Epaper – June 6 ISB 2021

CMYK

6 June, 2021 i 25 Shawwal, 1442 i rs 25.00 i Vol Xi No 336 i 32 Pages i islamabad edition

Imran urges world to protect ecosystem for future generatIons Fawad Chaudhry outrightly disowns PMDA ordinance g

miNiSTer TermS leAKeD CoPy of orDiNANCe ‘fAKe NeWS’ DUriNg meeTiNg WiTH CPNe LAHORE MiAn AbrAr

ISLAMABAD APP

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rime minister imran Khan on Saturday urged the global community to come together and join hands to protect the ecosystem, increase treecover and save the environment for coming generations.

The remarks were part of an address the prime minister delivered during the virtual launch gala of UN Decade on ecosystem restoration on the occasion of World environment Day — an event hosted this year by islamabad. “it is time for the world to come together and save the environment for our future generations,” he said.

He further urged the international community to make efforts to stop the rapid depletion of tree cover as well as

the degradation of the environment.

Sharing his government’s efforts towards improving the environment, imran pointed out that Pakistan, as part of the UN Decade of ecosystem restoration, had so far completed the plantation of one billion trees of its ambitious target to plant 10 billion trees.

“Pakistan has also started another ambitious programme of increasing national parks in the country and so far nine such areas have been established in various parts of the country,” he said.

He said the objective of this programme was to increase tree cover and protect wildlife. The day would be celebrated across the world through various events and activities, in line with the latest Covid-19 regulations.

He said his government was also working on the restoration of wetlands by using floodwaters and replenishing the

coronavIrus In

pakIstan

CONFIRMED CASES:

930,511

LAST UPDATED AT 8:39 AM ON JUNE 5, 2021

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

NEW CASES:

84

1,923

RECOVERED:

DEATHS:

SINDH:

PUNJAB:

860,385 21,189 322,350

341,789

KP:

BALOCHISTAN:

134,072

25,589

AJK/GB: ISLAMABAD: 19,456/5,629 81,626

water table. imran said that as the whole process also helped in creating green employment opportunities — the government created 80,000 jobs for women and youth during the pandemic.

At a time when prolonged quarantines rendered people unemployed, the government enabled them, particularly women and youth in remote areas, to generate income by growing nurseries, he recalled.

He said the rich economies have not done enough to combat global warming, adding Pakistan had done more than its global counterparts to combat carbon emissions relative to its economic means.

“Has the developed world done enough: The answer is no,” he said. “emissions are from the rich countries. And i think they know they haven’t done enough.”

minister for information and Broadcasting fawad Chaudhry on Saturday outrightly distanced the PTi government from the proposed ordinance of Pakistan media Development Authority (PmDA) calling it ‘fake news’.

A meeting was arranged with the information minister by Council of the Newspapers editors (CPNe) to register its protest against the copy of the PmDA ordinance that has been circulating on social media and get further clarity over the government’s plan to introduce legislation that would regulate print, electronic and social media. fawad Chaudhry clarified to members of the CPNe that the PmDA ordinance circulating on social media was ‘fake news’ and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTi) government had nothing to do with it.

“PTi is itself a direct beneficiary of a free and vibrant media and it strongly believes in media freedom.

Hence, any law threatening press freedom would not be passed. But

FM lambastes Afghan NSA over objectionable remarks against Pakistan MULTAN stAff rePort

foreign minister Shah mahmood Qureshi on Saturday called on Afghan National Security Adviser Hamdullah mohib to “reflect and correct” his behaviour.

At a gathering of political workers in multan, Qureshi, addressing the Afghan NSA directly said, “if you do not desist from using the kind of language you are and the baseless accusations you are making against Pakistan, no Pakistani will shake hands or talk with you”.

Qureshi said that Pakistan had suffered greatly in terms of loss of lives and financial cost from terrorism over the years and that it only wanted peace and stability in the region.

The fm was responding to comments made by the Afghan NSA during a visit to Nangarhar province where he termed Pakistan a “brothel house”, as per a Voice of America report.

The report said mohib routinely accuses Pakistan of providing support and planning to the Afghan Taliban. you should be ashamed and you should be guilty at your words and my blood is boiling ever

having said that, let me also tell you that media regulation is necessary”, he said.

He however added that no proposal or laws regarding regulation would be finalized without the input of all stakeholders from the media. He ensured everyone present that unless there was consensus among all concerned; no recommendation would move forward and become law.

“We will also look at amending or improving existing laws related to regulation of media,” he added.

Speaking on the occasion, editor Pakistan Today and President CPNe Arif Nizami endorsed the views expressed by the information minister and said that press freedom in the country had been achieved through years of struggle by the journalist community and any threat to it would be opposed.

He welcomed the information minister’s invitation to all relevant stakeholders to become part of the law formation process and hoped that the proposed regulation does not trample upon the right to free speech and expression.

more inside

Fawad asks Shehbaz to name focal person for discussion on election reforms STORY ON BACK PAGE

Pakistan among top 30 countries in terms of vaccine doses administered: faisal STORY ON PAGE 03 since your speech in Nangarhar.

“Correct your behaviour and reflect on it. i say this to the international community that if this behaviour continues, then this person, who calls himself the national security adviser of Afghanistan, will actually be playing the role of a spoiler.”

He added that the Afghan NSA was creating obstacles on Afghanistan’s road towards peace and trying to worsen the situation instead of improving it.

TrilATerAl FM MeeTiNg: earlier in the week, in his virtual address at the 4th China-AfghanistanPakistan Trilateral foreign ministers’ Dialogue on Thursday, the foreign minister said that Pakistan has always strived to strengthen

its relations with China and Afghanistan in the bilateral as well as regional context.

“We attach great importance to this dialogue enhancing cooperation and coordination,” he said. Qureshi said that it was about four years ago that the three countries had conceived this trilateral forum for discussing collaborative efforts to promote peace and stability in Afghanistan and the region, enhancing security and counter-terrorism cooperation and deepening regional connectivity and shared economic development through meaningful projects.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

20 dead, including civilians, following Afghan airstrike on Taliban STORY ON BACK PAGE in today’s issue

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Contact: 0307-7338168 irfan.farooq@pakistantoday.com.pk

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Sunday, 6 June, 2021

ISLAMABAD

NEWS

FIrST PaSSPorT oFFICE oPENS gaTE IN MIraN SHaH PESHAWAR

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APP

INISTER for Interior Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Saturday inaugurated a firstever passport office in the Miran Shah town of North Waziristan district to facilitate people for the facility.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony, the minister said the government has paid special attention to the uplift of the merged tribal districts and for the purpose, allocated special funds.

The ceremony was attended by tribal elders and notable of the locality.

He acknowledged the unprecedented sacrifices of the tribal men in safeguarding motherland from enemies, adding, they always stood shoulder to shoulder with the army against terrorists.

The minister also lauded the support of tribal people to armed forces for the restoration of durable peace in the region.

“You people fight the war for the survival of the country and the entire nation is proud of your bravery and

sacrifices”, he said.

Rasheed said personally he was in favour of the Jirga system as it provided a good alternative justice system due to the involvement of local elders who understood issues of the community better, adding, he would speak to Prime Minister Imran Khan in this regard.

He said the social fabric of Waziristan was unique, adding that the government would work to strengthen local customs, traditions and laws.

The minister said that he would also hold talks with Law Minister to frame laws in line with local customs and traditions.

He said that local people would be recruited in National Base and Registration Authority and passport office on merit.

On the occasion, he also announced two NADRA mobile vans for the registration process in remote areas of North Waziristan.

Rashid said the immigration process at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border would be made easy to facilitate movements at the border, adding that a

Pakistan reports 1,923 new Covid-19 cases, 84 deaths

passport office would be also set up at Angoor Adda.

The minister said internet services had been restored in South Waziristan and this facility would be extended to North Waziristan by this year.

ISLAMABAD

Nisa Hussain, Ittehad Textile collaborate for customer satisfaction

NEWS DESK Prime Minister Imran Khan has instructed the concerned authorities that all events in his honour shall be conducted in Urdu language, according to a news outlet.

APP

PR

Designer clothing brand Nisa Hussain and Ittehad Textile on Saturday penned down a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate for customer care and satisfaction. The MoU was signed at a local cafe in the provincial capital between Nisa Hussain Creative Director Hiba Fawad and Ittehad Textile’s Nazim Sheikh. Under the MoU, Nisa Hussain would launch its lawn clothing range in collaboration with Ittehad Textile to provide casual women clothing. Actress Mehwish Hayat was a conspicuous presence on the occasion.

Earlier, Nisa Hussain had launched its bridal collection.

Hiba Fawad is the wife of Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry and her brand is named after her daughter Nisa Hussain.

Earlier, tribal elders and local notables warmly received the minister on his arrival at North Waziristan and presented him traditional Pashtun turban. They briefed the minister about various problems being faced by local people.

Murree Brewery hosts World Environment Day RAWALPINDI: Murree Brewery on Saturday hosted "World Environment Day" in collaboration with the Punjab Environment Protection Department (EPA). EPA Deputy Director Amin Baig expressed his views regarding the importance of environmental protection. Murree Brewery Deputy General Manager Fakher-e-Mahmood welcomed the EPA officials and thanked them for joining Murree Brewery to celebrate World Environment Day. PR

Parliamentary Secretary for National Health Services (NHS) Dr Nausheen Hamid shared a notification from the Prime Minister's Office, stating that henceforth all programmes, events, or ceremonies arranged for the prime minister shall be conducted in the national language, Urdu.

Dr Hamid added that the ministers and other government officials have also been directed to make all speeches and statements in the national language.

This is not the first time that the prime minister has shown a preference for Urdu over English.

Back in 2019, when PPP Chairman Bilawal BhuttoZardari had addressed the parliament in English, the prime minister had responded by saying that it is an "insult" to the people of Pakistan.

"Ninety percent of Pakistanis do not know English.

We know this. So how is it then that we speak in English on these public forums? Why do we do this? The people know Urdu, but you start speaking in English," he said in sharp rebuke for English speakers.

The premier went on to ask whether in the British parliament, anyone ever speaks French. "If someone does that, they will be made fun of," he said.

Sindh police establish internal accountability bureau The Sindh police on Saturday established an internal accountability bureau, comprising 18 police officials, who are well respected among their colleagues, according to a news outlet.

Additional Inspector General Farhat Junejo will head of the newly-established accountability bureau, while every officer would be assigned inquiries according to their ranks. The accountability bureau will investigate all complaints against police personnel, including misuse of power and corruption. Following the establishment, the Provincial Public Safety Police Commission filed eight petitions against officials and the AIG operations forwarded those to the bureau. These petitions should be heard and resolved as soon as possible, the AIG operations said in a letter written to the bureau. NEWS DESK

Alvi orders Banking Mohtasib to probe into funds transfer complaint ISLAMABAD

LAHORE

ISLAMABAD: Chinese President Xi Jinping Saturday urged the international community to work together with unprecedented ambition and action to strive for a fair and reasonable system of global environmental governance, featuring winwin cooperation, and to promote the sustainable development of humanity. Xi made these remarks in a congratulatory letter to the World Environment Day events held in Islamabad. The event was hosted by Pakistan and addressed by Prime Minister Imran Khan and others. “The international community should work together with unprecedented ambition and action to strive for a fair and reasonable system of global environmental governance featuring win-win cooperation and promote the sustainable development of humanity,” said the letter received from Beijing. Xi pointed out that the Chinese civilisation has always valued harmony between humans and nature, and that ecological conservation has been incorporated into China's overall plan for building socialism with Chinese characteristics. MIAN ABRAR

PM Imran directs to conduct events in Urdu

StAff REPoRt

The government portal reported 1,923 new Covid-19 cases on Friday with a positivity rate of 3.82 percent, the National Command and Operation Center said on Saturday. According to the NCOC, the total caseload of cases rose to 930,511, which include 860,385 recoveries since February of last year when it detected the first case. There is a total of 48,937 active cases who are under treatment across the country, including 3,452 those who are in critical condition. According to the NCOC, the pandemic killed 84 people during the last 24 hours, increasing the overall death toll to 21,189. Punjab is leading in both the number of infections and deaths, where 341,789 people were infected and 10,241 lost their lives, followed by Sindh with 322,350 infected people and 5,105 deaths.

Xi calls for efforts to improve global environmental governance

To ensure dispensation of justice to the public over their grievances against financial bodies, President Dr Arif Alvi set aside the findings of the Banking Mohtasib for dealing with the complaint of an account holder in a “causal manner” and without taking into account the principles of justice and required standards of inquiry.

President Alvi directed the Mohtasib to “process, enquire and deal with the complaint in accordance with law after affording the complainant an opportunity of hearing”.

The complainant Rubi Anwaar, a Lahore-based account holder of a private bank, had filed a representation with the President requesting him to take up the matter after the Banking Mohtasib closed her case without holding a proper inquiry.

The Banking Mohtasib

closed the case without providing her with any opportunity for a hearing, she complained.

She had earlier informed the Banking Mohtasib that an amount of Rs140,000 was transferred from her bank account without her knowledge. She mentioned that on pointing out the error, the bank did not grant her any relief.

President Alvi expressing his displeasure over the handling of the case said the “whole process was lacking, rather absent and the complaint was closed summarily without due care and application of mind”.

“This type of disposition of the matter is uncalled for and unsustainable. The rights of the people cannot be trampled in an arbitrary manner,” he said in a written observation made on the case.

The president stressed that the Banking Mohtasib had the responsibility to give the full

opportunity of hearing to complainants and fulfil the due process of law as the denial of justice caused pessimism and frustration in the society.

He noted that the relevant provisions of the Banking Companies Ordinance, 1962,

which meant to be followed in inquiring and processing of such complaints, were ignored.

“Therefore, the representation is accepted and closure findings are set aside with the direction to the learned Banking Mohtasib Pakistan to

process, enquire and deal with the complaint of the complainant/ petitioner in accordance with law after affording an opportunity of explaining her grievance and hearing her,” the President concluded in his order.

Sunday, 6 June, 2021

ISLAMABAD

NEWS

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Pakistan among toP 30 countries in terms of vaccine doses administered: faisal ISLAMABAD

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News Desk

pecial assistant to prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan on Saturday claimed that pakistan is among world’s top 30 countries in terms of covid-19 vaccines administered.

The pM’s aide, in a video statement, said that almost eight million vaccine doses have been administered in pakistan as of June 4. “We have administered more vaccine doses than 165 countries. We have administered more vaccine doses than countries such as australia, Switzerland, portugal and Belgium.” almost 2.2 million people have been fully immunised as of June 4 while 3.7 million have received one dose of the vaccine, he said.

