sitting outside Afghanistan and keeping an eye on Afghanistan is a plan to make Afghanistan’s future subject to its own will. Intervention can never bring satisfaction to the region; it is a more heinous strategy than ground intervention, in which there can be no trace of good. this strategy is contrary to the strategy of aiding and abetting the regional powers in the case of Afghanistan. It should be strongly condemned and opposed at the regional level as well. Pakistan’s rejection of the possibility of providing military bases in no uncertain terms is a very good move; it will not only stop the propaganda of internal and external conspiratorial elements but also gain the trust of Afghans. the Afghan taliban have already appealed to neighboring countries not to allow anyone to do so. If such a step were taken again, it would be a historic mistake. the Afghan taliban’s threat to worsen the situation also needs to be examined in light of the possibility that Pakistan will have to pay the heaviest price for its involvement in such a project. In this situation, it is necessary that if the united states wants to leave Afghanistan after twenty years, then this evacuation should be a cause of peace and security for the region and not a prelude to further destruction. the world has undergone great changes in the last twenty years.

Now the nature of relations between nations and countries is not the same as before. In this context, the united states must also change its desire to control the world.

In this situation, it is necessary that if the United States wants to leave Afghanistan after twenty years, then this evacuation should be a cause of peace and security for the region and not a prelude to further destruction.

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Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

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The writer tweets @AttiyaMunawer

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Tuesday, 22 June, 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

Fawad speaks

Antalya diplomacy forum Fake News is the Enemy of Democracy

SHAziA ANwEr CHEEMA

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NtALyA Diplomacy Forum” is a high-level gathering of professionals attended by political leaders, diplomats, media practitioners, opinionmakers, and academics. It presents an excellent platform for regional and global actors from the spheres of diplomacy, policy, and business to exchange ideas and address international challenges.

Diplomacy remains the core method of communication among leaders and states. there is a whole set of other structural and systemic changes in the international environment that the diplomacy profession should respond to. this year, Antalya Diplomacy Forum provided an opportunity to highlight a grave issue we all are facing and that is Fake News. the biggest issue in media communication of the day is fake news, a piece of news, with tilted trajectory, twisted references, and with exaggerated linguistics accompanied by unnecessary paralinguistics. today’s newsroom replicates a theatrical performance and of course, the news anchor is replaced by a performer, who is unable to remain subjective thus inculcate all theatrical techniques of dialogue delivery, to hyper emotion and expression, sensation, and personal connectivity. two major factors are responsible for this dire situation, one corporate media and the second desire of getting maximum attention in minimum time. Corporate media has deleted all the objectivity in the mass Communication profession. media hubs have their personal agendas based on personal preferences mainly motivated by money. the situation demands puppets. And puppets, in need to survive sell their soul to the devil. this leads to a combination of puns, sar-

casm, hate, irrelevant empathy as a news story. the sacred duty of delivering the news without any suffix of emotion and personal agenda has become a thing of the past. For the sake of exaggerated, crafted reality newscaster require extra artifact, music, colors illustrations, etc.

In this rat race, right and wrong get blurred, and the one who can excess more can influence more.

Fake or crafted news has got the fullfledged form of communication war, strong media houses, on the basis of unlimited resources can twist news and spread it in the way their agenda is required. the news have changed its shape and become an entirely different or some time exact opposite of the actual situation. one of the top international news channels, I will withhold its name, provides enough material to study how fake news can be cooked. If we review news about invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, there were stories of rescuers, the angel rescuers who flew to free the innocent from oppressors and this recipe continued during the entire “War on terror” phase. Acceptable and believable plus approachable, just cook it present it, and invade wherever you want.

During the same period, this recipe got leaked and reached many other media houses and they all get thrilled by acquiring the ability to sensationalize by changing reality. one thing that they forget was that it will affect them in a very negative way. they may survive for a couple of years but eventually, their fake news will become a backlash for themselves. the human brain can be fooled but not for long, momentarily the cognitive system relayed with the storytelling but it is capable of reasoning, judging, and evaluation that’s why it cannot be fooled for long. the human mind can connect the missing dots masterfully; in fact, it is part of its survival mechanism. this circus of fake news affected the masses from the core, fake news media centers have open space to play by their rules. mainly all other media outlets tried to keep their integrity intact, they neither become part of the fake news club nor they tried to counter fake news but with

The biggest issue in media communication of the day is fake news, a piece of news, with tilted trajectory, twisted references, and with exaggerated linguistics accompanied by unnecessary paralinguistics.

the passage of time fake news scenario has become unbearable. the aftermath of fake news primarily in the form of Islamophobia and mass killing and destruction in the name of “rescue” has left no other option but to react. tRt, Al Jazeera, and Rt could be considered important to counter-attack in the communication war but these three are not enough and we need a holistic collaborated effort to save us and our coming generations from the terror of communication war.

During the session “Infodemic and Fake News in the Virtual World” within the Antalya Diplomacy Forum rightly indicates that social media magnifies fake news and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to manipulate human cognitive systems.

Participants of the Forum were of the view that there was a dire need for an agreement between states, media, and Big tech companies on the way forward to effectively counter fake news. hikmet hajiyev who is Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of Azerbaijan stated that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is meddling with facts being provided to receivers and users of news. Lolwah Rashid mohammed Al-Khater who is a Qatari diplomat, and the first Qatari woman to hold the position of spokesperson for the Qatari ministry of Foreign Affairs and Assistant Foreign minister of Qatar was of the view that there is a dire need to review the entire world of social media because it has become lethal for democracy. Iulian Chifu who is an Associate Professor, at the National school of Political and Administrative studies Bucharest gave a review of how fake news had been distributed in the last decade. Presenter of tRt News and senior journalist Elif Berreketli indicated that fake news is spreading confusion and real news sometimes is suppressed due to speed and huge footprints of fake news. Portuguese politician and political Bruno maçães stated that fake news is an enemy of Democracy.

I support the opinion of macaes that fake news is making Democracy more fragile in developing countries where they are already fighting against cartels and powerful apolitical groups and all stakeholders of democracy must stand together to Fight Fake News.

“The only difference between being uninformed and misinformed is that one is your choice and the other is theirs.” ― Frank Sonnenberg.

The biggest issue in media communication of the day is fake news, a piece of news, with tilted trajectory, twisted references, and with exaggerated linguistics accompanied by unnecessary paralinguistics.

The writer is an analyst writing for national and international media outlets. She heads the DND Thought Center and is currently registered as a Ph.D. Scholar of Semiotics and Philosophy of Communication at Charles University Prague. She can be reached at her: Twitter @ShaziaAnwerCh Email: shaziaanwer@yahoo.com

FEDERAL minister for Information and Broadcasting, Chaudhry Fawad hussain has termed Expo 2020 Dubai as an auspicious opportunity to unveil the hidden treasures of Pakistan before the world. speaking as a chief guest at media unveiling of Pakistan Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai here sunday, the Federal minister said, Pakistan is a land of immense opportunities with vast potential of promoting tourism, investment, agriculture, trade and industry. the Expo 2020 will be held in Dubai from october 1, 2021 to march 31, 2022 under the theme of “Connecting minds, Creating the future” and around 190 countries will participate in the Expo to showcase their strongest potential to the world. Pm Imran Khan led PtI government considers Pakistan as an emerging brand and taking concerted measures to highlight Pakistan’s soft and positive image across the world, he said adding that the Expo Dubai 2020 would provide the country an opportunity to brand the positive sides of the motherland. Chaudhry Fawad said that in the past, the menace of terrorism and extremism were associated with Pakistan but now, with dedicated and focused initiatives of PtI government, Pakistan was emerging at global level as a country exporting modern technological products. “At the advent of the first wave of CoVID19, Pakistan was totally dependent over import to meet its requirements for prevention, detection and treatment of the contagion but due to untiring efforts of government, now we are exporters of CoVID related materials,” he maintained. he assured extensive cooperation of the ministry of Information and Broadcasting to make the Pakistan Pavilion at Dubai Expo a success and said that such international events bring the countries together to brand their products and services to attract the potential buyers. uAE is the second home to Pakistanis and it is expected that a large number of expatriates would visit the Expo while thousands of visitor from across the world will be there to explore the hidden treasures of Pakistan, Fawad said. the minister said that instead of relying on national exchequer, the ministry of Commerce and its partners for the pavilion had collected over Rs. one billion which was a clear manifestation of overwhelming confidence of the people, particularly of business community on PtI government. “tourism is flourishing in Pakistan as the beautiful landscapes of the country were attracting not only inland tourist but foreigners as well,” he said and pointed out that to cater the needs of increasing number of tourists, the basic infrastructure should be improved and expanded accordingly. the Federal minister appreciated attractive design and logo of Pakistan Pavilion saying that it would be the largest pavilion of the Expo Dubai that would present enchanting glances of Pakistan to the world.