Talking about restrictions, he said that the covid-19 restrictions will not be lifted or

eased until and unless all citizens are vaccinated against the virus. “We have to get united against the virus,” he said.

He stated that the virus had dealt a severe blow to all health systems globally and the only way out is for countries to work together.

LOW POSITIVITY RATE: pakistan recorded its lowest coronavirus positivity rate in three months at 3.58 percent on Friday, according the latest statistics provided by the National command and Operation centre (NcOc).

The last lowest covid-19 positivity rate reported by the country was on February 28 at 3.02 per cent. as many as 83 people lost their lives to covid-19 in the last 24 hours, according to NcOc’s daily coronavirus report.

The report stated that 52,859 coronavirus tests were conducted across the country in the last 24 hours, out of which 1,893 tests came back positive. according to the official portal, the rate

of positive cases of covid-19 in the country during the last 24 hours was 3.58 percent.

The total number of deaths from covid19 in the country so far stands at 21,105, while the total number of cases is 928,588.

Meanwhile, 856,005 people have recovered from the virus so far.

The country is reporting a decline in coronavirus cases amid the deadly third wave that has wreaked havoc, however Sindh is still reporting a spike in cases. a day earlier, Sindh Health Minister Dr azra pechuho said that despite the efforts of the government, people are still hesitant to get themselves vaccinated.

The health minister, addressing a press conference in Karachi, said Sindh would ease restriction once people start getting themselves inoculated.

“The coronavirus positivity ratio in Karachi is still above 11 percent,” Dr pechuho said, adding that Sindh is yet to see an improvement.

SC to take up sacked judge’s appeal against dismissal ISLAMABAD stAff RepoRt

The Supreme court will take up on Monday the petition of sacked judge of islamabad High court Shaukat aziz Siddiqui challenging the presidential notification of his dismissal from service.

The court was due to hear the petition on May 31 but was adjourned until June 2 and on the day, it was “partially heard”, a petition filed by Siddiqui on June 3 said.

Siddiqui was dismissed in October 2018 on the recommendation of the Supreme Judicial council following an investigation into his accusation of the spy agency interfering in judicial proceedings to influence the general election held in July that year.

“The president of pakistan has been pleased to remove Mr Justice Shaukat aziz Siddiqui […] from his

Govt determined to battle climate change for future generations ISLAMABAD AgeNcies

Haidar ali, a political activist from the Hunza district of the Gilgit-Baltistan region, has many sleepless nights in summer due to fear of the bursting of a lake formed some 10 km away from his home because of a surging glacier named Shishper.

“The glacier surged due to climate change, like many other glaciers in the Karakoram mountain range.

The lake formed by the glacier surge poses a high risk to residential settlements like my home in summer,” ali told Xinhua.

“Since its formation in 2018, it has burst twice in summer and we are scared that the same may happen again to wash us away in its gushing water.” according to the pakistan Meteorological Department, the 12-km-long Shishper glacier, covering an area of almost 24.9 square km, surged with a very high velocity of up to 43.3 meters a day in 2018, and intercepted glacier-melt water from its neighbouring glacier Muchuhur, resulting in the formation of the glacier dammed lake in November 2018, with the risk of a glacial lake outburst flood.

“The real tragedy with us is that we did not contribute much to the climate change, yet we will be the first one to get devoured by nature if it turns violent. pakistanis should realize that climate change is a serious issue and if they do not pay attention to it right now, everyone will be vulnerable and helpless in the face of natural calamities,” ali said. pakistan has been recurrently affected by catastrophes and is ranked among the most affected countries to climate change in both the long-term index and in the index for the respective year, according to the Global climate Risk index 2021. apart from glacier melt, pakistan’s agricultural sector is also being badly affected by climate change, especially in the areas where agriculture is dependent on rains including the chakwal district of punjab.

“Wheat and peanut are the major crops in chakwal.

We don’t have any canal irrigation system in the district and 90 percent of farmers depend on rains for their crops. Over the past three years, wheat production in the area has been badly affected because of hostile weather conditions,” Hamid iqbal, a farmer in chakwal, told Xinhua.

He said that over the past few years, there is little rainfall during the sowing season due to which the crops could not get enough water to grow. Whereas, during the harvest season around april-May, heavy rainfall and hailstorm lashed the crops, making farmers lose a major share of their yield.

Similarly, the country’s cash crop cotton faces the same fate in punjab and Sindh due to abrupt changes in weather, discouraging farmers to sow it and putting pressure on textile, the major export-oriented industry of the country.

Minister for climate change Malik amin aslam said that climate change has posed multiple socioeconomic challenges due to environmental impact.

“Our monsoon patterns are shifting the timing and the frequency of rainfall. The geographical distribution of rainfall has shifted. it is shifting so fast that our agriculture cannot adapt to it,” he told Xinhua. “in our South we have cyclonic activity happening dangerously close to our big cities. We have this new phenomenon of cloudbursts over our main cities. in addition to all of this, we also have very strong heat waves which are coming in pakistan.”

Being the global host of this year’s World environment Day with a theme of “ecosystem Restoration”, pakistan is trying hard to educate its people to embrace nature and make it their friend by investing in it, the minister said.

The government is taking stringent measures to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change and prime Minister imran Khan is himself heading the campaign to “save the country for future generations by addressing the climate change issue.” in order to address deforestation, the government launched the Billion Tree Tsunami project in Khyber pakhtunkhwa in 2014 and in 2018 its sphere was extended to the whole country with the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami program.

Talking about the initiative, the minister on climate change said that a billion out of the 10 billion trees have already been planted while the remaining trees are expected to be planted by 2023.

“We also announced the protected areas initiative in pakistan to protect our forests. During the covid-19 pandemic, we established new national parks. So they are preserving the unique wilderness of pakistan and also helping us fight climate change,” aslam said.

office with immediate effect,” the Ministry of law and Justice said in a notification. a five-member larger bench headed by Justice Umer ata Bandial — and comprising Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice ijazul ahsan, Justice Mazhar alam Khan Miankhel and Justice Sajjad ali Shah — will hear the request.

Siddiqui had filed an application in the apex court on april 28, requesting for fixing his case at the earliest, before his retirement on June 30.

Siddiqui is also being investigated for alleged misconduct over the allocation and refurbishment of his official residence. He has denied the charges. in a separate 2018 ruling that human rights advocates called a blow for the minorities, Siddiqui said citizens who hid their religious affiliation were guilty of betraying the state and told government jobseekers to declare their faith.

in order to protect residential settlements from being hit by glacier lake bursts, the government has launched a project to install early warning systems of GlOF to educate people about the glacial meltinginduced floods and preparation to ensure safe evacuation and less damage.

“There is a lot to be done to stop the melting and surge of glaciers, but as an urgent measure, we have launched the initiative to have a beforehand knowledge of the calamity to save the residential communities from being a victim of a disaster,” he added.

The country has also launched the Recharge pakistan program to increase water storage and recharge through wetlands, floodplains and hill-torrents management to build the resilience of vulnerable communities through climate-adapted, communitybased natural resource management.

Talking about the program, aslam said, “We are trying to turn the crisis into an opportunity through this program. about 30 million acre-feet of water is wasted from pakistan annually, so under this program, we want to divert that floodwater towards our degraded wetland systems so that the wetlands can get restored, and also our groundwater aquifer can get recharged.” in order to control carbon emissions, the government has decided to convert 30 percent of its traffic to electricity from fuel till 2030, and in this connection, electric motorbikes and passenger threewheelers have already been launched, while four-wheeler vehicles are scheduled to be launched by the end of this year, aslam said.

“We are trying our best to restore nature, we are investing in it, and are educating people to put our trust back in nature,” the minister added.

He said the country’s initiative to repair nature has also created a large number of green jobs, including 100,000 employments created during the covid-19 lockdowns, adding that the job creation improved the livelihood of the locals, showing that “if you invest in nature, nature always pays you back. it’s not a one-way investment.” climate change is one of the biggest challenges which pakistan is facing as it is not only affecting the lifestyle and safety of people but also has a lot of economic and social repercussions.

The government is taking measures to protect their part of the planet from getting more affected by climatic change. Though the country’s share in the world’s carbon emission is less than one percent, experts believe that inadequate measures to protect the environment showed some very serious consequences over the past few years, but the situation is likely to get back to normal when the government’s efforts start bearing fruit.

two killed, several injured in gas cylinder blast in islamabad ISLAMABAD stAff RepoRt

Two people were killed and several others injured in the explosion of a gas cylinder here on Saturday, police sources said. The explosion occurred in an oxygen cylinder filling factory in islamabad’s industrial area of Rawat Saturday morning, killing two labourers on the spot, sources from islamabad police said. The cause of the blast has not been ascertained yet, but it might have happened due to gas leakage, said the sources, adding that the factory building was partially damaged due to the cylinder explosion. police and rescue workers reached the scene immediately following the blast and shifted the injured to a government hospital. police have kicked off an investigation into the incident.

sinovac’s covid-19 vaccine gains china nod for emergency use in kids, adolescents BEIJING AgeNcies

china has approved emergency use of Sinovac Biotech’s covid-19 vaccine in people aged between three and 17, its chairman Yin Weidong told state TV late on Friday. china’s mass vaccination drive, which administered 723.5 million doses of vaccines as of June 3, is currently only open to those aged 18 and above. When Sinovac’s vaccine will be offered to younger groups depends on health authorities formulating china’s inoculation strategies, Yin told state TV in an live interview. Yin said minors have lower priority for vaccination against the coronavirus compared with the elderly, who face higher risk of severe symptoms after infection. preliminary results from phase i and ii clinical the vaccine could trigger immune response in three to 17 yearold participants, and most adverse reactions were mild. Sinovac has also completed a phase ii clinical trial where participants were injected with a third booster dose after completing two regular shots, Yin said.State-backed drugmaker Sinopharm, which has two shots using similar technology to Sinovac’s product, is also submitting data for clearance in younger groups. a vaccine from canSino Biologics’ adopting a different technique, has entered a phase ii trial involving those aged between six and 17. participants saw 10 fold increase in antibody levels compared with previous levels in a week, and 20 fold in half a month, Yin said. Yin cautioned that Sinovac still needs to complete longer-term observation of antibody duration before it can make recommendation to authorities about when a third dose should be given.

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Sunday, 6 June, 2021

ISLAMABAD

NEWS

All educAtionAl institutions to reopen from mondAy: ncoc ISLAMABAD

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StAff REpoRt

LL educational institutes in districts with a low positivity rate of Covid-19 will reopen from Monday, the National Command and Operation Centre said on Saturday.

However, it said, academic activities will

remain suspended in districts where the contagion rate is still high.

Educational institutions are required to implement coronavirus guidelines to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.

Matriculation and intermediate classes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Balochistan, and Islamabad resumed on May 31 after the NCOC allowed the provinces to reopen ed-

ucational institutes in districts with less than 5 percent Covid-19 infection rate.

Separately, the NCOC said that one million more doses of coronavirus vaccines arrived in Islamabad from Beijing through a special Pakistan International Airlines flight.

Another 11 million doses of China’s Sinovac, CanSino and Sinopharm vaccines will be airlift later this month, it added.

It said all-out efforts are being made for mass vaccination with an uninterrupted supply of vaccines being ensured across the country. The NCOC urged citizens to follow precautions and get themselves inoculated on a priority basis. Pakistan has so far received 11,475,300 doses of coronavirus vaccines from three countries. The producers include Sinovac, Cansino, Sinopharm, Pfizer

and AstraZeneca, it added.

The first shipment had arrived from China on February 2, whereas, Beijing had also gifted 1.72 million doses to Islamabad.

1.3 million doses of vaccine were provided to the country under the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access programme. The government has also received 1,238,400 doses of Pfizer vaccine from Covax, reports added.

Citizens suffer as unannounced load-shedding continues in Karachi NewS DeSk

LAHORE: Lions roar due to hot weather at Lahore Zoo.

Power cuts in Karachi continue unabated with up to six hours in areas that are exempted. The rising frequency and hours of power outages has citizens worried.

Power was cut off for up to 12 hours in different parts of the city. Owing to the extreme heat, citizens of several areas also had to face a water shortage as they were unable to switch on their water pumping motors.

Separately, there have also been incidents of motorcycles parked outside in the heat catching fire.

Although K-electric has said that the balance of demand and supply has improved, consumers remain unconvinced and suspect that load-shedding is being done in the name of ‘routine technical repair work’.

K-Electric has however categorically stated that there is no unannounced load-shedding in the city.

While businesses and traders have termed the increase in alleged unscheduled load-shedding as severe impediment in doing business, teachers have complained that they are simply unable to schedule or conduct online classes with such frequent power outages.

GOVERNOR SINDH SUMMONS K-ELECTRIC CEO: Earlier in the week, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail took notice of “continued unannounced load shedding” and has directed the K-Electric Chief Executive Officer Moonis Alvi to take personal interest in the ongoing prolonged and unannounced electricity breakdowns in different parts of the metropolis and address the grievances of the Karachiites immediately.

Imran Ismail summoned the chief of KE — the utility company responsible for power supply in the city — following reports of increasing outages in the city. During the meeting, Ismail directed the KE CEO to “personally supervise” matters related to load shedding in Karachi and “immediately resolve” the com-

plaints of citizens, a statement issued by the Governor’s House said.

The Sindh governor also made telephonic contact with Federal Minister for Energy Muhammad Hamad Azhar during the meeting and called for improving the situation regarding electricity supply in the city.

Azhar issued directions to the KE CEO during the call as well, the statement said.

Earlier this month, the transmission lines supplying power to Karachi had to be restored after the metropolis suffered a major power breakdown due to the tripping of high tension lines at Jamshoro-Karachi link multiplying the miseries of the Karachi residents in the hot weather. The power supply was suspended in Defence Phase-I, Malir Model Colony, Lyari Kharadar, Khada Market, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, KDA Scheme 33, and several other areas for at least a couple of hours.

An official spokesperson of the Power Division said on May 22 that NK Baldia-1 and Baldia-2 transmission lines were restored at 2:41 pm.

According to sources, over 45 grid stations in Karachi got affected due to the tripping of transmission lines after which the power supply to a major part of the city was suspended.

Earlier in a statement, the power utility had said that the supply to parts of Karachi was interrupted due to the tripping of a KE’s 220 kV high tension line.

“Restoration efforts have already begun and are expected to be completed within one hour and the availability of generation supply is enabling restoration to progress swiftly,” it had added. The ministry of energy had said that the power outage in the city was caused by the tripping of the NKI Baldia-1 and Baldia-2 lines.

“The teams of KE and NTDC are working to restore the supply and investigations are underway to ascertain the cause of tripping.”

Eco-friendly Sahiwal power plant addressing energy woes ISLAMABAD AGENCIES

Sahiwal power plant in Punjab, a major energy project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, has been addressing the energy woes for Pakistan over the years besides meeting all local and international environment protection standards.

Sprawling over hundreds of acres of land, the power plant has clusters of flowers blooming along its driveways, lush green grass and fruit-bearing mango and guava trees which not only give an enchanting view to the onlookers but also highlight its eco-friendly nature.

The plant’s well-planned lakes glisten in the sunset with a group of ducks swimming in the water. The power plant reminds us that electricity generating systems across the country and the world should follow the concept of green development.

“Sahiwal Power Plant attaches great importance to the fulfilment of social responsibility for environmental protection,” Xu Yan’an, director of Corporate Culture Department of the power plant’s operator Huaneng Shandong Ruyi Energy, told Xinhua.

“It has adopted a series of strict environmental protection measures to minimise the degree of environmental pollution from waste gas, wastewater, particulate matter and noise, which has enabled the plant to keep emissions well below the national standards in Pakistan and those of the World Bank.”

Talking about energy efficiency, Nouman Ali, a mechanical engineer at the power plant, said the coal-fired power plant was the first in the country to introduce supercritical technology to generate clean electricity.

Thanks to the latest technology, the plant produces more electricity with less coal consumption, enabling it to protect the environment. It has a system to control various emissions from the plant. Low NOx burners are used for nitrogen oxide emission control, whereas sulfur dioxide emission is reduced by a flue-gas desulfurization system, Ali said. “So because of all these technologies, Sahiwal does not look like a typical coal power plant. It is very clean,” Ali said, adding that “before joining the

power plant, my perspective was certainly that the coal power plants will be full of dust. And maybe the environment will not be very clean. But I will say that my belief was changed when I came here.”

The Sahiwal plant adheres to the classification processing of wastewater and multi-use of different kinds of water. For example, domestic sewage is used to irrigate fruit trees, Xu said, adding that after sewage treatment the indicators will meet all the requirements of environmental standards. “We have been trying to reduce and recycle sewage as much as possible,” he said.

“The Pakistani government launched the ‘Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme’ in 2018, which coincides with the environmental protection concept of our power plant.

Taking this opportunity, we have continuously expanded the scale of tree planting and the green area of the plant to improve the ecological environment,” Xu said, adding that more than 80,000 trees of over 100 varieties have been planted in the whole area, and 152,000 square meters of turf have been laid. “This power plant is great. It is also famous for its agricultural production. We do have guava and oranges and also mangoes. You must have seen mangoes and oranges.

Yes, we have such trees in our power plant,” said Ali. “And I remembered last year when it was the season of guava, all the fruits which were provided in our canteen was from our own trees. We do enjoy that.” The efforts made by the power plant in environmental conservation provide employees beautiful and comfortable working and living environment. Farhan Mehboob, an electrical engineer of the plant, told Xinhua that during the construction, the plant was different from what it is now, and soils and machinery could be seen everywhere. The situation gradually improved after the end of the commissioning period.

“We saw so many trees and so many beautiful places.

So it would not be wrong if I say that this is a mighty garden,” he said. Environmental protection measures of the plant have also been highly appraised by the local government. The plant has received the 13th Corporate Social Responsibility Awards and won the 16th and 17th Annual Environment Excellence prizes by the National Forum for Environment and Health of Pakistan.

Sunday, 6 June, 2021

ISlamabad

INcluSIve weAlTh oN The rISe IN PAkISTAN: uNeP

iSLamaBad

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TLTP

NCLUSIVe wealth, a measure of Pakistan’s prosperity and sustainability that accounts for social, economic and environmental factors, has been on the rise consistently since 1992, a new UN environment Programme (UNeP) report shows.

The report titled “Inclusive Wealth of Pakistan: The Case for Investing in Natural Capital and Restoration” assessed Pakistan’s inclusive wealth, a measure of economic and environmental well-being that includes factors typically

overlooked by indicators like gross domestic product (GDP). This framework counts the social value rather than the dollar price of assets such as natural, human, and produced capital, to provide a more holistic approach to economic monitoring and management.

Between 1992 and 2019, Pakistan’s inclusive wealth increased at an average of 2.3 percent annually.

Human capital and produced capital were responsible for the bulk of the increase, growing at a rate of 2.9 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively. Unfortunately, over the same period, natural capital declined annually by 0.1 percent on average. However, the last five years

have shown evidence of an environmental turnaround, with forests, grassland, sparsely vegetated areas and water bodies all growing in the area since 2015.

Shrubland and wetlands remained static, while crop land receded. Future progress will depend on ensuring more investment in natural capital.

“Pakistan understands that inclusive, sustainable economic growth means tending to the engines of growth: people and nature,” said Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam. “This is why we have devoted ourselves to efforts like afforestation, marine protection, and ecosystem restoration. We

want a future for Pakistan where the natural beauty of the country is not only restored but managed capably to support the well-being of Pakistanis.”

The bounce back in forest cover in recent years is likely attributable to restoration policy and tree plantation schemes under the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme (TBTTP), the report says. Human capital has also benefitted from these initiatives through employment, health improvements and poverty alleviation. The TBTTP has restored hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest and is estimated to have created 85,000 jobs in tree nurseries alone.

“Our conventional economic accounting too often ignores how fundamental natural and human capital are to our prosperity,” said Inger Andersen, UNeP executive Director.

“Inclusive wealth is a robust basis for investment decisions, as it reflects how to achieve higher living standards in the long run for all. By investing in restoration initiatives, Pakistan is setting the foundation for an inclusive and sustainable recovery from Covid-19 and beyond.”

The recent gains remain precarious, however. The report underlines that levels of natural capital are insufficient for current economic production and wealth accumulation. Further increases in inclusive wealth will depend on environmental and social considerations being properly integrated into planning and development strategies.

Finland's football association offers free sports hijabs to boost diversity Finland's football association has begun offering a free “sports hijab” to any player who wants one, in a move designed to attract a greater diversity of players into the sport.

So far, the FA has distributed “dozens” of the headscarves, which are made out of technical, stretchy fabric, Heidi Pihlaja, head of development of women and girls' football, told AFP. “In Finland, it's been really hard to get girls of immigrant backgrounds into football clubs,” Pihlaja said.

“So we wanted to start this initiative to welcome everyone, regardless of your religion and whether you want to use a scarf or not."

“It doesn't flap around as much as normal and you don't need to tuck it into your shirt,” 13-year-old Nasro Bahnaan Hulbade told AFP during a training session at her club VJS in Vantaa, in the Finnish capital.

“It's easier to run in it,” said her teammate Kamila Nuh. The girls have been playing for one and two years respectively, but said they were “happy and grateful” to find out from their parents about the free headscarves.

Pihlaja said that cultural issues and cost — rather than the headscarves themselves — were often the main obstacles to girls and women from immigrant communities taking up the sport.

But offering the hijabs has “a symbolic importance” to making the sport more accessible, she said.

Although the response has mainly been “really positive,” the scheme has also received criticism “from people saying it demeans women or is bringing religion to the game”.

A 2018 Pew Research Centre comparison found that Finland housed the strongest anti-Muslim attitudes out of 15 countries, while the far-right Finns Party is predicted to make record gains in the country's local elections later this month.

“We support every women's right to choose themselves whether they use a scarf or not,” Pihlaja said in response to the criticism.

“Where they want to use it, we want to show that they are welcome and that the headscarf isn't an obstacle.”

BOOStING EqUaLIty: Yet although the FA's announcement prompted a flurry of negative comments on social media, the hijab scheme has not become a major talking point in the country of 5.5 million people, one of europe's most homogenous nations, according to official statistics.

Finland's widespread anti-immigrant sentiment is currently less apparent in the footballing arena, where the men's national team — which comprises a number of foreign-background players — enjoys near-universal support.

This month, Finland will make its debut appearance at the european Championships, while the country's women's

team has also for the first time made the euro 2021.

In another move to boost equality, Finland's FA in 2019 removed the word 'women' from the title of its top female competitive division, renaming it the “National league”.

It also announced equal pay and bonuses for male and female players in the national team.

Wearing her VJS kit, the same colour red as that of her beloved Liverpool, Kamila Nuh said she “loves” football and “I'm not planning on stopping any time soon”.

There still aren't that many female players in Finland, she admits, “but I want to be one of them“. Agencies

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FM lambastes Afghan NSA over objectionable remarks against Pakistan continued from page 01 The foreign minister said that since then, Pakistan has successfully moved forward this forum through a gradual, phased but consistent approach. He said that the United States and NATO forces have already started withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. He also said that while the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan entails serious security challenges, it also offers a unique opportunity for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan and moving the country from a perpetual internal conflict to an era of peace and stability. “We should, therefore, explore how our three neighbourly countries can work together to deal with the evolving situation in an effective manner and steer it towards achieving our shared objective of lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan and the region,” he said. The foreign minister said that Pakistan, China and Afghanistan are located in a region which has immense opportunities for fostering mutually beneficial economic and development cooperation. “Our three geographically linked countries straddle historical routes traversing eastwest and north-south,” he added. Qureshi said that durable peace and stability in Afghanistan would lead to a conducive environment for harnessing the true potential of regional connectivity and further deepening economic interdependence through use of innovation and technological advances. “Such an outcome will surely contribute to progress, welfare and better lives for the peoples of our countries,” he added. Qureshi expressed the confidence that the deliberations of the trilateral meeting on all the agenda items would be constructive, meaningful and result-oriented. He thanked State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi for hosting the meeting and welcomed Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Hanif Atmar joining in.

Taliban claims overrunning five districts in Afghanistan KaBuL Agencies

The Taliban on Saturday claimed to have overrun at least five districts in various parts of war-ravaged Afghanistan amid escalating violence. The group’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahed, stated in a series of tweets that the Taliban seized control of these districts in the southern provinces of Zabul and Uruzgan, as well as the central and eastern provinces of Ghazni and Nuristan, respectively. The country's Interior Ministry, however, rejected the Taliban's claims, with spokesman Tariq Arian telling Anadolu Agency that the security forces only went on a "strategic retreat" in Zabul. Prior to this, the Taliban claimed to have taken control of four districts in the Maidan Wardak, Baghlan, and Laghman provinces, which Afghan officials dubbed a "strategic retreat" in order to save civilian casualties. This comes a little over three months before the complete departure of the US forces from Afghanistan, which already started on May 1, 2021.

ENSUING VIOLENCE: In the past 24 hours, at least 20 Afghan security forces were killed in three different provinces of the country, local officials confirmed to Anadolu Agency. Zabihullah Atiq, a parliament member from the northern Badakhshan province bordering Tajikistan, said in a social media post that 12 pro-government militiamen were killed in an air raid by the government forces. According to Atiq, the incident took place in the Kohistan district on Friday night. There were no immediate comments on this from the security institutions. Separately, more than 10 security forces were reported killed in Taliban onslaughts in Baghlan and Samangan provinces on Saturday. At least 30 civilians were killed and over 70 wounded in airstrikes carried out by the Afghan Air Force in Helmand province on Friday, the Taliban claimed in a statement. The army's 215 - Maiwand Corps, however, claimed that a group of Taliban joined by civilians was busy in "looting" a security base when it was targeted. Violence has surged in the war-weary country since the US announced its troops will leave by September 11.

ICCI demands fixed tax regime, single-digit GST in next budget iSLamaBad TLTP

The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has called upon the government to introduce a fixed tax regime for traders in the upcoming budget, end the condition of computerised national identity card (CNIC) for them on sales, and bring down general sales tax (GST) to a single digit level.

ICCI President Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan,

in a statement on Saturday, said that the retail sector is making around 20 percent contribution to gross domestic product (GDP), and introducing a fixed tax regime for it would be a great initiative to broaden the tax base of the country, besides making significant improvement in tax-to-GDP ratio.

He said that the best option for the government to increase tax revenue is to avoid putting more tax burden on existing taxpayers and focus on broadening the tax base with low

tax rates. He said that high tax rates in Pakistan are a major hurdle in promoting tax culture and bringing more people into the tax net as high tax rates always encourage tax evasion.

Therefore, the government should focus on rationalisation of taxes to make them affordable for taxpayers that would be helpful in promoting tax compliance across the country.

He said that tax on rental income is up to 37 percent in Pakistan due to which the business community is also facing great problems

cmYK

as they have to pay high rents of shops and this factor is giving rise to inflation as well.

He stressed that the government in the coming budget should make a significant cut in tax on rental income in order to reduce cost of doing business and attract more local and foreign investment in the country.

ICCI Senior Vice President Fatma Azim and VP Abdul Rehman Khan said that 17 percent GST in Pakistan is a major cause of high production cost and high inflation. They

said that the GST is 5 percent in Canada, Taiwan and UAe, 7 percent in Singapore, 8 percent in Sri Lanka, 9 percent in Iran and 10 percent in Vietnam, which shows that the people and businesses in Pakistan are paying a very high GST. They urged that the government should bring down GST to single digit level in the coming budget that would be instrumental in reducing production cost and providing a great relief to the high inflation-stricken general public.

Sunday, 6 June, 2021

06 COMMENT

Our perennial economic woes

Imran Khan’s unending U-Turns

Political consensus on tough reforms key to improvement

But he could help persuade Afghan Taliban and TTP

i

mran Khan has little understanding of the complexities of Pakistan’s policy towards india and Afghanistan. his approach is mostly reactive rather than proactive .

During the 2018 elections Mr Khan was all out against india, thinking mistakenly that this would bring him more votes. the day the elections results were out, Mr Khan took a sudden U-turn with his "if india takes One Step, Pakistan Will take two” statement. Mr Khan offered talks to indian PM Narendra Modi to alleviate poverty in the Subcontinent through dialogue and trade. When a year later widespread protests took place in Pakistan against Modi’s revocation of indian-Occupied Kashmir’s status followed by brutal repression in the occupied Valley, Mr Khan again changed tack, suddenly discovering that the indian PM he was courting was in fact “inspired by Nazi ideology.” this time the about-turn has taken place within weeks for reasons unknown so far. in May, Khan announced Pakistan will not hold talks with india until New Delhi cancels the revocation of Article 370. On Friday Khan surprised many by a humiliating “Even if they give us a roadmap… then that is acceptable.” talking to Reuters, he reverted to his earlier stance that poverty cannot be reduced except through trade.