Sohail anjum Khan iSlamabad

Soil erosion soIL erosion is one of the massive problems that farmers face in Pakistan.

It causes numerous environmental problems as it affects all landforms. similarly, it decreases soil fertility which negatively affects crop yields. this is a global problem as it is causing land to become unsuitable for agriculture as well as it affects the economy of the country. Pakistan, being an agricultural country, needs to take solid steps regarding this.

YaSir Khalil TurbaT

International Music Day WoRLD music Day was celebrated in the year 1982 in France. It was designed because of the first French minister of Art and Culture from that day, who played a critical role in launching a day for dedicating music, he was a music director and composer. since it becomes very popular in different countries across the globe.

World music Day is celebrated to give free music to all music listeners and provide a strategy for beginner and experienced musicians to show their abilities to the world. this day is fulfilled in all countries across the globe to highlight the importance of music and how it is positive for the human mind. As it is learned by experts that it reduces anxiety, provides better sleep while listening to music. this day is the best day of the year for musicians because on this day they express their fits about music. In this day, most of the singers compose their music. It is the only day on which more music is composed. music is part of every culture that is why it will be celebrated in every country. on this day, there is a program every year in which they select their best singer of the year and the last singer to win it’s the trophy was an American singer. this day is going to be an incredible day because all streets will be closed and they just to celebrate this day. Every year, Paris is closed for every tourer and people living in Paris because it would be a huge crowd if it is not close. however, it is not just music day also the International yoga Day is on the same day people will listen to music and practice yoga too. have a great day for all music lovers and enjoy your music day. m irfan hub

Hypocrite Clerics WomEN marching for their rights, body autonomy, and freedom in their own country is considered an ‘unIslamic act. Fatwa is issued immediately to them for violating our ethical and moral values. Islam only awakens in our society when it’s time to remind a woman of her place in our society. When a moulvi sexually harasses anyone, their fellow clerics keep their mouths shut, and no fatwa is dare issued for committing a highly sinful act.

Recently, maulvi mufti Aziz ur Rehman’s video of molesting his student was leaked. moreover, when the victim tried to come forward to lodge a complaint, he was blackmailed and threatened to kill. mufti Aziz ur Rehman was the same person to issue a fatwa on saba Qamar and Bilal saeed for filming a song in the mosque; they both were slammed with immense criticism from mufti’s fellow clerics. Both actors at least had the decency to apologize for their actions, but mufti Aziz ur Rehman instead of apologizing, played the victim card by saying this incident was a conspiracy against his character and he was intoxicated then. Where are the maulvis now? Why aren’t they raising their voice on such an unholy act? It’s high time that hypocrite maulvis are held accountable for their behaviour, and the lives of innocent children and teenagers under their influence aren’t ruined.

VANIA ALI KArACHI

Tuesday, 22 June, 2021

08 WORLD VIEW

INDIA’S VACCINE MAKERS ARE PANDEMIC PROFITEERS, NOT HUMANITARIANS IN INDIA, 38 NEW BILLIONAIRES WERE MINTED IN THE PAST YEAR, WHILE THE COMBINED WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY’S 140 BILLIONAIRES WENT UP BY 90.4 PERCENT

Intercept

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ApArnA GopAlAn

n April, a deadly Covid-19 surge overtook India as the country’s overflowing hospitals and crematoria made global headlines. While new daily cases are now reportedly in decline, the overall death toll continues to rise — estimated to exceed official figures at well over 1 million. At the height of the surge, India’s vaccination rate began falling, and just 3.5 percent of India’s 1.3 billion people are fully vaccinated.

Most global media coverage has attributed the ongoing crisis to two key causes: the Indian government’s mismanaged pandemic response and Big Pharma. Over the last year, Prime Minister narendra Modi and his farright government engaged in superspreader theatrics rather than disaster mitigation.

Meanwhile, by upholding patents on Covid19 vaccines, pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. and Europe have denied low- and middle-income countries the ability to produce lifesaving vaccines, creating a system of global vaccine apartheid that devalues non-Western lives.

Amid the censure of the Modi government and Big Pharma, India’s health care capitalists have gone largely unnoticed.

Aided at each step by the government’s freemarket approach to vaccine distribution, India’s very own Big Pharma has used the pandemic to strengthen market shares, grow profits, and place vaccines behind a paywall unscalable for most people in a country riven with dire systemic inequalities.

“The Indian vaccine ‘market’ is held in a vise-like grip of a vaccine duopoly,” journalist V. Sridhar, who has written about the country’s vaccination failures for the Indian news magazine Frontline, told me in a message. “What else would you call this duopoly but vaccine barons?”

Almost all of India’s vaccine supply comes from the country’s two largest vaccine producers: Serum Institute of India, led

by CEO Adar Poonawalla, and Bharat Biotech, run by founder Krishna Ella. While both companies have repeatedly advertised their vaccines as the cheapest in the world, they seldom mention that those vaccines are also the world’s most profitable. For each dose sold to private hospitals, Serum makes profits of up to 2,000 percent — what Poonawalla might consider “super profits” — and Bharat Biotech up to 4,000 percent. In comparison, based on the estimated cost to make one dose, Pfizer’s and Moderna’s profit margins are 650 percent and 500 percent, respectively.

THE PRINCE OF PROFIT: Poonawalla is one of India’s premier pandemic profiteers.

He is the 40-year-old son of India’s eighthrichest man, from whom he inherited the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer.

Among Western progressives, generics are often discussed as a public health solution to Big Pharma profiteering. Generics manufacturers like Poonawalla, however, are still businesspeople working for profit, not humanitarians motivated by the public good.

Pune-based Serum makes 1.5 billion doses of various vaccines every year and sells them across 170 countries. Poonawalla sees Serum, with its sizable production capacity, as “almost designed for [a pandemic],” and the company has seized on its “once-in-a lifetime opportunity.” In 2020, Serum entered a partnership with BritishSwedish company AstraZeneca through which Serum could produce the Oxford University vaccine in exchange for royalties.

With the resulting vaccine — known in India as Covishield — Serum captured 90 percent of the country’s vaccine market share. The company also committed up to 200 million doses for export to the global vaccine-shar-

ing initiative COVAX. Despite Serum’s lucrative licensing agreement with AstraZeneca, Poonawalla has been one of the loudest voices decrying global vaccine inequality and Western Big Pharma. In March, Poonawalla objected to U.S. President Joe Biden’s use of the Defense Production Act, which stipulated that U.S. companies manufacturing vaccine raw materials must prioritize U.S. government contracts. Poonawalla criticized the move and in April tweeted at Biden to “lift the embargo.”

Recent analysis notes how Poonawalla’s demand for raw materials “placed him at the heart of several heroic imaginations.” This was especially true once India’s Covid-19 surge became front-page news in April. Indian, global, and even socialist media picked up and amplified Poonawalla’s rebuke, pointing to U.S. hoarding of raw materials as a humanitarian concern right alongside India’s pressing need for oxygen and personal protective equipment. As activist and humanitarian pressure to release the raw materials mounted, Biden removed export restrictions on bags, vials, filters, and other materials. A White House spokesperson said in a statement that the U.S. had agreed to release “specific raw material urgently required for Indian manufacture of the Covishield vaccine.”

The spokesperson was mistaken, as was much of the global media. Poonawalla went on the record multiple times to clarify that his request was not for Covishield or indeed for any vaccine approved to inoculate Indians. Since January, Serum has had the capacity to produce around 5,000 doses of Covishield per minute. Rather, the raw materials Poonawalla sourced from the U.S. are for a new Covid-19 vaccine Serum is producing in commercial partnership with U.S. company novavax. Poonawalla was able to benefit from activist outrage to secure vaccine raw materials that would do nothing to mitigate India’s public health crisis. Serum declined to comment on the record for this piece.