Khan is equally innocent about the complexities of issues in Afghanistan. in 2012 he had maintained that the “people who are fighting in Afghanistan against the foreign occupation are fighting a jihad." Now that the foreign troops are leaving he needs to persuade the Afghan taliban to stop fighting and instead join the proposed political settlement in Afghanistan. Similarly, both the tehrik taliban Pakistan, which is sheltering in Afghanistan, and Mr Khan have had a soft corner for each other. in 2013 Mr Khan, who was an opposition leader then, urged the PML(N) government to declare a ceasefire while holding peace talks with ttP militants and to allow them to open an office in Pakistan similar to the Afghan taliban office in Qatar to facilitate the dialogue process. in February 2014 he was one of the five leaders nominated by the ttP to mediate peace talks with government negotiators. One expects Mr Khan now to ask the ttP to stop launching terrorist attacks inside Pakistan on the behest of indian agencies.

aRif Nizami

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ith the presentation of budget for year 2021-22 just around the corner, a slugfest between the government and the opposition parties continues unabated. there is no longer talk of taking the opposition on board as pledged by the newly minted finance minister Shaukat tarin. he has belatedly joined the chorus that the PML-N government left the economy in shambles. the PML-N held a pre-budget seminar on thursday, with its leadership coming down hard on the government for what it termed as making false claims about the revival of the economy. Bilawal Bhutto on the other hand gave his daily dose of skepticism about the performance (or lack of it) of the government. it is axiomatic that the onus of reaching out to the opposition primarily lies on the shoulders of the government. however, the opposition stuck in its own groove, is in no mood to talk.

While the ruling party is basking in its (mostly self-created) hype about ‘miraculous GDP growth’ of virtually zero in real terms to almost four percent

during the current financial year. the State Bank of Pakistan has also chimed in to put its seal of approval on the bureau of statistics released figures about economic recovery. this would mean that all is honkey dory for Khan for the rest of his term. this is the build-up being given by the official media and a vast array of prime minister’s spokespersons. An impression being deliberately created that, “we have arrived.”

One would wish that it was as simple. A sudden spike in GDP although commendable does not guarantee by itself a smooth sailing. the prime minister, in his not so infrequent speeches, shown live on the media, is brazenly claiming that mafias have been defeated (by him). he especially singles out Jahangir tareen, his erstwhile friend and now nemesis in this context. tareen, known as JKt, gets the flak for being the largest sugar producer in the country.

Perennially in the selfcongratulating mode, Khan also declared the other day that his critics had declared him a failure. however, he proved them to be wrong.

Comparing himself to Jinnah, the founder of Nation, he incredibly claimed: i, in the same manner in which the Quaid was forced to leave the country in disgust, later to return and resume his struggle for Pakistan.

Any revival of the economy will require a reform agenda that has to be chalked out sooner than later.

But changing the fundamentals by bringing about a structural change is a herculean job. this could also be a perfect opportunity for the PM to demonstrate that his ‘Naya Pakistan’ is not merely slogan mongering.

Leader of the opposition Shahbaz Sharif not too long ago spoke about reaching an ‘economic concord’. Presumably he meant consensus building on economic issues.

Easier said than done. he has to bring his own rank and file on board starting from the elder Sharif

who still runs the show from London to former finance minister ishaq Dar who has his own ideas about how to run the economy. he and the younger Sharif have never been on the same page on the economy. Let us admit that we are a divided and fractured nation at a time when cohesion is needed the most.

We need to find out what ails Pakistan’s economy. After all, every few years we have to run to the iMF accepting its strict conditionalities. the recently sacked finance minister Dr hafeez Sheikh has been accused of signing on the dotted line on an inflation fuelling iMF reform program and its Extended Fund Facility (EFF). ironically it was on the discredited finance minister’s watch that the so-called economic revival took place.

Right now the government’s economic team is engaged with the iMF team to renegotiate a fresh deal that is less stringent. tarin is himself leading the putsch. he spoke to the Fund’s MD on the matter.

Over the decades, getting in and out of iMF programs interspersed with relative high GDP has become a familiar pattern. And then back to square one.

After all, what is the malaise that afflicts our ailing economy? Why do Pakistan’s overall economic indicators lag behind a vast majority of countries? All these questions beg an urgent answer.

But none are forthcoming as squabbling politicians are too busy to attend to such mundane matters. the economy in the meanwhile is being mostly managed by finance ministry apparatchiks. the need of the hour is to head hunt for an economic czar who has the imagination and capacity to chalk out a workable economic plan. One of the possible choices could be Mr.tarin himself. the sine qua non for such a person to succeed is that the prime minister should empower him enough to deliver.

We need to find out what ails Pakistan’s economy. After all, every few years we have to run to the IMF accepting its strict conditionalities.

Arif Nizami is Editor, Pakistan Today. He can be contacted at arifn51@hotmail.com.

Off the FATF greylist?

Of a limited understanding

Has enough been done to get off the grey list?

A

LREADY, the achievements of Pakistan are being portrayed as such as to lead towards the country being taken off the Financial Action task Force (FAtF) grey list, and placed on its white list. this is since a February review by FAtF had shown Pakistan to be compliant with more FAtF recommendations than before, but not with enough for it to be removed from the grey list. Not only has the iMF made the continuation of its Extended Fund Facility dependent on FAtF recommendations, but if Pakistan were to be blacklisted, it would mean being cut off from access to the international financial markets.

Blacklisting at the next FAtF plenary is unlikely, but only the Pakistani Law and Finance Ministries are claiming that Pakistan has done ennough to get Pakistan off the grey list and onto the white. the present optimism provides an eerie reminder of that prevailing last time around, when Pakistan was thought to have done enough. Unfortunately, what happened then is likely to happen again: lack of diplomatic preparation. it may be unfortunate, but it is nevertheless true that the decision of a country to vote for or against blacklisting, or greylisting, is decided not objectively on the evidence before it, but on its relations with the country it is voting on.

Pakistan’s past failures have been excused on the basis of successful and maligned indian diplomacy, but there has been little Pakistani diplomacy to counter this, or to work positively on the other FAtF members.

Pakistan has not had its path eased by the recent tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan protests, which showed how the state was ready to go easy on an organisation that wanted the expulsion of a foreign ambassador, and how it was ready to take the matter to Parliament. What is likely to be watched with great interest is how the tLP’s application to the interior Ministry to have the ban on it lifted, is treated. if that matter is not decided by the Ministry by the time FAtF decides on Pakistan, or even if it is decided to lift the ban, then FAtF members are likely to take a dim view of Pakistan’s commitment against terrorist organisations.

…and its harmful effects

Rabia ahmed

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t appears that Pakistan’s Punjab is likely to miss the Covid-19 vaccination target, which hardly comes as a surprise. Arrangements at vaccination centres appear to be more or less satisfactory, although there are cases of overcrowding which are likely to cause a few outbreaks of infection by themselves. there are fewer glitches than anticipated, and those that exist involve mostly the less well heeled segment of society, which again comes as no surprise.

Some of those ‘less well heeled’ people were turned back for the first jab because ‘the due date wasn’t there yet.’ there is no reason for not vaccinating any person when he or she arrives without a date, if, under the rules such a person is legitimately allowed to be vaccinated, that is, if he or she fits the age currently being vaccinated, and is Pakistani. the first dose does not require a specific date, it’s the second one that needs to be three weeks away from the first, with the Chinese vaccine. the authorities should welcome all comers with open arms, whenever they turn up. the registration website is well designed and

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor Yousaf Nizami Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad Managing Editor

Joint Editor

Umar Aziz

easy to use. the CNiC issue date field on the website was a bit fiddly but someone seems to have fixed that problem. Well done. the hardest part to get around as always is the attitude among some segments of society, the know-itall anti-vaxxers who put both themselves and people around them at risk by refusing to be vaccinated, and little is being done to get such people to change their mind. in the rural settings of the Punjab– which are probably no different to rural settings anywhere else– people appear to be quite unconcerned about getting vaccinated. it is in fact a subject that does not seem to feature anywhere on their mental horizon. it would be a good idea to take the vaccination drive to such places rather than expect people who live there to lay down their tools and make the long and difficult trek to a vaccination centre, something that is not likely to happen.

As for other nay-sayers their mind is often made up by so-called religious authorities who present one of the most witless arguments by saying that vaccinations represent an attempt to preempt the Will of Allah. that if a person gets ill it is Allah’s Will and if he dies or recovers that too is Allah’s Will. it is not up to us to ‘interfere.’

Well, we all know that everything is Allah’s Will, but if that interference logic were sane it would apply equally to the ditches at the Jang-e-Qandaq (Battle of the Ditch) all those years ago, wouldn’t it, when the followers of the Prophet (pbuh) should have simply sat there waiting for Allah’s Will and not lifted a finger to defend themselves then. No trenches, no digging. that is just one of the millions of examples that proves how ill-considered such arguments are, and how much the people

of this country have suffered at the hands of people who present them, and how little they are used to reason. i remember my henna-haired maulvi sahib teaching me to read the Quran when i was a child. he was a good man, very patient with my errors. Yet when we came to a certain verse which is a particularly beautiful one, he told me that if i were to put a stone with a hole in it into my mouth and then read that verse, all my prayers would be granted. Somewhere along the line he also told me that not stopping at a ‘meem’ would land me in hell. he told me nothing about that verse or any other verse, indeed he knew nothing about that verse, or about any other verse of the Quran. My father, hearing his instructions, asked me to simply learn how to read the Arabic from the teacher, and leave the explanations and meanings to my parents.

And yet my teacher’s limited understanding of the scripture was nothing unusual. Most religious figures in this country today are no different, yet they pass on their flawed understanding to all those willing to accept it, and there is no shortage of those willing to accept it. After all, all education is passed on that way here, be it science, history, or another subject, and how can anyone understand anything if all they’re doing is reeling off a list of elements, dates and something else off another list?

Anyway, this was a somewhat belated attempt to celebrate the annual World Parrot Day this past May 31st. May we succeed in protecting all nature as well as those birds, while at the same time remembering just what parrots are: twits, beautiful ones.

My teacher’s limited understanding of the scripture was nothing unusual. Most religious figures in this country today are no different, yet they pass on their flawed understanding to all those willing to accept it, and there is no shortage of those willing to accept it

Rabia Ahmed is a freelance columnist. Read more by her at http://rabia-ahmed.blogspot.com

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Sunday, 6 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

Smart lockdowns PAKISTAn is reporting more than hundred deaths per day owing to Covid-19 and citizens are not following the SoPs which can be a reason of the increase and secondary there is no vaccination process in rural areas. The recent smart lockdown in Pakistan is appreciated as it can decrease the death rates of people on daily basis.

Secondly, the government has started vaccination programme mostly for limited cities and Rural areas are waiting for the vaccination process. The authorities are requested to look into this issue as soon as possible.

Hammal ZaHid KolaHoo

IT Sector Growth : A Good Omen

The pantomime shows

system, causing delays and denial both. The influence of the criminal syndicates has penetrated virtually all institutions including the ones reckoned as the three pillars of the state. The claimants of being the fourth pillar are engaged in muddying the nature and gravity of corruption and the pursuit to eliminate it through various as their hereditary domain of operation. stages of the trial which is misrepresented as Imran Khan came into power on the prom- usurpation of the rights of the convicts, absconise of eradicating corruption from the country– ders and alleged criminals. In the process, they a promise he has remained rightfully and res- have been reduced to becoming the puppets of olutely steadfast in fulfilling. There is no deny- the criminals who control them through the ing the fact that corruption is a scourge which shine of the silver. is recognised internationally as a major stumThere is an intense battle raging out there. bling block in the way of progress and in the de- The government is not willing to give up benial of passing of its benefits to the poorer cause, without busting the rings of corruption, segments of the society. In a recent memoran- the country cannot move forward. While the dum issued by US President Joe Biden on es- government is determined to eliminate the tablishing the fight against corruption as a core scourge, the parties of the opposition are using US national security interest, it is acknowledged every wicked technique to subvert the effort bethat “corruption corrodes public trust, hobbles cause their conviction would mean the virtual effective governance, distorts markets and eq- elimination of their brand of politics. Simultauitable access to services, undercuts develop- neously, whenever the government initiates an ment efforts, contributes to national fragility, effort to introduce reform to eliminate the gaps extremism and migration, and provides author- in the system that encourage the perpetration of itarian leaders a means to undermine democra- corruption, the opposition comes forth demandcies worldwide. When leaders steal from their ing relief from investigation as a condition for nations’ citizens or oligarchs flout the rule of their cooperation. That is where it is stuck and law, economic growth slows, inequality widens, that is where it is likely to remain stuck till one and trust in government plummets”. side or the other has mustered the numbers to According to the same memorandum, the push its case through. costs of corruption are staggering. It is estimated It is the lack of progress in the intervening that “acts of corruption sap between 2 and 5 per- period which is sapping the national energy. cent from global gross One understands that domestic product. the battle is going to be While such costs are long and it is going to not evenly shared be bitter. The governworldwide, the abuse of ment does not have the power for private gain, numbers to carry forth There cannot be any two the misappropriation of its reform agenda on its public assets, bribery own, which is being opinions about the need for and other forms of corexploited by the oppotaking all possible steps for ruption impact every sition to block the path. country and commuany forward moveeliminating corruption from the So, nity”. It concludes by ment hinges on the saying that “corruption possibility of quick decountry. There is also no threatens United States cisions in the cases national security, ecojustification for the approach pending in the courts of nomic equity, global law, or moving towards that the opposition parties have the anti-poverty and develnext elections and opment efforts, and hoping that the governadopted in thwarting the democracy itself”. ment comes back with It, indeed, is a a comfortable majority prospect of accountability by damning indictment of to take forth its reform sabotaging the relevant what is acknowledged agenda which is so inas a grave affliction that tegral to the progress of processes and sponsoring the the plagues the world. Like country and bringso many other counpantomime shows which come ing relief to the people. tries, it has badgered The obduracy of the aplenty every evening. With the opposition is directly and bludgeoned Pakistan’s economic potenproportional to the government remaining tial through decades. A gravity of their crimes country that was consteadfast in its resolve, a wait and the fear of eliminasidered a role model tion from politics. The back in the 1960s has for redemption, though long approach is crass and been brought down to callous. There cannot and bitter, is well worth it its knees and is today in be any two opinions debt for more than $100 about the need for takbillion. There is no vering all possible steps ifiable measure where for eliminating corrupand how this money has tion from the country. been sunk by succeedThere is also no justifiing leaderships that came to rule this country, cation for the approach that the opposition parmore so in the last two to three decades. ties have adopted in thwarting the prospect of This is what Prime Minister Khan wanted to accountability by sabotaging the relevant account for by nabbing the perpetrators. Since processes and sponsoring the pantomime corruption has permeated all institutions of the shows which come aplenty every evening. With state, the parties of the opposition found it rela- the government remaining steadfast in its retively easy to thwart the initiative. Though there solve, a wait for redemption, though long and has been an improvement in recovery of the loot bitter, is well worth it. from those found responsible, decisions in major cases are still suffering from inordinate obstrucThe writer is a political and security stratetions because these criminals are using the illic- gist, and heads the Regional Peace Institute – itly-earned funds to bribe their way through an Islamabad-based think tank. Email: investigation and trial stages. Their pelf is con- raoofhasan@hotmail.com.