Media coverage has facilitated Poonawalla’s enterprising use of the gray zone between humanitarianism and commerce during the pandemic. While Serum has always emphasized its “philanthropic philosophy,” the company’s founding family has mostly been known for their ostentatious wealth — be it their majestic farmhouse where they hosted Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; their luxury car collection that includes a one-of-a-kind Batmobile; or the refurbished aircraft that houses Poonawalla’s office.

But ever since Poonawalla became an early investor in the AstraZeneca vaccine, news stories have praised him as a “vaccine prince” — a risk-embracing entrepreneur with a moral mission. The media’s acceptance of how Poonawalla presents himself explains how easily he has been cited as an advocate for global public health rather than as a billionaire CEO advancing his company’s commercial interests. Journalistic sympathy for Poonawalla often comes at the cost of fair reporting. For instance, the media’s portrayal of Serum’s vaccine exports as a charitable “bid to protect the world” obscures the fact that Serum is charging poorer countries up to $7 for the same vaccine dose that the European Union is getting from AstraZeneca at $2.

WESTWARD EXPANSION: Poonawalla has been cast in news coverage not just as a disinterested advocate of public health, but also as a decolonial challenger to Big Pharma seeking to “save the world from coronavirus — and then radically remake the international pharma landscape.” Poonawalla’s supposed desire to transform the global pharmaceutical industry is extrapolated from his opposition to vaccine patents, especially as calls to “free the vaccine” from intellectual property restrictions have found salience in Western leftist circles.

“We’re seeing a new system of vaccine apartheid coming into place,” says Tobita Chow, director of Justice Is Global, an initiative that campaigns to remove Covid-19 patents. Many public health experts agree that a temporary waiver of the World Trade Organization’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS, provision is a

necessary first step toward increasing vaccine production and access and creating a more competitive pharmaceutical industry worldwide. With sustained pressure from activists, last month the Biden administration signaled its support for a temporary TRIPS waiver, a measure initially proposed by the governments of India and South Africa.

On the surface, Poonawalla has echoed activist concerns about pharmaceutical patents. But his fight against patents is not the same as activists’ fight for a people’s vaccine. Poonawalla’s interest in a TRIPS waiver comes from his admitted intention to poach competitors’ shares in Western markets. “Though we’re already in 165 countries, I will also expand our global reach: pushing into Europe and the United States — markets that we’ve never been able to enter as we’ve been blocked by Big Pharma,” he told GQ India last year. “These are the new and final frontiers.”

Serum has expanded into those frontiers.

In 2012, the company acquired Bilthoven Biologicals from the netherlands government and since then its European presence has only grown. In May, as Covid-19 ravaged India and the country’s vaccine supply dried up, Poonawalla sequestered himself in his $69,000-a-week rental mansion in London as the British government announced that Serum would invest over $330 million in the U.K. to create a new sales office, expected to generate business worth over $1.4 billion. If the clinical trials mentioned in the announcement are any indication, the vaccines developed as part of this deal might target European markets.

Serum’s global ambitions illuminate Poonawalla’s real problem with Big Pharma.

It is not that Poonawalla is against the commercialization or patenting of lifesaving drugs; rather, he opposes Big Pharma insofar as it blocks his own access to Western markets. This is why, while campaigning against the hoarding of U.S. raw materials or supporting calls to waive U.S. drug patents, Poonawalla had also been working with then-President Donald Trump to escape the “stupid rules and regulations” that prevented him from selling his products in the U.S. If these restrictions — raw material embargoes, patents, regulatory requirements — were waived for Covishield in Western markets, even at a price as high as $10 a dose, Covishield could easily outcompete the more expensive Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines while making a considerable profit.

By undercutting competitors’ prices for Covid-19 vaccines, Serum could both expand its operations and trigger a race to the bottom, pushing other producers to consolidate or outsource to lower their prices. Back in 2016, Poonawalla had diagnosed that the pharmaceutical industry was experiencing “the lull before the storm” of acquisitions or mergers. If it succeeds in using the pandemic to break into Western markets, Serum could find itself riding the coming tidal wave of pharmaceutical industry consolidation.

The TRIPS waiver might become yet another humanitarian response to India’s coronavirus surge that enriches Poonawalla. The waiver could enable Serum to keep profiting from the AstraZeneca vaccine without paying royalties. Serum may also be able to develop a replica of the vaccine, the patent for which it could hold within India even as global patents are suspended. Several of the experts I interviewed saw the probability of such a vaccine monopoly emerging.

Poonawalla has done little to dispel these fears. Even as he stresses that Serum’s production capacity must increase to vaccinate the world’s poor, Poonawalla also maintains that there is no need to bring other manufacturers into the vaccine market to help increase supply.

Serum’s primary goal isn’t to equitably vaccinate the world or break down monopolies; it is to corner new markets while maintaining dominance within India. Without curbs on Serum’s power, the removal of global patents would not result in “freeing” the vaccine, only freeing streams of profit.

IMMUNITY FOR SALE: Serum is not the only Indian company engaging in vaccine profiteering. Bharat Biotech, which devel-

oped Covaxin with public funds, has been charging Indians exorbitant rates for each shot — up to about $5.40 for states and about $16 for private hospitals — despite founder Ella’s early assurance that the vaccine would cost less than a bottle of water.

Bharat Biotech has also been expanding commercial Covaxin exports despite India’s recent export restrictions.

Unlike Serum’s Covishield, Covaxin is not restricted by any Big Pharma patent. The Indian government controls part of Covaxin’s intellectual property rights, yet Bharat Biotech inexplicably monopolized production until a month ago, when the government finally greenlighted manufacturing of the vaccine in its own production facilities. Bharat Biotech declined to comment for this piece.

Throughout the pandemic, the Modi government has refused to curb pharmaceutical profiteering. Despite using taxpayer money to provide clinical trial support and sizable production advances to Serum and Bharat Biotech, the government has failed to ensure affordable vaccines for India’s people. Until May, the central government had procured all the doses for $2 each — a price at which the vaccine companies are reported to have made between 188 percent to 500 percent in profits. But they wanted more.

“When you’ve got low supply and high demand, what happens to the price? It skyrockets,” Poonawalla has said in describing how U.S. drug companies insulate themselves from competition with generics. Yet Poonawalla essentially politically engineered the same reality in India.

“By self-admission, India’s monopolistic vaccine producers were deeply unhappy with the ‘normal profits’ they earned at the regulated prices,” R. Ramakumar, a development economist at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, told me in a message. “They lobbied to ‘free’ prices. not surprisingly, vaccine prices more than doubled, even tripled and quadrupled, over just one week.”

The Indian government enabled the rise in prices with its “liberalized” vaccine distribution policy, deliberately manufacturing a seller’s market. Starting May 1, the central government stopped procuring and distributing all the country’s vaccines as it and almost every other government in the world had been doing up until then. Instead, the central government began buying only half of the vaccine supply, leaving India’s 28 states and private hospitals to compete for the remaining doses on the private market — at prices set by the vaccine companies. The Indian health ministry did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

By distributing vaccines through the open market, the Indian government fractured its citizens’ collective buying and bargaining power, giving up all leverage to capitalists.

With a quarter of the country’s vaccine stock reserved for private hospitals, and vaccine producers vocalizing their preference to sell to those hospitals at higher prices, India’s vaccination drive was designed to favor privatesector monopolization.

The resulting inequalities have been stark. Private hospitals have outcompeted cash-starved states: In May, just nine hospital chains had cornered 50 percent of all doses.

While India’s states pledged to vaccinate people for free, private hospitals voiced no such intention. Absent price caps, most of India’s impoverished population has either been paying exorbitant amounts to get vaccinated at private hospitals or waiting for government hospitals to acquire scarce doses.

By distributing vaccines through the open market, the Indian government fractured its citizens’ collective buying and bargaining power, giving up all leverage to capitalists.

“Imagine if the vaccine is sold at $10 to a family of four and they each need two doses,” health journalist Vidya Krishnan says. “How are they going to be able to afford it?” The average person in India makes an estimated $50 a month. Add to the mix the Modi government’s disastrous economic policies from prior years, and vaccination becomes unattainable for most Indians.

India’s vaccination plan for almost onefifth of the world’s people has been so alarming that even the country’s judiciary and Modi’s own allies have joined journalists,

opposition politicians, and medical experts in asking: Why no price standardization or price ceiling? Why not go back to centrally procuring vaccines instead of making states compete? Why not, as Krishnan asks, use the decades-old public vaccination system that was used to eradicate polio? Why not, as experts I interviewed suggest, waive patents within India and issue compulsory licenses so that more than two big companies could make vaccines?

In response to months of public outcry, last week Modi announced a partial reversal of his vaccine distribution “experiment.”

Starting June 21, the central government will procure 75 percent of the country’s total vaccine stock directly from the companies, which it will give to state governments to distribute to their residents for free.

The change reverses one of the most politically controversial aspects of the previous policy but still leaves plenty of room for profiteering. A quarter of India’s vaccine stock will remain reserved for private hospitals and, consequently, for the rich. Even with price caps at private hospitals, vaccine manufacturers’ rates of profit will reach over 1,000 percent. As Yogesh Jain, a founder of the rural health care nonprofit Jan Swasthya Sahyog, wrote on Twitter, India’s vaccination capabilities will remain “publicly provided, and privately guzzled.”

The Modi government has tweaked India’s profit-centric vaccine policy, but as Ramakumar says, what is needed is an overhaul. Instead of using the powers at its disposal on behalf of the people, the Indian government continues to privilege profit over lives.

PROFITEERING AS THE PUBLIC GOOD: “The government of India has withdrawn from the central social responsibility of an enlightened welfare state,” Ramakumar told me. “It has also opened the floodgates for a vulgar form of predatory capitalism to take over the stage amid the raging human tragedy.”

Poonawalla has claimed that “even God” couldn’t have foreseen the gravity of the crisis, but India’s pandemic disaster was long foretold. Things did not have to play out this way. India could have had medical supplies, PPE, testing kits, and vaccines ready if public health dictated production and distribution, rather than profits. Wherever vaccines have been administered on a mass scale, it has happened because at key moments of reckoning, public health advocates challenged the profit motive. But in India, profiteering itself masquerades as the public good.

In India, 38 new billionaires were minted in the past year, while the combined wealth of the country’s 140 billionaires went up by 90.4 percent.

Pandemics often exacerbate preexisting sociopolitical dynamics, argues nivedita Saksena, a fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. India’s current situation is no exception. With a public health system that has been starved of funds for decades, and no viable alternative to for-profit health care, India’s Covid-19 pandemic was bound to become an opportunity for profiteering.

India’s big businesses have even managed to use aid from abroad to make money — which is why private hospitals sold airlifted oxygen cylinders to desperate patients, why vaccine raw materials from the U.S. are being used for disaster profiteering, and why a global patent waiver will likely strengthen the power of Indian Big Pharma.

To win a world where human life is truly valued above profit, we must realize that the small handful of very wealthy people who stand in the way of the public good are dispersed across the world — as much in Pune as in new York City. Their numbers are growing, as is their power within their home countries. In India alone, 38 new billionaires were minted in the past year, while the combined wealth of the country’s 140 billionaires went up by 90.4 percent. During the pandemic, Poonawalla’s net worth rose by 85 percent in five months, as tens of millions of Indians descended into poverty. This is not a coincidence, as P. Sainath writes, in “a year when hundreds of millions of Indians were hungrier than they’d been in decades.”

“A wealth ‘surge’ usually rides on a misery surge,” Sainath says. The swelling wallets of India’s health care elites are directly linked to the bodies in the streets. Until we eliminate the profitability of misery, India’s nightmare has no end in sight.

Tuesday, 22 June, 2021

BUSINESS 09

LAHORE

CCI appRoves NatIoNal eleCtRICIty polICy 2021 ISLAMABAD

Govt to mull over more incentives for refineries ISLAMABAD AHMAD AHMADANI

In order to offer more incentives for oil refineries as part of the Finance Bill 2021-22, Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar has requested the Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin for a meeting to deliberate on the matter. According to sources, following to a meeting of Hammad Azhar and Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Energy Tabish Gauhar with chief executive officers (CEOs) and managing directors of all five refineries, the Petroleum Division has called for a meeting. As per details, the Petroleum Division, in consultation with refineries, has formulated an incentive package for investment in up-gradation and sustainable operation of existing refineries as well as to attract investment in new state of the art deep conversion integrated refineries. It is pertinent to mention here that a draft incentive package was earlier prepared after extensive deliberation between the stakeholders, with the commitment of refineries for upgradation within five years to produce environmental friendly Euro-V spec products and reduce furnace oil production. After this duration, refineries will be in a position to operate at optimal capacity with technological enhancement, which will result in forex saving. The Petroleum Division has formulated a draft policy titled ‘Pakistan Refining Policy’ for the survival and up-gradation of existing refineries as well as to improve end product specifications to Euro-V and attracting new state of the art deep conversion refineries. The said draft policy contains government’s fiscal support and tariff protection formula Currently, Pakistan’s oil refining capacity is about 20 million tonnes per annum. About 60 per cent of the country’s requirements of diesel and 30pc of petrol are met by local refineries. The rest is imported as refined products. Four out of five refineries operating in Pakistan are using mostly old technology and even the fifth one, PARCO, is now more than two decades old.

Rupee tumbles to 157.51 in interbank market MONITORING REPORT The Pakistani rupee continued to weaken on Monday, closing at Rs157.51 against the dollar in the interbank market, and extending the fall to 3.4 per cent in the last month and a half.

The rupee closed at Rs152.28 on May 7, but has continued to weaken since as increase in imports and high commodity prices weigh in on the South Asian economy.

Bitcoin slumps in wake of China crackdown BEIJING AGENCIES

Bitcoin tumbled as much as nine per cent on Monday as recent volatility in the cryptocurrency market showed no signs of dampening down, with market players citing thin liquidity and China’s expanding crackdown on Bitcoin mining. Bitcoin fell as low as $32,288, its lowest in 12 days, and was last down 7.5pc. If sustained, the drop would be its biggest in around a month. Authorities in the southwest province of Sichuan on Friday ordered cryptocurrency mining projects to close. The State Council, China’s cabinet, last month vowed to clamp down on Bitcoin mining and trading as part of a series of measures to control financial risks. “Crackdown on Chinese miners might mean that they are offloading coin into a thin market and taking us lower,” said Ben Sebley of London-based crypto firm BCB Group. Production of Bitcoin in China accounts for more than half of global Bitcoin production. Sichuan is China’s second-biggest Bitcoin mining province, according to data compiled by the University of Cambridge. Some miners shift production there in the rainy summer to take advantage of its rich hydropower resources.

Companies that mine Bitcoin typically hold large inventories of the cryptocurrency, with any moves to sell large amounts depressing prices. Bitcoin has dropped by over a fifth in the last six days, and is down by half from its April peak of almost $65,000. Still, it has gained over 10pc this year. Smaller rival Ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation that tends to move in tandem with Bitcoin, dropped as much as 12pc, falling below $2,000 for the first time in almost a month. It was last down 10pc at $2025.31.

t

TLTP

HE Council of Common Interests (CCI) has unanimously approved the National Electricity Policy 2021. Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar announced this while addressing a press conference along with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Waqar Masood Khan on Monday.

Briefing media about the decisions taken in the CCI meeting, Hammad Azhar said that the Council of Common Interest has approved National Electricity Policy 2021 with a consensus of all provinces.

He said that the new electricity policy will be effective for ten years and new projects will get approval in a transparent manner under the policy. He said in the light of the new electricity policy, policies for sub-sectors will be devised.

He said with the help of the new policy people will get low price and environmentally friendly electricity.

He said that Rs100 billion have been allocated to improve the transmission system.

Criticising the previous government, the federal energy minister said that the policy should have been approved 15 years ago. He said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government was working on various options to re-

solve the issues in the power sector including the circular debt.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired the 47th meeting of the CCI and approved the National Electricity Policy 2021. The session headed by Imran Khan was attended by federal ministers, chief ministers and other concerned officials.

Earlier last week, the CCI decided to constitute a committee to deliberate upon the draft National Electricity Policy 2021 and present the final draft before the CCI in its next meeting. Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired the 46th meeting of CCI on Thursday. The meeting discussed in detail the draft National Electricity Policy 2021.