Twitter: trolling the scrutiny processes and the justice @RaoofHasan

Wait for redemption; though long and bitter, it is well worth it

Candid Corner Raoof Hasan “Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs, and peep about To find ourselves dishonourable graves.

Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves that we are underlings.”

–William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

T

he spattering of aggressive faces glued every evening in the television studios, loud-mouthing their hallowed sermons, remind one of a circus full of overly-glossed pantomimes, fully trained to play their acts and disappear into the dark behind the stage. The words they utter are lacking in meaning and conviction. They are spoken like someone from behind the screen was pulling the strings to guide their movements - and their mimicking.

This whole thing makes a pitiable sight where reason has lost its meaning, where imagination is denuded of its flight, and where these actors are nothing but skeletons paying the price for the largesse their political masters have been showering upon them for years spent in their service. Their mind is glued, their tongues loose and their narrative patently servile. hiding their faces behind harmless masks, they operate as the perpetrators, aiders and abettors of the criminal indulgences of those who hold them hostage.

Among the participants of the pantomime shows, it is mostly an exchange of insults and invectives. Lacking in substance, their speech is full of aggression and their narrative is laced with lies and misrepresentations. It is a no-hold barred presentation of the vilest that people can become. Yet the anchors sit there, with a smirk on their faces, without trying to inject some reason and rationale into the discourse. Instead, wherever possible, they are prone to adding further heat and venom to the conversation to improve their ratings.

Divisions in societies constitute a natural phenomenon. In such situations, viable methods and mechanisms are found to initiate a constructive dialogue among contrasting viewpoints so that some common ground could be found to take the discourse further. But, if the approach is laden with spite coupled with unwillingness to change course, the possibility of reconciliation is rendered extinct and excessive negativity begins to drive the narrative.

This usually happens in situations when one or the other party is faced with a battle for survival. In our midst, in the current circumstances, we confront a similar situation where one party feels threatened that they are being pushed out of what they have always construed

In a time frame of less than just three months, a second software technology park has been inaugurated in Islamabad after the first one. The Fazal Software Technology Park occupies a whopping 40,000 square feet of space. In the inauguration ceremony for the park, the Federal Minister for IT & Telecom, Syed Amin Ul haque, said that "the current government’s first priority is to uplift the country’s IT industry".

Software technology parks are significant in terms of bringing FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) which will boost the economy of our country. Many IT aspirants will get a job with a good pay here along with ensuring development of the Country overall.

Growth of IT sector, hence is a good omen for country’s economic growth and is in line with Prime Minister Mr. Imran Khan’s vision of a Digital Pakistan. having said this, IT and Telecommunication companies operating in Pakistan, powered by PTCL which is the national company of Pakistan, must realize the increased significance and demand of services they provide to their massive clientele. Amid Covid-19, people have either gone jobless or their salaries have been cut to half in most of the industries. At affordable rates in era of ‘new normal’ i.e. ‘Work from home ‘, flawless and speedy internet and broadband services must be provided across Pakistan, especially the remote regions.

Rana atif iqbal RaWalpindi

Question of credibility ThIS refers to the recent decision of honourable high court by dissolving the examinations structure of Sindh Public Service Commission. The examination of CCe -18, medical officers and CCe -19 is under the question of the high court for its merit and selection of the candidates. The court decision is highly praised that spsc is destroying the merit. There are thousand applicants who are always discouraged by the spsc because of decline of merit. But there are some candidates who are competent and selected on the merit. Why they are victimised due to incompetence of spsc? As the examination of cce 2018 and 2019. There are some individuals who are competent and selected on merit. They are serving at their respective offices since there selection. Why they are to suffer due to incompetence of spsc? Some candidates have even left there first job because of pass of competitive examination. There are a few individuals who are black sheep in the spsc and are cause of assassination of merit. Due to their unfair mean whole the mechanism of spsc is suffering. It is proposed that if the individuals who are cause of mismanagement and spoiling the merit must be punished. Instead whole the qualifiers are victimised. Lucrative government job is always dream of candidates and for achieving this dream into reality every aspirant candidate work hard day and night. When the dream comes into reality by passing the combined competitive examination. The qualifier candidate is greeted while heartedly by his friend, kith and kin. later it is declared that there is foul play in the process of selection. It is notified that every examination is caught with serious question of spoiling the merit. Some individuals came through political source and paid the lucrative money as bribe to achieve the selected job.

The government job has become risky and insecure. This practice is damaging the future of those who are deserving and achieved the aim of life by burning midnight oil. If the proper check and balance is observed at initial stage of selection then I shall not fall prey to the end. It is plea to the honourable court that punish the guilty and grant relief to those who are victimized in this corrupt and henious practice. mujeb ali Samo larkana

Malicious strength ISRAeL, a country of just 9 million people but having dare to rule over 427 million Arabs. how a country having a population of one-third of Karachi brought entire muslim countries in its knees? however, Israel's strength is not hidden in it's weaponry just as the writer stated, it's their well equipped, produced and nurtured brains which leads them to be the superior ones. They have proved that brain would rule over brawn and for producing it, they built thousands of schools,colleges, universities and libraries with veteran professors, this is the reason their generation wants to be Albert einstein, neils Bohr,Ralph Wald, paul Samuelson and other such names that filled the void in textbooks of physics, philosophy, technology and medicine etc. If we compare them with our youth, they just want to be like Salauddin Ayoubi and ertugrual Ghazi , that's why we are one of backward nation who has nothing to stand at crossroads of development.

SameeR UmRani KaRaCH

Sunday, 6 June, 2021

08 WORLD VIEW

We knoW What space Wars Will look like THE BIDEN TEAM’S FISCAL 2022 SPACE FORCE BUDGET REQUEST OF $17.4 BILLION, RELEASED LAST FRIDAY, DEVOTES $11.3 BILLION TO RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

cipher Brief

“t

WALTER PINCUS

he United States must now be prepared for conflict to extend to, or even to originate in or from, space.” That was a statement from acting assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John D. hill last Wednesday before the Senate armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. as with the cyber domain, space has become a contested arena and one in which the U.S. has grown heavily dependent.

“Space-based capabilities contribute to our modern economy, our democratic society, our military power and our way of life,” hill said, “and space security is about the growing ability of others to deny those benefits as well as to leverage the power of their own space-based capabilities to their own competitive advantage. Most people have very little appreciation for how much of their daily life is intertwined with space, and how much of our national security power is based on an assumption of assured access to, and use of, space.” and like cyber, “these space-based capabilities underpin the power of the Joint Force across all domains, they are integral to our deterrent capacity, and they have become a military center of gravity,” hill said.

Gen. David Thompson, Space Force Vice Chief of Space Operations, told the subcommittee, “Both China and russia are deeply engaged in this competition, aggres-

sively and successfully pursuing newer, better, and more numerous space assets and counter space weapons that demonstrate technological leadership, expand their share of the global space marketplace, and prepare them to negate U.S. space capabilities when called upon in war.” hill said, “russia and China view space as critical to modern warfare and see the use of counter space capabilities as both a means of reducing U.S. effectiveness and winning future wars.”

The same is said of cyber. however, unlike cyber, where undeclared conflict is taking place on an almost daily basis, space to date has remained relatively peaceful, although weapons are being prepared.

Gen. Thompson said, “Today China operates anti-satellite missiles, lasers, and jammers, as well as a satellite in geostationary earth orbit fitted with a grappling arm.

Meanwhile, russia has deployed lasers and jammers of its own, and beginning in 2019, has tested two anti-satellite missiles, used a military ‘inspector’ satellite to shadow U.S. platforms, and fired a projectile from the same ‘inspector’ satellite, one of seven counter space prototypes russia has in low earth orbit. any one of these Chinese or russian threats is potentially crippling if not accounted for, but the single greatest challenge lies in the need to counter all of them at once.” For the U.S., where defense of american satellites are vital, hill said, “The old era where you had so much capability aggregated to do so many missions on one platform [made] a very high value target…

Modern capabilities make them very simple to take down –a bad equation.” To remedy that, hill said, “We switch the architecture –

many small satellites, many more targets, not as much value in each target.” he described how space could be going through what had happened in other fighting domains. “Yesterday’s systems became vulnerable to tomorrow’s threat,” hill said, “but we found a new way to be resilient and also found a way to reconstitute capabilities we thought we lost.”

The U.S. is far from standing still. Our 2021 focus is on navigating the post-pandemic and examining ways the public and private sectors work together to address national security threats from China, russia, Cyber and Space as well as the applications of artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning via tabletop exercises, guest speakers and networking sessions. request your seat today. hill said, “First, we are building a comprehensive military advantage in space. Notable here is the work of the USSF (U.S. Space Force) and the Space Development agency to field assured space capabilities and capabilities that counter hostile use of space, as well as the USSF’s efforts to develop the military doctrinal foundations of military space power and the associated space war fighting expertise and culture.” a major priority, Thompson told the subcommittee, was “to deliver the first resilient geosynchronous satellite for the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (NextGen OPIr) satellite system to meet the war fighter’s 2025 need date. Delivering this missile warning system is essential to the future force.” It “enhances detection and improves reporting of intercontinental ballistic missile launches, submarine-launched ballistic missile launches, and tactical ballistic missile launches,” according to a January

Space Force release that accompanied the announcement of a $4.9 billion contract to Lockheed Martin Space for three such satellites and their ground mission software.

The Biden team’s fiscal 2022 Space Force budget request of $17.4 billion, released last Friday, devotes $11.3 billion to research and development. It lists “provide resilient Missile Warning and Missile Tracking” as its first item to focus on, seeking overall, $2.6 billion for Next-Generation OPIr missile warning systems, up $132 million from previous planning.

Thompson told the senators that Space Force had initiated planning for a National Space Intelligence Center “to provide foundational scientific and technical intelligence, as well as operational space intelligence to the [military] Services, CCMDS [combatant commanders], and the Intelligence Community (IC).” The Biden budget request seeks an added $20 million for that facility.

Biden’s budget proposal also added $6 million more for the Space Warfighting analysis Center, which Thompson told the Senate subcommittee would do “analysis, modeling, war gaming, and experimentation to generate new operational concepts and force design options for the Space Force” That Center also “has taken on the role of integrating these activities across the DoD and with the IC, as well,” he added. But, as with cyber, the ability to deter bad actions in space does not yet exist.

Late in the hearing, Subcommittee Chairman Sen. angus King (I-Maine) noted that american officials hesitate to speak about U.S. offensive space weapons. King then asked, “Is it necessary to have a capa-

Why does Mexico have the world’s ‘most violent’ cities?

MANY BLAME AMLO FOR THE EVER-GROWING VIOLENCE IN MEXICAN CITIES, BUT THE MEXICAN PRESIDENT DID NOT CREATE THE CURRENT LANDSCAPE OF VIOLENCE OUT OF THIN AIR

Al JAzeerA

i

BELEN FERNANdEz

N 2020, according to a report by the Mexico City-based Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice, seven out of the ten “most violent” cities in the world were located in Mexico.

The organisation ranks cities with populations of 300,000 or more – which are not in declared conflict zones – based on official tallies of intentional homicides.

The city of Celaya in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato came in first with 109.38 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, and Ciudad Obregón. Guanajuato’s Irapuato took fifth place, while Baja California’s ensenada took sixth. Uruapan in the state of Michoacán came in eighth.

For the country as a whole, 2019 and 2020 were the most violent on record, with more than 34,000 intentional homicides each year. Many critics of Mexican president andrés Manuel López Obrador (aMLO) have blamed his “hugs, not bullets” policy vis-à-vis the drug cartels for the bloody state of affairs.

But while aMLO is certainly deserving of more than a little criti-

cism – particularly with regard to his appallingly dismissive attitude towards Mexico’s surge in femicides during the pandemic – he did not exactly create the current landscape of violence out of thin air.

For starters, although Mexico is of course not officially categorised as a global conflict zone, the country has had the grave misfortune to exist at the mercy of a United Statesbacked “war on drugs” since 2006, a full 12 years before aMLO assumed the presidency.

Since the start of militarised operations, some 300,000 people have been murdered, and more than 77,000 have disappeared.

In a hypocritical arrangement typical of Mexico’s nasty imperial neighbour, the US is itself responsible for not only the demand for drugs but also the criminalisation that makes their trafficking so lucrative and produces such violent competition in the first place – with poor civilians often caught in the crossfire. and because the capitalist system thrives on the proliferation of strife in general and the marketing of superficial non-solutions to problems, the US response to the narcoshowdown it created across its southern border has been to throw heaps of money at corrupt and violent Mexican security forces who are often in bed with – who else? – the cartels.

Furthermore, as a Washington Post article from 2020 notes, the “US-backed kingpin strategy” – whereby cartel leaders were killed or captured – merely caused criminal organisations to splinter and multiply rather than spontaneously cease to exist, as any remotely lucid person might have predicted.

Now, the array of armed groups continues to expand, and they have also diversified their activities to encompass everything from fuel theft and migrant trafficking to contra-

band cigarette sales and Fentanyl pill production. The drug war’s initial focus on large cities is another factor contributing to the groups’ diffusion throughout the country as they battle for trafficking routes and territory – and to the sudden emergence of little-known places like Celaya, Guanajuato, as global epicentres of violence. again, the Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice study lists only cities that do not fall within official war zones. But as luck would have it, plenty of equipment designed for use in war regularly inundates Mexican territory from – you guessed it – the US. another Washington Post article from last year observes that the .50caliber sniper rifle that has been “used by US troops in Iraq and afghanistan to strike targets from nearly two miles away” – and that is “sold casually” in the US, as weapons tend to be – is “increasingly being used to target and terrorise Mexicans”.