It was decided to constitute a committee to further deliberate upon the proposed policy and present the final draft before the CCI in its next meeting on Monday. The committee comprises the finance minister, minister for energy, law minister, SAPM for Power and chief ministers of the provinces.

S Arabia agrees to restart $1.5bn annual oil aid to Pakistan in July: FT NEWS DESK Saudi Arabia has agreed to restart oil aid to Pakistan worth at least $1.5 billion annually in July, according to officials in Islamabad, as Riyadh works to counter Iran’s influence in the region.

The acrimony between the two long-time allies has eased after Prime Minister Imran Khan met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in May, according to Financial Time.

News of the oil deal with Pakistan comes as Saudi Arabia embarks on a diplomatic push with the US and Qatar to build a front against Iran, said analysts.

Riyadh lifted a three-year blockade of Qatar in January in what experts said was an attempt to curry favour with the newly elected Joe Biden.

Pakistan had shifted closer to Saudi Arabia’s regional rivals Iran and Turkey, which, along with Malaysia, have sought to establish a Muslim bloc to rival the Saudi-led Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

Khan has developed a strong rapport with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, encouraging Pakistanis to watch the Turkish historical television series Dirilis Ertugrul (Ertugrul’s Resurrection) for its depiction of Islamic values.

Ali Shihabi, a Saudi commentator familiar with the leadership’s thinking, said that “bad blood” had accumulated between Riyadh and Islamabad, but recent bilateral meetings had “cleared the air” and reset relations to the extent that oil credit payments would restart soon.

A senior Pakistan government official said: “Our relations with Saudi Arabia have recovered from [a downturn] earlier. Saudi Arabia’s support will come through deferred payments [on oil] and the Saudis are looking to resume their investment plans in Pakistan.”

The Saudi offer is less than half of the previous oil facility of $3.4bn, which was put on hold when ties frayed.

But Fahad Rauf, head of equity research at Ismail Iqbal Securities in Karachi, said: “Any amount of dollars helps because time and again we face a current account crisis. And with these prices north of $70 a barrel anything helps.”

Pakistan’s foreign reserves were more than $16bn in June compared with about $7bn in 2019 before it entered its $6bn IMF programme.

Cabinet likely to ratify ECC decision on operational losses in gasoline transport through pipelines ISLAMABAD AHMAD AHMADANI

The federal cabinet scheduled to meet today is likely to ratify the Economic Coordination Committee's (ECC) decision pertaining to allowing operational losses up to a maximum of 0.5 per cent for gasoline transportation through White Oil Pipeline (WOP) and Mahmoodkot-Faisalabad-Machike (MFM) pipelines through Inland Freight Equalisation Margin (IFEM).

On June 16, the ECC had approved the summary of Petroleum Division for allowing operational losses the transportation through the pipelines.

The meeting was informed that despite this allowance, the movement through pipeline would be 55 paisa per litre cheaper than transportation through tankers but the discount would be adjusted in the

IFEM. The 0.5pc loss “will be adjusted against actual based on physical inventory of pipelines to be undertaken periodically”. The actual rate will be determined by Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) based on actual losses and excess margin would be brought before the ECC. As per documents, currently, the entire up-country demand of diesel is being transported from Karachi to Lahore through the WOP and MFM pipelines. PakArab Pipelines Company Limited (PAPCO) and PakArab Refinery Company Limited (PARCO), the pipeline operators, have been pursuing a project for converting the two pipelines from the present single product, diesel, to multiple products including diesel and gasoline, one with an investment of around $194 million. Similarly, Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have also made significant capital investments in stor-

age tanks and its associated facilities at various delivery points along the pipeline. The two retail fuels namely gasoline and diesel are currently distributed through the length and breadth of the country by tank lorries exclusively. Gasoline is a volatile product with a high evaporation rate, which results in significant working losses when handling the product. As such, the operational losses would be much higher in gasoline transportation as compared to diesel, due also to multiple handling of the product from ship to storage tanks, to pipeline then off take at Shikarpur, Mehmoodkot, Faisalabad, and Machike storages as well as Intermix handling and reprocessing.

The oil industry has stated that operational losses in pipeline transportation can neither be absorbed by OMCs nor by PAPCO/PARCO, out of their existing margins.

Oil edges up as Iran nuclear talks drag on SINGAPORE AGENCIES

Oil prices nudged up on Monday, underpinned by strong demand during the summer driving season and a pause in talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal that could indicate a delay in resumption of supplies from the OPEC producer.

Brent crude futures for August gained 30 cents, or 0.4%, to $73.81 a barrel by 0051 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for July was at $71.96 a barrel, up 32 cents, or 0.5%.

Both benchmarks have gained for the past four weeks amid optimism over the pace of global vaccinations and a pick up in summer travel. The rebound has already pushed up spot premiums for crude in Asia and Europe to multi-month highs.

“The rebound in demand in the northern hemisphere summer is so strong that the market is becoming increasingly concerned about further sharp drawdowns on inventories,” ANZ analysts said in a note.

Negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal took a pause on Sunday after hardline judge Ebrahim Raisi won Iran’s presidential election amid a low turnout on Saturday. Two diplomats said they expected a break of around 10 days. ANZ said the election could delay the nuclear deal. “The possibility of Iranian oil hitting the market in the short term looks unlikely,” the bank said, adding that Iran is insisting that US

Tuesday, 22 June, 2021

10 fOREign nEws

LAHORE

Israel says top dIplomat to vIsIt Uae In fIrst offIcIal trIp TEL AVIV AFP

I

SRAEL’S Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will visit the United Arab Emirates, in the first official ministerial visit since the two nations agreed to normalise ties, his office said Monday.

Israel and the UAE, along with Bahrain, normalised ties in September, and the Jewish state also last year agreed to normalise relations with two other Arab nations, Morocco and Sudan.

“Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will hold the first and historic official visit of an Israeli Foreign Minister to the UAE,” a statement read.

He will be hosted by Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed alNahyan on his two-day visit from June 2930, it added.

Lapid is the architect of a coalition government in Israel that came to power on June 13, ousting long-serving prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who presided over last year’s normalisation accords.

Israeli ministers have previously visited the UAE, but Lapid is the most senior Israeli to make the trip, and the first to travel on an official journey.

“Ties between Israel and the UAE are an important relationship, the fruits of which will be enjoyed not only by the citizens of the two countries, but by the entire Middle East,” the statement added.

Lapid will inaugurate the Israeli Embassy in Abu Dhabi, as well as the Consulate General of Israel in Dubai.

In October 2018, Miri Regev, then Israel’s Minister of Culture and Sports, travelled with the national judo team to Abu Dhabi, but it was not an official visit.

Another Israeli minister, Ayoub Kara, then Minister of Communications, spoke in October 2018 at an international conference on telecommunications in Dubai.

In March, a planned official prime ministerial visit to the UAE by Netanyahu was cancelled due to a “dispute” with Jordan over the use of its airspace, according to Israeli officials.

Netanyahu — replaced as prime minister

by Jewish nationalist Naftali Bennett in Israel’s new government — had already postponed in February a visit to the UAE and Bahrain, amid travel restrictions imposed to stem the coronavirus pandemic.

Israel’s normalisation accords with the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan were last year brokered by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration.

Israel has already signed a raft of deals with both UAE and Bahrain, ranging from tourism to aviation and financial services.

On Monday, the Israel-based i24News television network said it would open an office in Dubai, a first for an Israel-based media outlet.

The normalisation accords have been condemned by the Palestinians as they break with years of Arab League policy which has held that there should be no relations with Israel until it makes peace with the Palestinians.

Europeans, US warn Iran nuclear talks won’t be open-ended TEHRAN ReuteRs

Western officials warned Tehran on Sunday that negotiations to revive its nuclear deal could not continue indefinitely after the sides announced a break following the election of a new hardline president in Iran.

Negotiations have been ongoing in Vienna since April to work out how Iran and the United States can both return to compliance with the nuclear pact, which Washington abandoned in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, and Iran subsequently violated.

Sunday’s pause in the talks came after Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner and fierce critic of the West, won Iran’s presidential election on Friday. Two diplomats said they expected a break of around 10 days.

Raisi will take office in early August, replacing pragmatist Hassan Rouhani, under whom Tehran struck the deal agreeing to curbs to its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of international sanctions.

Iranian and Western officials alike say Raisi’s rise is unlikely to alter Iran’s negotiating position. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ay-

atollah Ali Khamenei already has the final say on all major policy.

Still, some Iranian officials have suggested that Tehran could have an interest in pushing through an agreement before the new president takes office in August, to give Raisi a clean slate.

An Iranian government official close to the talks told Reuters that if a deal is finalised before Raisi takes office, the new president will be able to deflect blame for any concessions onto his predecessor: “Rouhani, not Raisi, will be blamed for any future problems regarding the deal,” he said.

Britain, France and Germany, the European “E3”, have effectively been acting as mediators, shuttling between the Iranian delegation and a US team that — Washington having quit the pact — is not a formal participant.

The Western countries say the longer Iran violates the deal and produces banned nuclear material, the harder it becomes to restore the pact.

“As we have stated before, time is on nobody’s side. These talks cannot be openended,” E3 diplomats said in a note sent to

reporters, adding that the most difficult issues still need to be resolved.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan echoed those comments telling broadcaster ABC News that there was still “a fair distance to travel”, including on sanctions and on the nuclear commitments that Iran has to make.

With the talks on pause, attention will now turn to extending a separate accord between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, which expires on June 24. Iran has ended extra monitoring measures that were introduced under the 2015 deal.

EU political director Enrique Mora, who is coordinating the nuclear talks, said he expected an extension that would let data continue to be collected while placing limits on the IAEA’s access to it for now RAISI UNDER US SANCTIONS: While the rise of a hardliner to succeed Rouhani was expected, it could play into the hands of the deal’s opponents on the right in the United States, and in Israel and Arab countries, who say Iran is not reforming and not trustworthy.

On Sunday Israel’s new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said a Raisi government

would be a “regime of brutal hangmen” with which world powers should not negotiate a new nuclear accord.

Raisi is under US sanctions over a past which includes what the United States and human rights groups say was the extrajudicial killing of thousands of political prisoners in 1988. He has never publicly addressed such allegations.

Raisi, like Ayatollah Khamenei, has sup-

ported the nuclear talks as a route to cancelling US sanctions that have wrecked Iran’s economy. Several Iranian officials said the current negotiating team would remain intact for the next few months.

“Who Raisi picks as his foreign minister will reveal the new government’s foreign policy approach,” said another official, reiterating that nuclear policy was decided by Ayatollah Khamenei.

Hong Kong newspaper to shut within days: official HONG KONG ReuteRs

Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily will be forced to shut “in a matter of days” after authorities froze the company’s assets under a national security law, an adviser to jailed owner Jimmy Lai told Reuters on Monday.

The closure of Apple Daily would undermine the former British colony’s reputation as an open and free society and send a warning to other companies that could be accused of colluding with a foreign country, media advocacy groups said.

Next Digital, publisher of the top-selling 26-year-old newspaper, would hold a board meeting to discuss how to move forward after its lines of credit were frozen, the adviser, Mark Simon, said.

“Vendors tried to put money into our accounts and were rejected,” he said by phone from the United States.

“We thought we’d be able to make it to the end of the month.

It’s just getting harder and harder.

It’s essentially a matter of days.”

Apple Daily said on Sunday the freezing of its assets had left the liberal newspaper with cash for “a few weeks” for normal operations.”

Chief Editor Ryan Law, 47, and Chief Executive Cheung Kim-hung, 59, were denied bail

on Saturday after being charged with collusion with a foreign country.

Three other executives were also arrested on Thursday when 500 police officers raided the newspaper’s offices.

Those three are still under investigation but were released from police detention. Hong Kong and Chinese officials said press freedom cannot be used as a “shield” for those who commit crimes, and slammed the criticism as “meddling.”

‘WE CAN’T BANK’: In May, Reuters reported exclusively that Hong Kong’s security chief had sent letters to tycoon Lai and

branches of HSBC and Citibank threatening up to seven years’ jail for any dealings with the billionaire’s accounts in the city.

A Hong Kong-based spokesperson for Citibank said at the time the bank did not comment on individual client accounts. HSBC declined to comment.

Authorities are also prosecuting three companies related to Apple Daily for alleged collusion with a foreign country and have frozen HK$18 million ($2.3 million) of their assets.

Simon told Reuters it had now become impossible to conduct banking operations in the

global financial hub.

“We can’t bank. Some vendors tried to do that as a favour […] and it was rejected.”

The newspaper has come under increasing pressure since owner and Beijing critic Lai, who is now in jail, was arrested under the national security law last August and has since had some of his assets frozen.

Apple Daily plans to ask the government’s Security Bureau to unfreeze the assets and failing that attempt, it may look to challenge the decision in court.

Simon said some reporters had received threatening phone calls from unknown sources.

“Our staff are now just worried about personal safety,” he said.

Police have said dozens of Apple Daily articles were suspected of violating the national security law, the first case in which authorities have cited media articles as potentially violating the legislation.

Simon said that based on his understanding from officers’ questioning of the executives, around 100 articles were under scrutiny.

“After all this is said and done, the business community is going to look up and recognise that a man’s company was gutted and stolen by a communist regime in Hong Kong,” he said.

Tuesday, 22 June, 2021

sporTs 11

lahore HBL PSL 2021

Multan SultanS down ISlaMabad unIted to reach fInal ABU DHABI

M

sPorts desk

ULTAN Sultans beat Islamabad United for the first time this season to seal their spot in Thursday's HBL PSL final, ESPNcricinfo reported. The win in the first qualifier also put aside their dubious record of being the only PSL side without a final appearance so far; league-toppers United head into the second eliminator on Tuesday for another shot at the finals.

Sultans were set in motion by Sohaib Maqsood after they elected to bat, gained momentum after a slump though Johnson Charles' cameo, and finished strong with a blitz from Khushdil Shah who hit four sixes in the 19th over to help them post 180.

In chase, United were three down before their powerplay was halfway through and never really recovered.

Sohail Tanvir had only one wicket in the season before the game, but this three-for proved timely, and the experience of Imran Tahir - and his two wickets - meant that any potential

scares from United's lower order were safely handled.

United probably aren't intimidated by most totals given their campaign so far, but Tanvir certainly put the fear in them with the new ball.

Colin Munro walked down the pitch to him, first ball, in an effort to negate his inswingers - only to york himself and have middle stump tonked.

Tanvir then had Shadab Khan lunging at a slower delivery to be caught at point; in between it all, No. 3 Muhammad Akhlaq was sent back with a direct hit from Imran Khan at short fine leg. United were 14 for 3 in the third over; historically, not a lot of teams have won in this format after losing that many wickets in the powerplay. And that would eventually be the case for United.

Khawaja was the only batter even during the collapse - to have a plan to score, using characteristic touch play to minimise risk and still find boundaries. But the chase did hinge on whether he could take the innings deeper with Iftikhar Ahmed and Asif Ali, the two other experienced batters in the side, and that wasn't to be. Iftikhar was done by bounce trying to cut Blessing

Muzarabani, and Asif walked past Imran Tahir's legbreak to be stumped.

At 61 for 5, the chase was all but done. Khawaja did open up - getting 18 off four Muzarabani deliveries at one point - and the batting depth meant United did throw in a late flourish. But the damage at the top was too much to overcome.

Mohammad Rizwan's decision to bat first didn't begin well on a personal front; he was adjudged caught behind off the glove - on review - for a duck. But a tight first two overs from United was only a temporary win as Maqsood stamped himself on the game next over onwards, starting Faheem Ashraf's over with a dominant slap over extra cover and following it up with two more perfectly timed drives. It was the first indication that this was a pitch that assisted boundary-scoring.

The next few also came from Maqsood's bat, in the form of two sixes over square leg, one off the front and one of the back foot. While Shan Masood was kept quiet at the other end, the scoring rate did stay up - they finished the powerplay on

44 for 1.

Any indications of the pitch being a pure belter were put to doubt when Shadab brought himself on.

After being pulled through midwicket off his first two balls - in the first instance, literally through Hasan Ali's legs - he got one to rip back into Masood and trapped in front. Two balls later, Rilee Rossouw played for the googly on the front foot and was also trapped lbw - on review - when the legbreak caught him in front of middle. Sultans were suddenly 59 for 3 after a budding partnership of 53 had stabilised them.