Over the past decade, the article says, approximately 2.5 million illicit US guns have reportedly flowed into Mexico, and the “percentage of homicides committed with firearms has risen” accordingly.

From wars on terror that largely consist of terrorising civilians, then, to wars on drugs that do the same, the imperial dots seem pretty well connected. and the arms industry presumably is not registering too many complaints.

Dawn Marie Paley, author of Drug War Capitalism, commented in an email to me that the “militarisation of Mexico over the course of the last 15 years under the discourse of the war on drugs has led to an increase in violence” – the same “pattern we’re seeing in countries throughout the hemisphere, many of which are experiencing violence more extreme than during the mili-

tary juntas of the Cold War”.

Naturally, not all countries of the hemisphere have had the precise honour of being co-signatories to the 1994 North american Free Trade agreement (NaFTa), which swiftly dispensed with millions of Mexican livelihoods on behalf of US agribusiness and other noble sectors – while also causing many Mexicans to view their own integration into the drug trade as the only viable economic option.

But as Paley emphasised to me, hemispheric “violence on this scale cannot be properly understood as a consequence of criminal activity and state responses to it”.

More accurately, she said, it must be understood as “neoliberal war, waged against poor and workingclass people in the interest of maintaining an increasingly unequal social order”.

To be sure, unequal social orders are great in terms of generating the perpetual strife on which capitalism thrives. and the present violent Mexican panorama – in which cities like Celaya are transformed into veritable war zones – constitutes a link in a vicious but profitable cycle. an aBC News article from May quotes penultimate US ambassador to Mexico Christopher Landau on how Mexican president aMLO has “basically adopted an agenda of a pretty laissez-faire attitude towards” the drug cartels, which Landau claims “is pretty troubling to our government, obviously”. But there are a lot more troubling things out there.

Belen Fernandez is the author of Checkpoint Zipolite: Quarantine in a Small Place (Or Books, 2021), exile: rejecting america and Finding the World (Or Books, 2019), Martyrs Never Die: Travels through South Lebanon (Warscapes, 2016), and The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work (Verso, 2011).

bility that will deter our adversaries from exercising offensive weapons against our satellites? Our whole national security strategy rests upon deterrence. Do we need to develop capabilities and communicate them to our adversaries in order to have an effective deterrent?” hill had earlier explained, “at its core, deterrence is about persuading an opponent not to take certain actions by altering the opponent’s perception of the probability of success and the probability of significant negative consequences. approaches to deterrence consist of two broad classes: (1) deterrence by denial; and (2) deterrence by cost imposition, including through both military and non-military means.” This time he said, “One person’s active defense is another person’s offensive capability.” Sen. Deb Fischer (r-Neb.), in an exchange with hill, focused on a Chinese satellite already in space that has a grappling arm that can be used to fix a satellite, but it also could be used to take one down. “a perfect example,” hill said.

“Figuring out the pieces of where the space domain fits into the totality of deterring aggression is one of the key questions we have to work on,” hill said. Chairman King compared it to 3-D chess. “We are dealing in a three-dimensional process of defense and countermeasures,” he said. asked by Fischer about treaties or even establishing norms of behavior in space, hill responded, “I think treaties are a long way away, much less getting it to the negotiating table, much less through the United States government processes for treaty ratification and many other government processes as well. This is why our focus has been on the more voluntary, non-binding measures.” as with cyber warfare, space defense offers no easy answers. Walter Pincus is a contributing senior national security columnist for The Cipher Brief. he spent forty years at The Washington Post, writing on topics from nuclear weapons to politics.

Why we're closing VTimes, one of Russia's last independent news outlets THE "FOREIGN AGENT” LABEL ASSIGNED TO THE WEBSITE ADMINISTRATOR OF VTIMES.IO HAS DESTROYED OUR BUSINESS MODEL AND WE SEE NO VIABLE WAY TO CONTINUE

D

Moscow TiMes

ear readers and friends of VTimes, we are forced to inform you that we do not see an opportunity to continue publishing.

In the three weeks since the Justice Department added the vtimes.io website’s administrator to its list of "foreign agent" media, we have studied seven scenarios for the continuation of VTimes' activities — with or without this status. In each scenario, there was a risk of criminal prosecution of our employees with the possibility of imprisonment.

But the reason for our decision is not just out of fear of criminal prosecution for honestly performing our professional duty. When we launched VTimes last year, we announced that we were not creating a propaganda tool, but a high-quality and independent media outlet and a platform for the free exchange of constructive opinions.

We stated that we want to find positive examples and ideas for the development of business and society — without turning a blind eye to existing problems and not avoiding acute topics, naturally. and today we are proud to say: We did it! But we have seen for ourselves that the authorities have no need for professional, non-government-controlled media.

The "foreign agent” label assigned to the website administrator of vtimes.io has destroyed VTimes’ business model, and we created this publication exactly as a business. advertisers and partners do not understand how to cooperate with an "inoagent (the abbreviation for 'foreign agent' in russian)" – and we cannot blame them for this.

Voluntary donations from readers are not enough to fund a highquality media outlet. even worse, the status of "foreign agent" deprives VTimes of most of its coverage: Many officials, businessmen and even analysts are afraid to give comments to "foreign agents" – and we also understand why that is. essentially, VTimes is being pushed into the opposition political media niche.

But we envisioned and have created a completely different outlet.

Therefore, we have decided to stop publishing VTimes on June 12, russia's Independence Day. Once again, a huge thank you to everyone! Closing the VTimes project does not mean that we are abandoning our principles and leaving the profession.

Sunday, 6 June, 2021

BUSINESS 09

ISLAMABAD

G7 nations stRikE dEal to tax biG companiEs and squEEzE havEns LONDON

Explainer-What is a global minimum tax and what will it mean?

Finance Ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations reached a landmark accord on Saturday backing the creation of a global minimum corporate tax rate of at least 15%, an agreement that could then form the basis of a worldwide deal. Such a deal aims to end what U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has called a “30-year race to the bottom on corporate tax rates” as countries compete to lure multinationals.

WHY A GLOBAL MINIMUM TAX? Major economies are aiming to discourage multinationals from shifting profits - and tax revenues - to low-tax countries regardless of where their sales are made.

Increasingly, income from intangible sources such as drug patents, software and royalties on intellectual property has migrated to these jurisdictions, allowing companies to avoid paying higher taxes in their traditional home countries. GRAPHIC: Statutory corporate tax rates in OECD countries WHERE ARE THE TALKS AT? The G7 accord feeds into a much broader, existing effort.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has been coordinating tax negotiations among 140 countries for years on rules for taxing cross-border digital services and curbing tax base erosion, including a global corporate minimum tax. The OECD and G20 countries aim to reach consensus on both by mid-year, but the talks on a global corporate minimum are technically simpler and less contentious. If a broad consensus is reached, it will be extremely hard for any low-tax country to try and block an agreement. The minimum is expected to make up the bulk of the $50 billion-$80 billion in extra tax that the OECD estimates firms will end up paying globally under deals on both fronts.

HOW WOULD A GLOBAL MINIMUM WORK? The global minimum tax rate would apply to overseas profits. Governments could still set whatever local corporate tax rate they want, but if companies pay lower rates in a particular country, their home governments could “top-up” their taxes to the minimum rate, eliminating the advantage of shifting profits. The OECD said last month that governments broadly agreed on the basic design of the minimum tax but not the rate. Tax experts say that is the thorniest issue, although the G7 accord creates strong momentum around the 15%-plus level. Other items still to be negotiated include whether investment funds and real estate investment trusts should be covered, when to apply the new rate and ensuring it is compatible with U.S. tax reforms aimed at deterring erosion.

WHAT NEXT A G20 meeting scheduled for Venice next month will see whether the G7 accord gets broad support from the world’s biggest developing and developing countries. Much still needs to be ironed out - including the metrics that will determine how and to which multinational companies the tax will be applied. The G7 communique left open what will happen in the meantime to digital services taxes on big technology companies in various jurisdictions, which the United States wanted to be scrapped as soon as a deal was in place. It said only that there should be “appropriate coordination between the application of the new international tax rules and the removal of all Digital Services Taxes”. Any final agreement could have major repercussions for low-tax countries and tax havens. The Irish economy has boomed with the influx of billions of dollars in investment from multinationals. Dublin, which has resisted European Union attempts to harmonize its tax rules, is unlikely to accept a higher minimum rate without a fight. However, the battle for low-tax countries is less likely to be about scuppering the overall talks and more about building support for a minimum rate as close as possible to its 12.5% or seeking certain exemptions. agencies

agencies

t

HE United States, Britain and other leading nations reached a landmark deal on Saturday to pursue higher global taxation on multinational businesses such as Google, Apple and Amazon.

In a move that could raise hundreds of billions of dollars to help them cope with the aftermath of Covid19, the Group of Seven large advanced economies agreed to back a minimum global corporate rate of at least 15 percent and for companies to pay more tax in the markets where they sell goods and services.

“G7 finance ministers have reached a historic agreement to reform the global tax system to make it fit for the global digital age,” British finance minister Rishi Sunak said after chairing a two-day meeting in London.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the “significant, unprecedented commitment” would end what she called a race to the bottom on global taxation.

The deal, which was years in the making, also promises to end national digital services taxes levied by Britain and other European countries which the United States said unfairly targeted US technology giants.

However, the measures will first need to find broader agreement at a meeting of the G20 – which includes a number of emerging economies – due to take place next month in Venice.

“It’s complicated and this is a first step,” Sunak said.

The ministers also agreed to move towards making companies declare their environmental impact in a more standard way so investors can decided more easily whether to fund them, a key goal for Britain.

Rich nations have struggled for years to agree a way to raise more revenue from large multinationals such as Google, Amazon and Facebook, which

often book profits in jurisdictions where they pay little or no tax.

US President Joe Biden’s administration gave the stalled talks fresh impetus by proposing a minimum global corporation tax rate of 15 percent, above the level in countries such as Ireland but below the lowest level in the G7.

Germany and France also welcomed the agreement, although French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he would fight for a higher global minimum corporate tax rate than 15 percent, which he described as a “starting point”.

German finance minister Olaf Scholz said the deal was “bad news for tax havens around the world”.

“Companies will no longer be in a position to dodge their tax obligations by booking their profits in

10 more products finalised for GI tags: Dawood

ISLAMABAD TLTP

The Ministry of Commerce has approved a list of 10 more products, including fruits and gemstones, for demanding exclusive rights under Geographical Indication (GI). In a series of tweets on Saturday, Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce and Trade Abdul Razak Dawood announced that the ministry is glad to share that it has approved a further list of ten products for GI. Detailing about the products, he said, “These include agro and non- agro items, including Chaunsa mango, Sindhri mango, kinnow, Hunza ruby, Swat emerald, Kashmiri tourmaline, Skardu

topaz, Skardu aquamarine, Peridot Stone and Peridot Valley.”

He said that the GI will serve as the potential economic tool to promote and enhance national and international trade by allowing premium prices for Pakistan’s products. “The GI will also help ‘Make in Pakistan’ products to empower further our branding, which is missing in our exports,” he said.

Earlier on June 01, stressing on branding, Abdul Razak Dawood said, “In order to further enhance our exports, we have to pay attention to our own brand development. Our local brands still need to do a lot for recognition in the international market hence more effort is required

from our exporters.” He said that although potential is there, yet there is need to focus more on the branding side in order to get the desired results and make a place in the competitive market.

The protection of geographical indications helps a country boost its exports, support rural development, and enhance the livelihood of agriculture producers and skilled craftsmen. The marketing of GI products also enhances secondary economic activities to boost regional economic development. The GI law protects local Pakistani products such as the Peshawari chappals, Multani blue pottery, Hunza apricots, Hala ajrak, Kasuri methi, Chaman grapes, Turbat dates etc.

the lowest-tax countries,” he added.

Irish finance minister Paschal Donohoe, whose country is potentially a big loser with its 12.5 percent tax rate, said any global deal also needed to take account of smaller nations.

Sunak said the deal was a “huge prize” for taxpayers, but it was too soon to know how much money it would raise for Britain.

The agreement does not make clear exactly which businesses will be covered by the rules, referring only to “the largest and most profitable multinational enterprises”.

European countries have feared that a business such as Amazon could slip through the net as it reports lower profit margins than most other well-known technology companies.

Gold price reaches Rs93,900 per 10gm ISLAMABAD: Gold futures ended the week higher after the US Labour Department reported that the country created 559,000 new jobs in May, missing Wall Street estimates and suggesting the Federal Reserve may maintain its easy-money policies for longer. Gold in the international market closed the week at $1,893 an ounce after gaining $21.20 an ounce in its value as compared to its closing value on Thursday last. Meanwhile, the price of 10 grams of yellow metal in Pakistan went down to Rs93,900, as the international market closes late due to difference in timing between local and international markets.

According to experts, with the consensus expecting an upside blow-out jobs number, gold was set up for a fall, as it had proven to be susceptible to good economic news or anything that would encourage the Fed to tighten its ultra-accommodative monetary policies. Instead, the number was disappointing when measured against expectations, and the metal rebounded in response, they said. Consensus estimates were for a gain last month of up to 671,000 jobs, based on a poll of economists. The unemployment rate was expected to dip to 5.9 percent from 6.1 percent. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, slipped in May to a pandemic low of 5.8 percent from 6.1 percent. Gold has also shown recently that it once again reacts positively to higher price inflation, so the latest jobs data are very bullish for the metal beyond Friday’s reaction, they opined. TLTP

Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline to complete in 2025: Russian minister SAINT PETERSBURG TLTP

Construction works on the Pakistan Stream gas pipeline project will be completed as early as 2025 with sustained financing, according to Russian Energy Minister Nikolay Shulginov.

“If it goes well with funding issues, we expect the project to be fully implemented in 2025,” the minister told journalists on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Shulginov said that Russian companies are in charge of the construction of the

CMYK

pipeline, while their Pakistani partners are responsible for the gas and for building a regasification terminal.

In late May, the two countries signed a deal on building a major gas pipeline linking the Pakistani southern port of Karachi and another port city, Gwadar, to power plants and industrial hubs in Pakistan’s northern region of Punjab.

Spanning over 683 miles (1,100 kilometres), the pipeline is expected to have a discharge capacity of up to 12.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, according to the Russian Energy Ministry.

Under the terms of the agreement, Pak-

istan would reportedly hold a 74 percent stake in the pipeline operator while Russia would own the remaining 26 percent. The initial deal to build the pipeline was clinched back in 2015.

The project is expected to become the largest infrastructure deal between the two nations since the early 1970s, when the Soviet Union built the Pakistan Steel Mills industrial complex at Port Qasim, near Karachi.

“The Pakistan Stream remains a flagship project in bilateral cooperation between Russia and Pakistan and both nations give priority to this issue,” Shulginov said.

Sunday, 6 June, 2021

10 FOREIGN NEWS

ISLAMABAD

Armed AttACkers kill 100 CiviliAns in BurkinA FAsO villAge rAid OUAGADOUGOU

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Agencies

RMED assailants killed around 100 civilians in an overnight attack on a village in northern Burkina Faso, the government said on Saturday. The attackers struck during the night on Friday, killing residents of the village of Solhan in Yagha province bordering Niger.

They also burned homes and the market, the government said in a statement.

The government described the attackers as terrorists but no group claimed responsibility.

Attacks by jihadists linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State in West Africa’s Sahel region have risen sharply since the start of the year, particularly in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, with civilians bearing the brunt.

The government declared a 72-hour period of national mourning. It said the provisional toll put the number of people killed at around 100.

The violence in Burkina Faso has displaced more than 1.14 million people in just over two years, while the poor arid country is also hosting some 20,000 refugees from neighbouring Mali who are seeking safety from jihadist attacks.

Facebook suspends Trump until 2023, shifts rules for world leaders CALIFORNIA Agencies

Facebook Inc. on Friday suspended former US President Donald Trump until at least January 2023 and announced changes to how it will treat world leaders who break the rules on its site.

Facebook had suspended Trump’s account the day after the deadly January 6 Capitol Hill riot, determining he had incited violence. That suspension will last at least two years from the date of the initial block and would only be lifted if the risk to public safety has receded, Facebook said on Friday.

Trump criticised the decision as a form of censorship and an insult to his voters.

This new timeline denies Republican Trump a major social media megaphone ahead of the November 2022 congressional elections. However, it means he may be able to return to Facebook well before the next presidential election in late 2024.

Trump has been permanently banned by Twitter and remains suspended by Alphabet’s YouTube after the riot.

Trump, who this week shut down his recently-launched blog, has teased plans to start his own platform.

“Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols,” Facebook’s head of global affairs Nick Clegg said in the post.

Facebook’s oversight board, an independent group funded by the company who rule on a small slice of controversial content decisions, in May upheld the company’s unprecedented block on Trump. However, the board ruled it was wrong to make the ban indefinite and called for a “proportionate response.”

In a statement on Friday, Trump slammed the deci-

One dead, seven missing after accident at central China coal plant: state media BEIJING: One person died and seven were missing after an accident in a coal mine in central China, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Saturday. The “accidental outburst” occurred at a coal mine run by Henan Hebi Coal and Electricity Co in the late afternoon on Friday, and the authorities in Henan province have launched an emergency response plan, CCTV said. Last month, the provincial government said it had approved the reopening of another mine operated by Hebi after it was shut for not complying with regulations. China has been carrying out safety inspections at coal mines across the country, but record-high coal prices have miners ramping up production to meet supply gaps. In May, China’s cabinet said it would work to stabilise rising commodity prices, while encouraging coal producers to boost production to meet global demand. Agencies

sion and repeated false claims of voter fraud: “Facebook’s ruling is an insult to the record-setting 75M people, plus many others, who voted for us in the 2020 Rigged Presidential Election. They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win. Our Country can’t take this abuse anymore!” Several investigations have not found evidence of election fraud.

Trump added: “Next time I’m in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will be all business!”

Facebook said it would work with experts to decide when the public safety risk had subsided for Trump to

be restored to its platforms. It said it would evaluate factors including instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly and other markers of civil unrest.

It also said there would be a set of escalating sanctions that would be triggered if Trump broke further rules that could lead to his permanent removal.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, speaking to reporters, said of Facebook’s decision on Trump that it felt “pretty unlikely that the zebra is going to change his stripes over the next two years, we’ll see.”

POLICY CHANGES: Social media companies have grappled in recent years with how to handle world leaders and politicians who violate their guidelines.

On Friday, the Nigerian government said it had indefinitely suspended Twitter’s activities in the country, two days after the company removed a post from President Muhammadu Buhari that threatened to punish regional secessionists.

In a major reversal that also came as part of Facebook’s Friday responses to its oversight board, Facebook said it was “removing the presumption we announced in 2019 that speech from politicians is inherently of public interest.” The company said it now would weigh violative content from politicians against the potential risk of harm in the same way it does for all users. It will also disclose when it does use its “newsworthiness” exemption. However, a Facebook spokesman confirmed politicians’ posts will remain exempt from third-party fact-checking.

Facebook has come under fire from those who think it should abandon its hands-off approach to political speech but has also been criticised by those, including Republican lawmakers and some free-expression advocates, who saw the Trump ban as a disturbing act of censorship. Its decision on Trump and new policy changes could have major ramifications for how Facebook handles rule-breaking world leaders and officials on its services. It said that public figures who violate its rules by inciting or celebrating ongoing violence or civil unrest could be restricted for periods ranging from one month to two years.

Social media companies have faced calls from some rights groups and activists to be more consistent in their approach to other leaders who have violated or pushed their rules. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Leader Ali Khamenei, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and lawmakers in India’s ruling party have drawn scrutiny.

Facebook also gave some transparency into its standard system on how many “strikes” users can receive before suspensions, which normally last up to 30 days.

The Trump case has been seen as a test for how the company responded to the ruling and recommendations of its recently-established oversight board.

The board also recommended Facebook review its role in the election fraud conspiracy that led to the January 6 siege, which Facebook said it would partially implement through its partnership with academics studying the role it played in the 2020 US elections.

Facebook said it was implementing 15 of the 19 board recommendations.

India to Twitter: Comply with IT rules or face 'unintended consequences' NEW DELHI Agencies

India has told Twitter Inc it has one last chance to comply with new IT rules, or face “unintended consequences” according to a copy of an official letter seen

by Reuters.

The new rules — which were announced in February and which became effective at the end of last month — are aimed at regulating content on social media and making firms such as Facebook, its WhatsApp messenger and Twitter more accountable to legal requests.

They also require big social media companies to set up grievance redressal mechanisms and appoint new executives to coordinate with law enforcement.

India's technology ministry wrote to Twitter on May 26 and May 28 on the new rules, but the company's re-

sponses “neither address the clarifications sought by this ministry nor indicate full compliance with the Rules,” said the June 5 letter from the technology ministry to Twitter deputy general counsel Jim Baker.

The letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, said that among other things, Twitter had yet to inform the ministry about its chief compliance officer, and its grievance officer and nodal contact person were not employees as mandated by rules.

It said such non-compliance would lead to “unintended consequences” including the possibility that Twitter could be held accountable for content posted on it, an exemption it currently largely enjoys.

It added, “However, as gesture of goodwill, Twitter Inc is hereby given one last notice to immediately comply with the rules.”

The technology ministry did not respond to a re-

quest for comment. Twitter declined to comment.

The new IT rules have spurred legal battles, including a lawsuit filed by Facebook-owned WhatsApp that accuses the government of exceeding its legal powers by enacting rules that will force the messaging.

Sunday, 6 June, 2021

ISLAMABAD

PCB sees HBL PsL in ABu DHABi As PReCuRsoR to t20 WoRLD CuP ISLAMABAD

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Agencies

RGANISERS view the remainder of the HBL Pakistan Super League being staged in the United Arab Emirates as a perfect rehearsal for the International Cricket Council in case the T20 World Cup has to be moved out of India because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pakistan Cricket Board chief executive Wasim Khan said the HBL PSL is an ideal precursor in terms of logistics and planning.

The ICC has already lined up the UAE as the backup venue for the T20 World Cup if India can’t stage it on home soil starting in mid-October.

India has asked for a month to weigh its options before letting cricket’s international governing body know whether it’s viable to host the event in India in less than five months.

The lucrative Indian Premier League had to be suspended last month when players inside the so-called bio-secure bubble started testing positive for Covid19 and infection rates soared in parts of the country.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India plans to finish off the IPL in the UAE prior to the Twenty20 World Cup, and recently sent top officials to the Emirates to make preparations.

The Pakistan Cricket Board had to overcome logistical and operational obstacles to get the Pakistan Super League’s remaining 20 matches going. The tournament has been relocated to Abu Dhabi and will restart from June 9. The final is scheduled for June 24 before the

Pakistan squad flies to England for the limited-overs series. The HBL PSL was postponed in March after several players and support staff were tested positive for the coronavirus.

The tournament was scheduled to resume on June 5 but some operation hurdles, including strict quarantines rules in Abu Dhabi and a delay in securing visas for its production crew, mostly flown from India, pushed it back another few days.

But Khan said all those obstacles were overcome after the PCB worked closely with the Emirates Cricket Board, and it could help ICC to plan the T20 World Cup in the UAE. “The logistical challenges that we found will be similar challenges, bringing more countries over from different parts of the world for the World Cup in the UAE,” Khan told the Associated Press.

The HBL PSL “is a perfect precursor

leading into the ICC decision, which is strongly considering UAE as the venue,” for the T20 World Cup. The top PCB official said most of the ICC member nations would be comfortable playing the event in the UAE. “Ultimately it’s a decision for the ICC, but right now, if you ask me, I would say that it’s likely to probably take place in the UAE,” Khan said.

Cricket officials are hopeful the coronavirus situation will improve in Pakistan in the coming months ahead of scheduled tours by New Zealand, England and West Indies. Australia is also due to tour Pakistan next February for the first time in 22 years.

“Certainly in 4 or 5 months’ time, we expect everything to be better in Pakistan from a Covid perspective,” Khan said.

“We’ve got a huge amount of cricket coming up […] and all the countries are relish-

ing the opportunity of coming over.”

Security concerns that prevented foreign teams from touring Pakistan have subsided, with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and South Africa playing limited-overs and test matches in Pakistan in recent seasons. Visiting teams are now more focused on secure bio-security bubbles in the pandemic.

“Security is no longer the No. 1 issue that people are asking about,” Khan said.

“When South Africa were due to come and Zimbabwe, the question they were asking about was the [coronavirus] protocols — no longer about security.”

While Pakistan successfully hosted South Africa and Zimbabwe during the pandemic, it couldn’t maintain the impenetrable bio-secure bubble in Karachi during the HBL PSL in March.

Khan said a PCB investigation later found “some holes or gaps that were created within the implementation of the actual bio-security that we’d created.”

But he added that similar breaches were found in other international events, including the Australian Open tennis tournament and English Premier League.

“This is a global phenomenon and cricket is not exempt from that,” Khan said. The Pakistan board has hired an international firm with experience in the IPL and with the English Cricket Board to manage the bio-secure bubble for the remainder of the HBL PSL. “We know we’re in safe hands with them,” he said. “We are doing everything we can from a bio-bubble perspective, both at the ground and also at the hotels […] and make sure that we make this as watertight as possible.”

Efforts afoot for rapprochement between Amir, management: PCB CEO kARACHI Agencies

Pakistan Cricket Board CEO Wasim Khan said on Saturday that left-arm pacer Mohammad Amir could still play for the national team and efforts are on for a rapprochement between him and the coaches, including head coach Misbahul Haq. Khan disclosed that Amir had met him in the UK and he had poured out his grievances against the team management.

“I also made it clear to him that the path he adopted was not right as a senior player,” he said on the Cricast channel on YouTube. “I think Amir is a valuable player for us even now and we will now make efforts to bring about a rapprochement between him and the coaches.”

Captain Babar Azam had recently said he is ready to speak to Amir about his issues and Khan said once that discussion takes place, the PCB will bring the two parties to a table and try to sort the matter out. Khan, however, did not give a deadline when Amir could be back in the Pakistan team when asked if he would be available for the World T20 this year.

Amir, 29, had announced his retirement from international cricket last December due to alleged differences with the coaching duo of Misbah and Waqar Younis.

Amir had claimed that Misbah and bowling coach Waqar have not been fair with him and he will not make himself available for selection until they are in charge.

The left-arm pacer has signed a contract to play in the Caribbean Premier

League for Barbados. He will also be seen in action in the Pakistan Super League matches in Abu Dhabi from June 9 for the Karachi Kings team. Khan said Amir’s issue was a complicated one but can be resolved. He also made it clear that the PCB had no grievances with batsman Umar Akmal, who completed a 12-month ban for not reporting spot-fixing approaches made last year and also paid a fine of 4.2 million rupees to the board.

“In fact, I have just completed the 2 month rehabilitation programme for Umar with our Anti-Corruption department and Umar can start the rehab soon,” Khan said.

“He is a Pakistan player and we wish him well and he can resume his cricket career soon.” The PCB CEO said the board has advertised for the post of a sports psy-

chologist to address the communication problems of some players, who sometimes go overboard with their grievances on social media. “We are going to hire a sports psychologist soon who will be on the payroll and be interacting and counseling with the players. We have kept a criteria of him being able to speak Urdu so that there is no loss in translation,” Khan said.

Khan also said that while head coach Misbah had a contract with the board until September 2023 but it would be reviewed after the World T20 Cup this year.

“We want to support our coaches and give them proper time but it does not stop us from carrying out reviews of their performances from time to time and we will review Misbah’s contract and results after the World T20 Cup,” he said.

Steely Tsitsipas keeps cool to beat Isner in four sets PARIS Agencies

Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas was handed his first real test at this year’s French Open before he subdued big-serving American John Isner 5-7 6-3 7-6(3) 6-1 to move into the fourth round late on Friday.

The 22-year-old, who won two titles on clay in the run-up to Roland Garros, had to endure a torrid serving barrage in the opening set but eventually found his stride to set up a fourth round clash with Spanish 12th seed Pablo Carreno Busta.

“John is a big guy and I can learn a lot playing against him,” Tsitsipas said. “His serve was a big obstacle. But things started going my way in the second set. My head cleaned up a bit.”

The Greek had to work hard to hold his serve in the first set as his opponent comfortably held his own and earned his first

break to go 6-5 up and bag it with his seventh ace. Tsitsipas had a chance to break early in the second set at 2-1 and 40-0 up on Isner’s serve but he squandered all three of his opportunities.

Isner had unsettled his opponent with a mix of drop shots, approach shots and clever volleys but he failed to keep up that momentum when he missed out on converting a rare break point at 3-3.

Tsitsipas then fired himself up with loud screams that bounced off the empty stands on Court Philippe Chatrier.

The fifth seed earned his first break when Isner sunk a volley and Tsitsipas won the set a little later.