But Johnson Charles was in the mood for attack - and it showed from his first ball, when he brought out a controlled sweep against Shadab for four. From there, he took on the aggressor's role. A knock of 41 off 21 balls, with a boundary almost every over he was in, and three slogged sixes took Sultans to 122 in the 15th over before he was dismissed.

Maqsood eventually holed out in the 17th over, and United seemed to have pulled things back - only eight runs came off the eight balls after his dismissal. But the 19th over went woefully wrong as Khushdil hauled them from 145 to 174, with four sixes in a row against Akif Javed; three of them swung over the leg side, and one ending up at third man as he looked to swing it over the leg side. It was the finish Sultans needed after seemingly falling away on a good pitch.

Euro 2020: Shaqiri scores twice as Switzerland beat Turkey 3-1 BAkU AFP

Xherdan Shaqiri scored twice as Switzerland beat Turkey 3-1 in Baku on Sunday but they will have to wait to see if they reach the last 16 of Euro 2020 as one of the four best thirdplaced teams.

Wales held on to second place in Group A thanks to a superior goal difference after their 1-0 loss to Italy.

Shaqiri’s goals came after HarisSeferovic’s first-half opener and either side of Irfan Kahveci scoring Turkey’s only goal of the tournament. “Over the next few days I can’t do anything. We have to wait,”

Switzerland coach Vladimir Petkovic said.

“I’m optimistic we will reach the next round.” Turkey boss SenolGunes said he would not consider standing down despite his team finishing bottom of the group.

“My thought is not about resigning now,” Gunes said. “I’m very sad to be going out after this. This team is good enough to overcome this. I believe in their talent.”

Petkovic made two changes from Wednesday’s heavy loss to Italy, including giving Steven Zuber his first start of the championship.

Gunes brought centre-back MerihDemiral back after dropping the Juventus defender last time out, with his side looking to avoid

a third straight competitive defeat for the first time since Euro 1996.

Switzerland opened the scoring in the sixth minute, silencing the 17,000 crowd supporting Turkey due to close historical and diplomatic ties between Ankara and Baku.

Seferovic buried a low effort past Turkish goalkeeper UgurcanCakir for his 22nd international goal, after Zuber’s turn and pass. Zuber was involved again for the second 20 minutes later, as Seferovic held up possession and his pass deflected to the Eintracht Frankfurt winger’s feet.

The former Hoffenheim man then fed Shaqiri who curled a sublime effort past a helpless Cakir from the edge of the box.

Shaqiri should have doubled his account for the match less than two minutes later when a bursting run put the Liverpool midfielder clear with just the goalkeeper to beat, but Cakir saved with his foot.

ZUBER ON-FORM: Just after the halfhour mark, Turkey left-back MertMuldur tested goalkeeper Yann Sommer with a shot from outside the area but the 32-year-old, who became a father for a second time earlier this week, parried away.

Switzerland’s advantage was halved on the hour mark to send the crowd wild.

HakanCalhanoglu fed Kahveci who shimmied outside the area before firing a left-footed strike into the top corner for his

first international goal.

But Switzerland restored their two-goal lead six minutes later as Shaqiri claimed his second. The 29-year-old, who scored just once in 22 club appearances this season, netted again from another Zuber assist following a quick counter-attack.

With 20 minutes to play, Switzerland still needed a two-goal swing to move above Wales into second place.

Petkovic added fresh legs to his attack by replacing goal-scorers Shaqiri and Seferovic with Ruben Vargas and Mario Gavranovic. But Switzerland failed to find the required goals and their fate is in the hands of other sides’ results.

rain washes out Day 4 of WTC final SOUTHAMPTON AFP

Day four of the World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand was washed out at Southampton, making it the second time during the course of the match that play has been suspended due to rain.

Overnight and early morning rain meant the pitch and square at Hampshire's head-

quarters remained fully covered when the match should have resumed at 10:30 am local time (0930 GMT).

Play was finally abandoned for the day at 3:00 pm (1400 GMT), with Friday's first day having suffered a similar fate.

Match referee Chris Broad, however, has a special dispensation to extend this final into a sixth day — men's Tests usually only last a maximum of five days — if he feels

that will compensate for time lost in the game.

An absorbing day of high-quality cricket on Sunday, cut short by bad light despite the use of the Hampshire Bowl's floodlights, ended with New Zealand 101-2 in reply to India's first innings 217 — a deficit of 116 runs.

New Zealand's Kyle Jamieson took an impressive 5-31 in 22 overs — the towering

paceman's fifth five-wicket haul in just eight career Tests.

Blackcaps opener Devon Conway fell for 54 two balls before the close.

It was his third score of over fifty in just five Test innings following the 29-year-old South Africa-born left-hander's stunning 200 on his debut against England at Lord´s this month.

India, as New Zealand had done after

winning the toss, bowled well in helpful conditions with fast bowler Ishant Sharma having figures of 1-19 in 12 overs at Sunday's close and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin 1-20 in 12.

This match, the culmination of the inaugural World Test Championship that has spanned two years of series between the leading Test nations, is worth $1.6 million to the winners and $800,000 to the runners-up.

Up to 10,000 fans to be allowed at Tokyo Olympics events, announce organisers TOkYO AFP

Up to 10,000 fans will be allowed at Tokyo Olympic events, organisers said Monday, warning competition could move behind closed doors if infections surge.

The decision, just weeks before the opening ceremony, ends months of speculation about whether spectators will be allowed at the pandemic-postponed Games.

Overseas fans were banned in March.

“In light of the government’s restrictions on public events, the spectator limit for the Olympic Games will be set at 50 percent of venue capacity, up to a maximum of 10,000 people in all venues,” organisers said in a statement. A decision on spectators at the Paralympics will be delayed until July 16, a week before the Olympics open. And officials left open the possibility of a reversal if the virus rebounds.

“If there should be major dramatic change in the infection situation, we may

need to revisit this matter amongst ourselves and we may need to consider the option of having no spectators in the venues,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said.

Senior medical experts, including top advisors to the government, have said that holding the Games behind closed doors would be “ideal” from a health perspective.

They fear crowds of fans could fuel a new surge in infections in a country still racing to vaccinate its residents.

The decision was announced after fiveway talks between Tokyo 2020 organisers and officials from Japan’s government, the Tokyo government, the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee.

Speaking before the meeting, IOC chief Thomas Bach said he was “absolutely sure that it will be a decision to best protect the Japanese people and all participants”.

OPPOSITION SOFTENING? Tokyo 2020 had already reportedly scrapped plans to sell more tickets, and may

now face the prospect of organising lotteries among existing holders for the right to attend events. Before the Games was postponed last year, organisers had sold around 4.45 million Olympic tickets and nearly a million Paralympic tickets in Japan.

In December, organisers said they would

be refunding 18 percent of Olympic tickets bought domestically and 21 percent for the Paralympics.

That is still likely to leave many events with more tickets sold than seats available.

Japan has seen a comparatively small virus outbreak, with nearly 14,500 deaths,

despite avoiding the harsh lockdowns seen elsewhere.

But the vaccine rollout has been slower than in many developed countries, only picking up speed in recent days. Around 6.5 percent of the population is now fully vaccinated. Organisers also face a sceptical public. Polls have regularly shown most Japanese would prefer to see the Games delayed further or cancelled altogether.

Recent surveys suggest a softening of opposition, with more in favour of holding the Games than cancelling it – if postponement is not offered as an option.

A survey published Monday found around a third of respondents want the Games to happen, up from 14 percent last month, though a majority still prefer further delay or cancellation.

Organisers say strict rules will keep both athletes and the public safe, and Bach said Monday that “well over” 80 percent of people staying in the Olympic Village will be vaccinated.

Tuesday, 22 June, 2021

Prayer TImINgs

NEWS

FAJR SUNRISE

ZUHR

ASR MAGHRIB ISHA

3:19

12:04

5:01

4:58

7:11

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Occupied KAshMir’s leAders TO urGe indiA’s MOdi TO resTOre reGiOn’s AuTOnOMy REUTERS Kashmiri politicians will urge Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to restore occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy when they meet him on Thursday for the first talks since he took away the region’s special status two years ago, party officials said.

New Delhi has struggled for decades to dampen secessionist sentiments in what had been its only Muslim majority state, blaming

Pakistan for supporting insurgencies in the Himalayan region, which Islamabad denies.

Reasserting New Delhi’s control in August 2019, Modi abolished Article 370 of the Constitution, ending the region’s autonomy and removing its statehood by splitting it into the federal territories of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Buddhist-dominated Ladakh. Some of the politicians set to meet Modi on Thursday were among the thousands of people detained back then to fore-

stall a backlash against the shock move. The government also imposed months-long communications restrictions in the highly sensitive Kashmir valley to stifle opposition.

“Our agenda is restoration of pre-August 5, 2019 status of Jammu and Kashmir,” People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti told her colleagues on Sunday, according to two officials who attended the online meeting. Senior leaders of the National Conference also met over the weekend and backed a deci-

sion to push for the restoration of statehood and special status, a party official said.

“We will press for these two demands during the meeting with the [Indian] prime minister,” the official said. All three officials declined to be named because the discussions were private.

Representatives of the PDP and National Conference will meet on Tuesday along with other members of an alliance formed last year to seek a peaceful restoration of occu-

pied Kashmir’s autonomy, to prepare for their talks with the prime minister, PDP spokesman Suhail Bukhari said.

The 2019 decision to withdraw occupied Kashmir’s autonomy drew a sharp reaction from Pakistan, leading to downgrading of diplomatic ties and suspension of trade.

But the nuclear-armed neighbours have held secret talks this year in an effort to reduce tensions, and agreed to observe a ceasefire along the disputed border in Kashmir.

Afghan peace process has entered critical phase: FM Qureshi NEWS DESK Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday said that the Afghan peace process has entered into a critical phase and peace in the neighbouring country is the priority of many countries. Qureshi who attended Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey said that he met foreign ministers of various countries during the moot and many countries want peace in Afghanistan. “I was able to put forward the stance of Pakistan on Afghan peace during the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in a straightforward manner,” he said. He further termed the meeting with Dr Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), as positive and said that it helped him in understanding the internal situation of the neighbouring country. It is pertinent to mention here that Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday met with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavusoglu in Antalya.

Matters of mutual interest, the latest developments in the Afghan peace process, and the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan were discussed in the meeting. Qureshi congratulated his Turkish counterpart on successfully organizing the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, which saw the highlevel attendance of global leaders. He lauded Turkey’s valuable efforts and its outreach to various Afghan parties. Underscoring Pakistan’s abiding interest in a peaceful, secure, and stable Afghanistan, FM Qureshi illustrated Pakistan’s consistent efforts to facilitate the Afghan peace process.

Govt succeeded in reviving economy despite pandemic: Tarin

BAKU: Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa meets Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev. INP

ECC approves indexation policy for cash transfer for BISP beneficiaries ISLAMABAD TLTP

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has approved the Indexation Policy for Cash Transfer and allowed Benazir Income Support Programme to adopt the institutional mechanism for periodic update of regular cash transfer benefits to Ehsaas Kafalat beneficiaries of BISP. Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin chaired the ECC meeting on Monday.

The ECC was told by the Poverty Alleviation & Social Safety Division that the beneficiaries would receive an additional cash of Rs166 per month due to the Indexation Policy for Cash Transfer. The ECC approved the enhancement of Ehsaas Kifalat monthly stipend to the tune of Rs166 per beneficiary w.e.f. Jan-

uary 01, 2022.

The mechanism shall consist of a committee which will be chaired by secretary finance. The other members of the committee would be additional finance secretary, secretary Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division, economic advisor Finance Division, and one co-opted member for independent technical advice.

The terms of reference of the committee would be to consider and recommend any update/adjustment of regular cash benefits of BISP i.e. Ehsaas Kafalat Programme for inflationary reasons within a period of three years from last enhancement to the Federal Cabinet for approval. The committee would also consider and approve any update/adjustment of cash transfers under BISP Programmes other than

Ehsaas Kafalat Programme.

The ECC also approved the additional funds requirement of Rs75 million of the Ministry of Housing and Works in respect of three development schemes. A technical supplementary grant amounting to Rs43 million in favour of the Ministry of Housing and Works was also approved.

The ECC in its meeting allowed the Information and Broadcasting Division for re-appropriation of PSDP funds of Rs17.633 million through technical supplementary grant. The Interior Ministry’s request for a technical supplementary grant of Rs30 million was also approved. Similarly, technical supplementary grant requests of the Ministry of Narcotics Control for Rs5 million, Science & Technology for Rs317 million and Establishment Division for

Rs54 million were approved in the ECC meeting.

Arrears of contribution amounting to Rs3369.62 million on account of Group Insurance Fund by the Finance Division on behalf of the federal government nongazetted employees was also approved in the meeting.

The ECC meeting was attended by Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Ali Haider Zaidi, Minister for National Food Security Syed Fakhar Imam, Minister on Energy Hammad Azhar, Minister for Railways Azam Khan Swati, Special Assistant to PM on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Dr Sania Nishtar, Adviser to PM on Institutional Reforms Dr Ishrat Hussain, SAPM on Finance and Revenue Dr Waqar Masood, federal secretaries and senior officers.

ISLAMABAD TLTP

Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said that the government has succeeded in reviving the economy despite the Covid-19 pandemic, adding that the opposition parties are exaggerating inflation figures.

The finance minister said this on Monday while responding to points raised by some parliamentarians in the National Assembly. He said that international food prices are currently at the highest level in the last ten years, which is the real cause of food inflation in Pakistan and elsewhere in the world. Tarin said the reason for low productivity is lack of investment in the agriculture sector by the past rulers.

“We are compelled to import food commodities at higher rates which ultimately increase the food prices,” he added. The finance minister while quoting Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said the rate of inflation is 11.5 percent while food inflation has been recorded at 13 percent. “Opposition is lying that inflation in the country has soared to 25 percent,” he said. Tarin said despite all the challenges, the prudent policies of Prime Minister Imran helped the country to overcome the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic. He said ironically, the agriculture sector was grossly ignored in the last eight years, which made the country a net importer of food items. He said, “We import 70 percent of pulses.

Now the government is determined to revamp the agriculture sector so that Pakistan can be made selfsufficient in food production.”

First ILO treaty against workplace violence, harassment comes into force on 25th GENEVA TLTP

The first international treaty on violence and harassment in the world of work comes into force on June 25, 2021 – two years after it was adopted by the ILO’s International Labour Conference (ILC).

To date, six countries have ratified the Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (# 190) – Argentina, Ecuador, Fiji, Namibia, Somalia and Uruguay. Ratifying countries are legally bound by the provisions of the Convention a year after ratification.

Together with Recommendation # 206, Convention No. 190 recognises the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment and provides a common framework for action. It provides the first

international definition of violence and harassment in the world of work, including gender-based violence and harassment.

Violence and harassment at work takes a range of forms and leads to physical, psychological, sexual and economic harm. Since the adoption of the Convention, the Covid-19 pandemic has further highlighted the issue, with many forms of work-related violence and harassment being reported across countries since the outbreak began, particularly against women and vulnerable groups.

To mark its entering into force the ILO will launch a global campaign to promote its ratification and implementation. The campaign aims to explain in simple terms what the Convention is, the issues it covers and how it seeks to ad-

dress violence and harassment in the world of work.

“A better future of work is free of violence and harassment,” said Guy Ryder, the ILO Director-General in his message to launch the global campaign.

“Convention 190 calls on all ILO Member States to eradicate violence and harassment in all its forms from the world of work. I urge countries to ratify the Convention and help build, together with employers and workers and their organizations, a dignified, safe and healthy working life for all.”

The global campaign will be launched during the ILO Action Week on Convention No. 190, which takes place 21-25 June 2021. The Action Week calls for renewed commitment from countries to ratify and implement the Convention.

The Action Week begins on 21

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June with a virtual high-level dialogue. The speakers will include the ILO Director-General, Ministers of Labour from Argentina and Madagascar, and representatives of the International Organisation of Employers (IOE), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the European Commission and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

Following the Action Week, the ILO will launch a guide aimed at helping constituents and other stakeholders promote and implement the Convention and Recommendation.

The guide covers core principles and measures that countries can take to prevent, address and eliminate violence and harassment in the world of work, including examples of national laws, regulations and policies.