“The match was one pattern and it was difficult to adjust. A bit of anger, a bit of frustration and I let it all out and this woke me up, helped me to handle the future situations a bit better,” said Tsitsipas.

Both players refused to buckle in the

third set and held serve to take it to tiebreak where Tsitsipas kept his composure, hit two superb backhands to earn a mini-break and nick the set when an Isner forehand sailed long.

Another backhand down the line left

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Isner frozen on the baseline and sent his opponent 2-0 up in the fourth.

Tsitsipas never looked back, winning the mental battle against his opponent and racing to a 6-1 victory in the fourth to move into the next round.

SPORTS 11 nZ battle for control as Burns century rescues england LONDON Agencies

New Zealand pacer Tim Southee took six wickets but a painstaking hundred from England's Rory Burns pulled things back for the hosts in the first Test at Lord's on Saturday. New Zealand were 62-2 in their second innings at stumps on the fourth day, a lead of 165 runs and in reasonable control of the opening match. Ollie Robinson, continuing an impressive on-field debut, dismissed both fellow newcomer Devon Conway, fresh from his first-innings 200, and New Zealand captain Kane Williamson for a return of 2-8 in nine overs. New Zealand, following Friday's total washout, had damaged their hopes of taking complete control of the Test by twice reprieving Burns before the Surrey left-handed opener completed his third Test century.

Burns was finally last man out for 132 to give veteran paceman Southee figures of 643 in 25.1 overs as England, in danger of following-on at 140-6, reached 275 – still 103 runs adrift of New Zealand's first-innings 378. Williamson, however, is unlikely to make a declaration that could give England a chance to win ahead of both next week's series climax at Edgbaston and New Zealand's appearance in the inaugural World Test Championship final against India later this month. England captain Joe Root fell for 42 to the first ball of Saturday's play when he edged a fine delivery from the towering Kyle Jamieson to Ross Taylor at slip. England then lost three wickets for no runs in 21 balls in a middleorder slump, as Southee removed Dan Lawrence and debutant James Bracey for two of the four ducks in the innings. Burns, watching the collapse from the other end, had started a sunny day seemingly ideal for batting on 59 not out. It took Burns a further 133 balls to score the 41 runs he required to reach one hundred.

Rahm and Cantlay tied for lead at Memorial NewS DeSk World No 15, Patrick Cantlay, who won The Memorial Tournament held at Muirfiled Village in 2019, cam back strong on Friday, with a round of 69 on Thursday and 67 on Friday for a score of 8 under.

Cantlay carded a first-round 69 before birdieing the final three holes of his second round to close a five-under 67 and take him to eight under, only for late starter Jon Rahm to move alongside him by playing his opening 13 holes in five under. The three-time PGA Tour winner ended a run of pars by making a birdie at the seventh and picked up further shots over his closing two holes to grab a twostroke advantage over Scottie Scheffler, his nearest challenger to have completed 36 holes, with Carlos Ortiz a further shot back after rounds of 71 and 68. “I’m pretty tired,” Cantlay admitted. “I woke up at 4:30 this morning, started my warm-up, played 33 and this golf course is one of the harder walks, so, yeah, it was a pleasant surprise to birdie the last three!” Meawhile, Jon Rahm also got to eight under for the tournament with a four under round two so far. Rahm had five holes to play when darkness saw play suspended at 8.45pm local time (1.45am BST), with the defending champion one of 44 players having to come back on Saturday morning to finish their second rounds. Rahm started his charge by following a 20-foot birdie at the fourth by getting up and down from a greenside bunker to take advantage of the par-five next, with the world No 3 rolling in a 15-footer at the sixth and making a two-putt gain at the seventh to get within one of Cantlay. The Spaniard recovered from bogeying the 10th to hole from close range at the next and fired his approach at the 13th to tap-in range to finish his day with a birdie, with Rahm having a chance to claim the outright 36hole lead when he concludes his round from 8am on Saturday morning.

Sunday, 6 June, 2021

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FAwAd Asks shehbAz To nAme FocAl person For discussion on elecTion reForms LAHORE

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eDerAl Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Saturday said that the opposition parties should support the government in election and judicial reforms initiatives, and expressed the ruling party’s willingness to initiate negotiations, urging Opposition leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif to name a focal person for the purpose.

Talking to media persons in lahore, Fawad said that the electronic voting system is the remedy to the election rigging claims often made by the political parties, adding that electronic Voting Machines (eVMs) can be tried in the upcoming Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) elections.

The minister said the government wants to improve working relations with the opposition, adding that the government is making sincere efforts to work with the opposition so that constructive discussions could start on election reforms in the country.

Fawad dispelled the impression that the election Commission of Pakistan (eCP) has raised any objection to the use of eVM technology and said that it is the government who gives rules and regulations while the eCP is supposed to adopt

the technology and give feedback on its pros and cons.

He said that a ruling party’s delegation would meet some eCP officials on Wednesday and share policy guidelines of the government on elections reforms.

He said the eVMs can be used in some of the constituencies during the AJK elections, adding that he would soon give a demonstration of eVM at lahore Press Club and National Press Club, besides the bar councils in rawalpindi, Islamabad, Multan and lahore, where elections are held annually.

Talking about the upcoming budget, Fawad said that the passage of the federal and provincial budgets would be a smooth sailing for the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) government, adding that all the allied political parties have assured the government of their support and all are on one page.

The information minister said that the country’s economy is stable and improving despite the adverse economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, adding that economies of the neighbouring countries have faltered significantly during the pandemic. He said the main goals of the budget 2021-22 are to enhance development budget, control dearness in the country and provide relief to the salaried class, besides increasing revenues.

20 dead, including civilians, following Afghan airstrike on Taliban An Afghan airstrike on Friday that targeted Taliban fighters inside an abandoned army base in southern Helmand province killed at least 20 people, including some civilians, reports said. There were conflicting accounts about the site of the strike and the number of casualties, adding to concerns that as the U.S. military and NATO forces complete their pull out from the war-battered country, Afghanistan would sink into more violence and turmoil. The military said its air force and troops struck the Taliban in the province’s Nahr Saraj district as they were looting weapons and ammunition from the base. It said 20 Taliban fighters and a “few civilians” who were looting with the insurgents were killed. The Taliban claimed they overran the base, located along a west-south highway linking the cities of Kandahar and Herat, late Thursday. The insurgents said the death toll on Friday stood at 30 killed, and that all the fatalities allegedly are civilians. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid accused the Afghan army of conducting airstrikes against civilians. Both the Taliban and government forces routinely blame each other for attacks in Afghanistan. The assailants are rarely identified and the public is seldom informed of the results of investigations into the many attacks in the capital. A resident of the area who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussion from both the government and the Taliban, said only civilians were inside the base that had been abandoned by the army, “taking some of the items.” He claimed over 80 people had gathered around the base “allegedly all civilians and passersby” and watched from the highway when the strike happened. He said several trucks and oil tankers caught fire in the strike. Adding to the controversy, provincial council member Abdul Majid Akhund said the victims were all civilians. However, Helmand council chief Attaullah Afghan said they were unarmed Taliban members. Officials could not be reached in remote Nahr Saraj district as phone lines with the area were not working. Abidoon nAdeem

On the Financial Action Task Force, Fawad said that the government has achieved great success as the country’s rating on the FATF has improved, adding that the efforts of Minister Hammad Azhar and the law ministry are laudable in this regard.

Talking about the disputes within the opposition parties, Fawad said that the opposition parties are faced with internal disintegration as there are differences between Shehbaz and Maryam Nawaz within the Pakistan Muslim leagueNawaz (PMl-N) while in the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Faryal Talpur are embroiled in power struggle.

Taking turn to Pakistan Democratic Movement Chief Fazl-ur-rehman, he said the power of votes of 20 million people in the general election 2018 brought the PTI into power, adding that Fazl cannot win that power even in the next 200 years.

He said Fazl has badly failed in keeping his politics alive, adding that he should quit politics and pursue his own trade of solemnising marriages as a religious leader instead.

On Shehbaz being allowed to go abroad, he said that the government has placed him on the exit Control list (eCl) and he should contest his case in the court for any permission.

When asked about PTI estranged leader Jahangir Tareen’s cases, he said that the PTI parliamentarians have personal relations with Jahangir and they have been appearing with him during court hearings, adding that there is nothing abnormal about it. “All PTI parliamentarians and Jahangir Khan Tareen believe in the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan and they know the premier will not allow any injustice to anybody.”

Talking about Indian propaganda on the issues of freedom of press in Pakistan, the information minister said that press is free in Pakistan, adding that there are 112 local and 43 foreign channels currently being run in the country.

He said Indian network is responsible for creating such uncertainty and 825 fake websites being run by India have recently discovered, adding that such freedom of press is not possible in the third world countries.

The minister said even the first world countries could not claim of such freedom of press, saying could anybody write on the holocaust in Germany or about Israel in the United Sates. He said the countries have their own limitations and all should live within them, adding that freedom of expression for the West is blasphemy for us.

Pakistan gets US supplies, 1m doses of vaccine to fight Covid

ISLAMABAD tLtp

Critical health supplies airlifted by the United States, through US Agency for International Development (USAID), arrived on Saturday to help save lives, stop the spread of Covid-19, and meet the urgent health needs of the country.

The airlift to Pakistan contributes critically needed and requested emergency medical supplies, including personal protective equipment, pulse oximeters, and other supplies.

USAID will complement these supplies with technical assistance on their use and maintenance.

“Today, the United States continues our proud partnership with the government of Pakistan in our fight against the Covid-19 pandemic,” US

embassy’s lesslie Viguerie said.

“Throughout this struggle, we have worked together to provide resources and relief to those suffering and to help those on the frontlines of this pandemic. Pakistan is not alone in its fight against the coronavirus.”

Meanwhile, one million more doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been flown in from China, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said on Saturday.

The shipment arrived in Islamabad on board a special Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight, it said.

The NCOC said another 11 million doses of China’s Sinovac, CanSino and Sinopharm vaccines will be brought to Pakistan this month. It said all-out efforts are being made for mass vaccination with un-

interrupted supply of vaccines being ensured across the country. It urged citizens to follow precautions and get themselves inoculated against Covid19 on a priority basis.

Pakistan has so far received 11,475,300 doses of Covid-19 vaccines from three countries. The country received stocks of vaccines developed by five companies, including Sinovac, Cansino, Sinopharm, Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

The first shipment of Covid-19 vaccine had arrived in Pakistan from China on February 2, whereas, Beijing had also gifted 1.72 million doses to Islamabad. 1,339,020 doses of vaccine were provided to the country by Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax). Pakistan has gotten 1,238,400 doses of Pfizer vaccine from Covax.

pakistan condemns extrajudicial killing of youth in held kashmir ISLAMABAD stAff report

Pakistan on Saturday strongly condemned the extrajudicial killing of a young Muslim man in Indian-occupied Kashmir. Mohammed Amin Malik was killed in an exchange of gunfire inside a counterinsurgency police camp in Tral town early Thursday, local police said, calling him a “terror operative.”

In a statement, police said Malik snatched an automatic rifle from an officer during his interrogation and fired at him, leaving the officer critically wounded late Wednesday.

He later took position inside the interrogation room, the statement said. Police said they brought Malik’s mother to the camp and tried to persuade him to surrender but he refused and intermittently fired at police throughout the night. The statement said police later engaged him in a gunfight and killed him.

Mughli, Malik’s mother who uses only one name, told reporters that police tortured her son during his detention. “Strongly” condemning the incident in the “illegal custody” of Indian forces, the Foreign Office, in a statement, said: “Use of brutal force against innocent Kashmiris cannot suppress the struggle for their legitimate right to selfdetermination.” “The Indian occupation army has killed over 50 Kashmiris since January 2021 in fake encounters in the name of socalled ‘security operations’ against the innocent Kashmiri civilians,” it said. “Young men including minor children are murdered in broad daylight using brutal and indiscriminate force. Arbitrary detentions of Kashmiri youth also continue unabated. In addition, refusal to return the mortal remains of martyrs for proper burial demonstrates the moral bankruptcy of the Indian government.”

The Foreign Office further called on the international community to hold India accountable for the “grave and systematic” human rights violations in the held region, and work for peaceful resolution of the lingering dispute in accordance with the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and wishes of the people. The Muslim-majority region is divided between India and Pakistan and both claim it in its entirety. The Muslim population of Kashmir support the goal that the territory be united either under Pakistan or as an independent country. India says fighters are sponsored by Pakistan, but Islamabad denies the charge.

Tens of thousands of civilians, fighters and government forces have been killed in the conflict since 1947.

Indian states begin easing Covid lockdowns as case numbers decline NEW DELHI Agencies

Some of India’s states are easing lockdown restrictions as coronavirus infections subside, with the world’s second-most-populous nation on Saturday logging its lowest daily case count in nearly two months.

The national capital territory of Delhi, the seat of India’s federal government, was among those relaxing restrictions and will allow shops to open on alternate days. Shops with even numbers will open on one day while those with odd numbers will open the next day. Private offices will also now be allowed to operate at 50 per cent of normal staffing levels.

“The coronavirus situation in Delhi is slowly getting better,” Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in an online news conference as he announced that the state will build oxy-

gen storage capacity of 420 tonnes.

Hospitals in Delhi had struggled to provide oxygen cylinders and beds to patients as infections surged but that wave began subsiding from the middle of last month.

Kejriwal said the state would in future be prepared to deal with 37,000 new cases a day. Its peak thus far was 28,395 new infections on April 20.

In northern Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, only night curfew restrictions remain for 55 of its 75 districts.

“Districts which have positive cases under 600 have been given permission to open but with restrictions, while cities with over 600 positive cases will be under lockdown till the next order,” a local government spokesperson said.

Overall, India saw 120,529 new coronavirus infections emerge over the last 24 hours, while deaths rose by 3,380. The coun-

try’s total case tally stands at 28.6 million while 344,082 people have died.

In the industrialised western state of Maharashtra, the local government will from June 7 allow malls, movie theatres, restaurants and offices to open regularly in districts where the positivity rate has fallen below 5pc.

In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, also in the west, all government and private offices will be allowed to operate fully staffed from June 7, instead of the current restriction of 50pc.

The Gujarat government has also eased restrictions on commercial activities, allowing shops in 36 cities to remain open for longer.

In eastern Odisha state, lockdowns have been eased in three districts thanks to a decline in coronavirus cases while the southern state of Tamil Nadu now allows grocery retailers to open for most of the day and has permitted offices to operate with 30pc capacity.

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad, for PT Print (Pvt) Limited. Ph: 051-2204545. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk