EpaperISB_20-10-11

CMYK

11 October, 2020 I 22 Safar, 1442 I Rs 25.00 I Vol XI No 102 I 36 Pages I Islamabad Edition

‘Army to support govt in line with Constitution’ g

Gen Bajwa says Pakistan is facinG the challenGe of hyBrid war, oBjective of which is to sPread hoPelessness in the country

KAKUL STAFF REPORT

C

hief of army staff General Qamar javed Bajwa said on saturday that the army's actions are guided by the national interest of Pakistan and it will continue to support the government in line with the constitution. the coas said this while addressing the passing out ceremony of the 142nd PMa long course, 32nd technical Graduate course, 61st integrated course, 16th lady cadet course and 1st Basic Military training course.at Military academy kakul on saturday, said inter-services Public relations (isPr). "you will appreciate that today Pakistan is, alhamdullilah, secure from a military point of view. we continue to support the government, when ever asked to, as per the law and guidelines of the constitution."

Gen Bajwa said that as is true for many countries, Pakistan was also subjected to

wars, terrorism and economic strangulation.

"But alhamdulillah we have survived. the enemies who brought us to doom and destruction are now watching us in disdain.” he said that Pakistan is facing the challenge of hybrid war, targeting common people, and its battlefield is human minds, which can be fought by strictly adhering to principles and traditions. "the objective of hybrid war is to target the sense of hope in Pakistan and to perpetuate the perception of 'yahan kuch acha naheen ho sakta' (nothing good can ever happen here)." "let me tell you 'yahan sab acha hoga' (everything good will happen here)." General Bajwa reiterated the resolve to ensure the safety of peace in the country that has been restored after great sacrifices of the military and nation. he said, “it is our time to rise and progress and we must grasp the opportunity achieved after countless sacrifices.” he urged the newly passed cadets to be

CoronAvirus in

pAkistAn

CONFIRMED CASES:

318,266

LAST UPDATED AT 6:55 AM ON OCTOBER 10 2020

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

6

NEW CASES:

671

RECOVERED:

DEATHS:

SINDH:

PUNJAB:

303,062 6,558 139,910 KP:

38,273

100,484 BALOCHISTAN:

15,498

AJK/GB: ISLAMABAD: 2,991/3,900 17,210

disciplined, dutiful and impartial while performing their duties. the army chief said that he is satisfied that the institutions in the country are getting stronger, adding that Pakistan paid a very heavy price to achieve peace and will maintain it at every cost.

“Pakistan has made great efforts for regional and global peace, according to Quaid's vision,” said Gen Bajwa. addressing the cadets, he said, "today marks the most cherished moment of your lives. you’ve proven yourself worthy for a noble yet a demanding profession. "today is the start of your career. you must realise that peace is not an end in itself," he said.

Gen Bajwa asked the cadets to always remember "we are all soldiers of Pakistan regardless of our caste, creed, sect and ethnicity". he said all soldiers will always stand together as one and that is the true strength of any force. "do not confuse sincere criticism from hybrid war," he warned. "Most voices that might seem loud to you come from a place of love, patriotism and trust and therefore, must be heeded." "we must listen to our people and apply corrections where needed," Gen Bajwa said. the army chief said that these voices are proof that “we are alive and well as a nation that the country is moving in the right direction.” "our strength is our strong bond with our people and the constitution of our country," he said, adding that the army "shall defend this bond and our democratic values to the hilt". earlier, the army chief witnessed the parade and gave awards to distinguished cadets. the coveted sword of honour was awarded to academy senior under officer Muhammad faateh of 142nd PMa long course. cadets from Palestine, Maldives, Qatar and sri lanka were also among the passed out courses.

Govt to use all resources to bring down food prices: PM ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Prime Minister imran khan has said that the government will use “all resources at the disposal of the state” to bring down food prices. “we will have our strategy in place and action will begin by Monday,” the prime minister said in a tweet on saturday. “we are already examining causes of the price hikes: whether there is a genuine supply shortage or simply hoarding by mafias; smuggling, if any or a price rise due to international prices such as for palm oil, lentils etc.”

Meanwhile, taking exception to overpricing of food items at rest areas along motorways, Prime Minister imran khan directed the national highway authority (nha) and the motorway police chief to take action against profiteers fleecing people. the directives came following a number of complaints were made on the Pakistan citizen’s Portal. the PM instructed that the issue be taken up at a higher level and strict action be taken to curb the prac-

China lauds Pakistan’s support on Hong Kong issue ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

china has praised Pakistan for strong support on its position on hong kong-related issues during a debate at the united nations General assembly’s third committee. speaking at a regular briefing in Beijing, chinese foreign Ministry spokesperson hua chunying said Pakistan and cuba represented the relevant countries and delivered speeches, highlighting that china’s implementation of hong kong national security law is good for the steady implementation of the one country two systems. “we want to express our appreciation to Pakistan and all these countries for speaking out for justice. their support once again proved that justice will always prevail and a small number of western countries who attempted to smear china under the pretext of hong kong and Xinjiang issues failed again,” said chinese foreign Ministry spokesperson hua chunying. the spokesperson said that more than 70 countries voiced their “support on china's relevant positions”. she added that so far

tices of overcharging by tuck-shops at motorway rest areas. he called for zonewise dedicated teams to be assigned by the nha to check overpricing by carrying out surprise inspections at different timings on a regular basis. the PM also directed the authorities to seek assistance, if required, from the district administration. he further ordered that banners encouraging people to lodge complaints on the citizen’s Portal be also put up at conspicuous places of the rest areas.

People in their complaints lamented that prices being charged at various rest areas’ tuck shops are almost double or triple the actual market prices. food items reportedly being sold at inflated rates include tea/coffee, juices, mineral water, soft/cold drinks, biscuits, and chips.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister imran khan has said that the ruling elite class has caused irreparable losses to the national economy through plunder and corruption during their tenures.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

more inside

Religious scholar Maulana Adil, driver killed in Karachi gun attack STORY ON PAGE 03

Pakistan welcomes ceasefire in nagorno-karabakh STORY ON PAGE 12 57 countries have co-signed a joint statement on hong kong-related issues and 48 have made a similar joint statement on Xinjiang. “Pakistan and cuba have spoken on behalf of these countries in support of china's formulation and implementation of the law on safeguarding national security in the hong kong special administrative region (hksar),” said hua. the spokesperson added that the countries showed support as they believe that the laws will help ensure implementation of "one country, two systems, maintain the hksar's prosperity and stability, and ensure a safe environment for hong kong resi-

dents' exercise of legitimate rights and freedom”. earlier this week, Pakistan had made a joint statement on behalf of 55 countries telling the world that hong kong's affairs are an internal matter of china and underscored the importance of not interfering in the domestic affairs of sovereign states. “the hong kong special administrative region is an inalienable part of china, and hong kong affairs are china’s internal affairs that brook no interference by foreign forces,” Pakistan's Permanent representative to the un ambassador Munir akram had told the General assembly's third committee.

Ministers advice Opp to delay protests amid Covid resurgence STORY ON PAGE 03 in today’s issue

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02

Sunday, 11 October, 2020

NEWS

Public gathERingS to incREaSE coviD-19 SPREaD RiSKS, waRnS ncoc ISLAMABAD

t

STAFF REPORT

HE National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) Saturday warned of increasing risks of Covid-19 spread due to the organisation of public gatherings in the country. The NCOC issued a new set of guidelines to curb the spread of novel coronavirus. It said that the implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) should not be neglected in every important public event.

The statement read that public gatherings are banned due to coronavirus pandemic around the world and the organisation

SAYS SIX MORE DIE, 671 TURN POSITIVE TO INFECTION IN 24 HOURS of crowded events could endanger the national success against the virus.

It added that a final decision regarding the public gatherings will be taken in the upcoming session of the national coordination committee.

In a statement, Federal Minister for Planning and the NCOC head Asad Umar said that the federal government is effectively working to improve the lifestyle of the nationals. He asked opposition parties to continue their activities while remaining in the legal boundaries.

The federal government adopted a policy

PDM announces schedule of public rallies ISLAMABAD

for the supremacy of law and it should not be violated in the name of democracy. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is a democratic party and there is no danger to the government of Usman Buzdar in Punjab, he said.

Asad Umar said that the authorities have taken decisions for rules and regulations in the recent NCOC meeting and all political parties should refrain from organising rallies before the finalisation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) against Covid-19.

Meanwhile, the country has reported six more deaths due to coronavirus-related complications during the last 24 hours, pushing

External forces hatching conspiracies against country: Sh Rashid LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad has said that Pakistan Army has played a key role in maintaining integrity, sovereignty and peace, and development of the country. Talking to newsmen on Saturday, Sheikh Rashid said that external forces are engaged in hatching conspiracies against the Pakistan Army and destabilising the country. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has given a clear message to the opposition that he will not give NRO (national reconciliation ordinance) to anyone. He said that the opposition's alliance, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), is moving towards the politics of chaos and anarchy. He said that no one will be allowed to take the law in one’s hands. “The military is the democracy, economy and stability of the country, it will not permit the spread of lawlessness at any cost,” the federal minister said. He said the chapter of the politics of Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari and Maulana Fazlur Rehman has been closed. He said, “Nawaz Sharif won’t return from London and the Pakistan People’s Party would not resign (from assemblies), at any cost.” He said the opposition parties have the right to hold public meetings but they won’t be allowed to take the law in their hands. He expressed fear of terrorism threat and spread of Covid-19 in the country. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was not aware of the registration of sedition case against the PML-N leadership, adding he also opposed the case when the issue was discussed in the cabinet meeting.

FM Qureshi calls for peaceful resolution of Kashmir, Palestine issues

Proclamation notice pasted outside Nawaz’s residence in land allotment case LAHORE STAFF REPORT

STAFF REPORT

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb on Saturday announced the schedule for countrywide rallies of PML-N workers’ conventions and opposition parties’ alliance under the banner of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). She said that the PDM’s first rally will take place on October 16 in Gujranwala. The second rally will be held in Karachi on October 18, third in Quetta on October 25 and fourth on November 22 in Peshawar. Aurangzeb said that the opposition alliance will hold the fifty rally in Multan on November 30, sixth rally in Lahore on December 13 while this year’s final public gathering will be held in Larkana on December 27. According to the schedule, the first workers’ convention would be held in Nawabshah on October 13, second on October 31 in Rawalpindi , third in DG Khan on November 5, fourth in Bahawalpur on November 26, fifth in Faisalabad on December 3, sixth in Sahiwal on December 6, seventh in Sargodha on December 9 and eighth workers’ convention in Gujranwala on December 11. The PML-N will also hold a power show in Karachi on October 12, the party spokesperson stated.

the death toll from the disease to 6,558, said the NCOC on Saturday.

As many as 33,365 samples were tested during this period, out of which 671 turned out to be positive, said NCOC in a statement.

The number of Covid-19 cases across the country has reached 318,266 with the addition of 671 new cases. There are 8,646 active Covid-19 cases as 303,061 patients have recuperated from the disease. More than 3.8 million tests have been conducted in the country so far.

So far, Sindh has reported 139,910 cases of the coronavirus, Punjab 100,484, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 38,273, Balochistan 15,498, Islamabad 17,210, Gilgit Baltistan 3,900, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir has reported 2,991 cases.

An accountability court has issued a proclamation against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif over his perpetual absence from trial proceedings in an illegal land allotment case on Saturday.

The anti-graft watchdog has pasted a proclamation notice outside Sharif’s Jati Umra residence and court office.

The notice will be sent to London through the foreign office. The IHC released on Friday the two-pages-long written order in which it has directed PML-N supremo to appear before the court by Nov 24 to avoid being declared an offender.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) last Friday wrote a letter to the Interior Ministry for the cancellation of the former prime minister’s CNIC and passport.

Arrest warrants for Sharif have been issued by the court and thus his travel documents should be cancelled, the NAB recommended to the interior ministry in a letter.

The accountability court had already issued arrest warrants for Nawaz Sharif in an illegal land allotment case.

Sharif is facing accusations of illegal allotment of land as the then Punjab CM to Mir Shakilur Rehman.

On March 12, the NAB had apprehended Mir Shakilur

Meanwhile, Punjab on Saturday reported 154 new cases of Covid-19 with four deaths by the disease in the last 24 hours. A spokesperson of Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare department said that 68 cases of novel coronavirus were reported in Lahore, while 54 new cases were reported in Rawalpindi in the last 24 hours.

Overall death toll by coronavirus in Punjab has reached 2,252 with four more deaths by the disease in the last 24 hours, the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the tally of active cases of Covid-19 in Balochistan has dropped to 213 cases, a spokesperson of Balochistan Health Department said on Saturday. In a statement, the provincial health department said that 98 percent of coronavirus patients have recovered to health in Balochistan. The number of recuperated patients across the province has been 15,139, the health department said.

In the last 24 hours 18 cases of novel coronavirus were reported across the province in 1245 diagnostic tests, health department spokesperson said. Total count of coronavirus cases has reached 15,498 after detection of 18 new infections in Balochistan.

Rahman in a case pertaining to the illegal exemption of 54 plots in Lahore. It is pertinent to mention here that Nawaz Sharif is currently present in London after being granted a bail on medical grounds.

PROCLAMATION AGAINST SULEMAN: Meanwhile, an accountability court has issued a proclamation against Salman Shehbaz, the son of Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif, in a money laundering case.

Justice Jawadul Hassan initiated the process to declare him a proclaimed offender over his failure to join the trial in the case despite being repeatedly issued summons.

According to the proclamation, the accused has been given the last chance to appear before the court on October 13 to defend charges against him or else he will be declared a proclaimed offender.

Following the court’s order, his proclamations have been put up outside his residences in Pakistan and abroad.

The NAB director general is required to present a compliance report in this regard in court.

On August 17, the national graft buster filed Rs7 billion money laundering and assets beyond means reference against the Shehbaz family, including his wife Nusrat Shehbaz, sons – Hamza Shehbaz and Salman Shehbaz – and two daughters, Rabia Imran and Javeria Ali.

NEWS DESK Pakistan on Saturday reiterated its call for a “just, peaceful and expeditious” resolution of Kashmir and Palestinian issues in accordance with the wishes of the people. While addressing the virtual Ministerial Meeting of the NonAligned Movement (NAM), Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi expressed grave concern over the continued denial of self-determination right to the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine.

“It is central to ensuring durable peace in South Asia and the Middle East,” he stated. He also conveyed Pakistan’s deep concern on the deteriorating security situation in the NagornoKarabakh region and called intensive shelling

by Armenian forces on civilian populations of Azerbaijani villages ‘reprehensible’. “Pakistan stands with the brotherly nation of Azerbaijan and supports its right of self-defense. We support Azerbaijan’s position on NagornoKarabakh, which is in line with the several UN Security Council resolutions,” the foreign minister told the summit.

Suspect in Charsaddah rape and murder case ‘confesses’ to crime: police PESHAWAR STAFF REPORT

One of the suspects arrested after the rape and murder a minor girl in Charsaddah has ‘confessed’ to committing the crime during interrogation, police said on Saturday.

Zainab, a two-and-a-half-year-old girl from the Sheikh Kallay Qilla area, went missing on Tuesday evening while playing with other children outside her house, police said.

The following day, the Prang police received information about the mutilated body of a girl lying in the Jaba Korona area. The Prang and Daudzai police recov-

ered the body and shifted it to the Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar for postmortem.

A First Information Report (FIR) was registered on Tuesday against unknown kidnappers in the Prang police station on the complaint of Akhtar Munir, father of the girl. Later on, when the body was found, Section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) was added to the FIR, police said.

Reports suggest the 40-year-old suspect, whose identity has not been revealed yet, allegedly abducted the girl from outside her house area and stabbed her to death after raping her.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Inspector General of

Police (IGP) Sanaullah Abbasi said Thursday the DHQ Hospital, Charsadda had “verbally” confirmed to the police that the victim was raped before being killed but a formal post-mortem examination report is yet to be issued. Police also claimed to have recovered the murder weapon from the suspect, adding the crime scene location has also been identified. According to police, the suspect belongs to the same village as the girl.

The authorities said more than 300 suspects were interrogated, after which all but 15 suspects were released. Upon his identification, the police also recovered the girl’s shoes from the fields.

PPP chairman urges Karachi lawyers to support Opp movement for rule of law NEWS DESK PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday said that the parliament shall continue to remain ineffective, and the freedom of media in a true sense would be a dream until full respect and implementation of the Constitutional rights are ensured, inviting lawyers to support the Opposition in this struggle.

Addressing the Karachi Bar Association, the PPP chairman said the lawyers’ movement that had been launched was not against judges or former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, rather it aimed at ensuring the “rule of law".

“It is imperative for the lawyers’ fraternity that they continue to support democratic forces in their struggle to ensure the ‘rule of law’ in letter and spirit, and for the respect and implementation of the Constitution in Pak-

istan,” he stated, asking the lawyers to convey a message to all that an independent judiciary that would protect the human rights and democracy and defy the detention or imprisonment of the political workers and their leadership is need of the hour.

“I want to solve the problems of the legal community, but the legal fraternity also has to support our struggle for the rights of the people," he said.

Bilawal said that people’s money has to be handed back to the Sindh government so that the same should be spent on the welfare and progress of the people of the province.

“PPP has joined hands with lawyers for the supremacy of the Constitution, democracy, and human rights, hence they should also support the democratic forces against this non-democratic and selected government and its facilitators," he said.

The PPP chairman said that he could not count the number of false cases against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and former president Asif Ali Zardari, but the promising fact was that the lawyers always stood by the PPP at every hearing.

Today, when the PPP is in action for the people’s rights, the role of the lawyers’ fraternity is inevitable, he said. He asked the lawyers to participate in Pakistan Democratic Movement's public meetings in large numbers to prove that country's legal fraternity stood with democracy and masses. Bilawal said, "We have been forced to raise the issues of the people on the streets because these issues are not allowed to be discussed in the parliament." "Opposition leaders are not allowed to speak. Shahbaz Sharif has been sent to jail, while Khursheed Shah is still in jail," he said.

Sunday, 11 October, 2020

NEWS

MiniSteRS advice Opp tO delay pROteStS aMid cOvid ReSuRgence ISLAMABAD

F

STAFF REPORT

EDERAL ministers including Fawad Chaudhry, Sheikh Rasheed and Asad Umar on Saturday issued advisories to the Opposition on delaying their movement, warning of various consequences if the opposition did not heed the advice.

According to the details, Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has called on political parties to act “responsibly” and postpone political demonstrations for three months amid fears of a second coronavirus wave in the country.

In a tweet posted Saturday, Chaudhry said the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) had issued new standard operating procedures (SOPs) in anticipation of a second wave, directing that gatherings of people in wedding ceremonies and other events be reduced.

“I believe political parties should

give proof of responsibility and postpone rallies and processions for the next three months. The opposition should also postpone its movement till next year and respect life,” he said.

Similarly, Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed warned that “There may be [a] crackdown, there may be corona, there may be incidents of terrorism,” He was speaking during his now customary Saturday press conference.

The minister said the PM Imran has said categorically that he will not give any NRO to Opposition leaders and claimed that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the platform on which Opposition parties have gathered to oust the government, is moving towards a “politics of violence”.

Hitting out at PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Rasheed alleged that the JUI-F leader was a “respectable man” but wanted to play the religion card.

He added that the maulana has been “used all his life for the religious card”.

The minister also claimed that the next four months were “very important”,

20 outlaws apprehended; stolen valuables, weapons recovered ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Police have claimed to have arrested 20 outlaws and recovered stolen valuable, wine and weapons from their possession, a police spokesman said. Bhara Khau police have arrested Zia-Ur-Rehman and recovered one 9mm pistol along with ammunition from his possession. Bani Gala police arrested Sajjad Khan and recovered stolen valuables from him.

CIA police apprehended two accused Qasmit Khan and Hassan Ibrahim and recovered two 30 bore pistols from their possession. Khanna police arrested Sharam Masih and recovered 15 liters alcohol from him and Sihala police arrested 3 persons involved in illegally selling oil.

Cases have been registered against these nabbed persons and further legal proceedings were underway against them. The police also have claimed for arresting 12 proclaimed offenders during special checking in the city. Islamabad DIG (Operations) Waqaruddin Syed has asked citizens to remain alert against those involved in criminal activities in their surroundings and inform police for action against them. APP

ANF recovers 41kg heroin; couple arrested PESHAWAR: The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) on Saturday, while working on a tip-off, recovered 41kg heroin from a car and arrested a man with his wife for smuggling the contraband. The ANF said that action was taken near Chamkani area on the outskirts of Peshawar where 41kg heroin was recovered from a Honda Car bearing number LEC, 6027. Two accused named Irfan Javed, son of Javed Iqbal, resident of Lahore and Humaira Iram, wife of Irfan Javed, were taken into custody. The drug smugglers were also carrying their minor children with them to deceive the law enforcers. The packets filled with heroin were expertly concealed in the trunk of the car. The ANF said it was a big attempt of heroin smuggling that was busted by using modern techniques. The seized heroin, attempted to be smuggled to Punjab, valued hundreds of thousands of rupees in the local market.

The arrested couple was shifted to ANF police station for further interrogation. APP

adding that the army was standing behind the democratic government.

“The Pakistan Army stands behind the civilian government so that no man can take out WikiLeaks, Dawnleaks or any other leaks,” he said.

Talking about the PPP, the Railways minister claimed that the party will not resign from its seats in the National Assembly (NA) as if the party resigns from Sindh, it will lose its majority in that province as well.

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar separately said that no one will be allowed to break the law in the name of democracy.

The minister, in a conversation with media representatives, said the government’s policy was clear on the Opposition’s public gatherings, adding that the Opposition may do whatever it wants within the ambit of the law.

“Our policy is to abide by the law,” said Asad Umar. He added that due to the coronavirus, all political parties should avoid gatherings.

It may be mentioned here that the

advisories are in response to an announcement by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the anti-government alliance of the opposition parties, to formally launch its campaign with a public meeting in Gujranwala on Oct 16.

According to its schedule, the PDM would hold its second public meeting in Karachi on Oct 18, third in Quetta on Oct 25, fourth in Peshawar on Nov 22, fifth in Multan on Nov 30, and the last one in Lahore on Dec 13.

The series of protests come at a time when fresh infections are registering a rise, compelling authorities to brace for a second wave of the disease. Last week, the Punjab government had warned that the province could again be put into a smart lockdown following a spike in infections.

On Friday, the NCOC proposed restrictions on large-scale public gatherings and issued fresh guidelines for marriage halls after the country saw a rise in Covid-19 infections in recent weeks.

Talal snaps back at premier over ‘tanzeem saazi’ remark NEWS DESK Pakistani Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Talal Chaudhry on Saturday hit back Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s jibe at him over a recent incident in which he was allegedly beaten by the brothers of a female lawmaker outside her home.

Responding to the prime minister, the PML-N leader said the prime minister, after launching a personal attack on him, had proven that small people are occupying high offices in the country.

“After this, I have the right to expose all the stories — from California’s courts to Pakpattan,” he added.

The PML-N leader also slammed PM Imran for using women to scandalise his opponents.

“It is clear that the opposition is on their nerves and I will respond to every attack,” he said.

While addressing the Insaf Lawyers Forum in Islamabad on Friday, the premier had mentioned the incident sarcastically without naming Chaudhry.

“A few days ago, I saw a senior member of their party [PML-N] went to a lady’s home at 3 am for ‘organisational restructuring’ and was surprised when was he beaten by her brothers,” the prime minister had said, prompting the audience to burst into laughter.

“It was then I realised that there are people in their party who genuinely believe their leader had taken money out of the country legally,” he had said, referring to the money laundering accusations against PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.

Chaudhry on September 27 had reportedly been attacked by unknown individuals and underwent treatment at a private hospital in Lahore.

According to sources, Chaudhry was on his way to Madina Town from his home in Faisalabad when unidentified individuals stopped his vehicle and physically tortured him, leading to severe injuries to his left shoulder and other parts of the body.

It is pertinent to mention here that there have been rumours circulating about the attack on Talal Chaudhry with different versions. Some reports alleged that Chaudhry had been beaten up by the brothers of female MNA of the same party.

Chaudhry denied the reports of the alleged attack and said in a statement that the rumours circulating about the incident were not based on facts and he will issue a detailed statement on the incident in coming days.

Chaudhry further condemned the politicisation of the incident, saying it was reprehensible for some government miscreants to politicise it.

Religious scholar Maulana Adil, driver killed in Karachi gun attack KARACHI INP

Renowned religious scholar Maulana Adil and his driver were gunned down by unidentified armed men in Karachi on Saturday. According to the details, Jamia Farooqia's Maulana Adil was on his way when unidentified armed men riding on a motorcycle opened fire on his vehicle in Shah Faisal Colony.

On being informed, rescue officials and police rushed to the scene and shifted them to the hospital where doc-

tors pronounced them dead on arrival.

Hospital sources said that two bullets hit Maulana Adil, including one to the neck which proved fatal.

It is pertinent to mention that Maulana Adil was the son of renounced religious scholar Saleemullah Khan.

Taking notice of the incident, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah directed to apprehend the suspects involved in the assassination of the religious scholar immediately. He maintained that the miscreants wanted to create law and order situation in the metropolis. The chief minister vowed to bring the assassinators to justice.

03

Bilawal invites Maryam to address Shuhda-e-Karsaz public meeting KARACHI INP

Pakistan Peoples’ Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has invited Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz Sharif to address Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) public meeting being held in Karachi hosted by PPP in the memory of Shuhda-e-Karsaz on October 18. The invitation was extended through the former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi who along with another PML-N leader Miftah Ismail called on the PPP Chairman at Bilawal House on Saturday. PPP MNA Syed Naveed Qamar was also present on the occasion. Abbasi also invited Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to address the public meeting being organized in Gujranwala on October 16. Talking to the PML-N delegation, the PPP chairman pointed out that the “selected” prime minister has been frightened by the PDM movement and has resorted to threats of arrests of opposition leaders and workers. He said selected regime’s detention camps and jails would be overcrowded and overfilled as every Pakistani has now become a PDM worker ready to take on the selected regime. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the country was reeling under unprecedented unemployment, inflation, poverty and lawlessness and the selected government cannot be tolerated for a minute and pledged that the PDM movement would only rest after sending this selected regime back to its home.

FBR urged to avoid creating problems for construction, automobile sectors ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has said that promoting ease of doing business should be the top priority of the government and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) should avoid creating problems for construction and automobile sectors. In a statement on Saturday, President ICCI Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that promoting ease of doing business should be the top priority of the government so that the economy could come out of the difficulties created by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, instead of taking facilitative measures for businesses, the FBR is issuing regulatory orders like SRO-924 and SRO931/2020 that would create additional problems for businesses of construction and automobile sectors. He stressed that FBR should take stakeholders fully on board before issuing any new SRO that would save the economy from unnecessary problems. Yasir said that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused drastic decline in the business activities across the country and it is high time that the government should focus on formulating more conducive policies, besides taking supportive measures for the private sector, to enable businesses to revive and boost business activities in the country. He emphasised that the State Bank of Pakistan should work with commercial banks to provide loans at low interest rates to the private sector for revival and expansion of business ventures. He was addressing a dinner reception hosted by Sheikh Abdul Waheed, Chairman Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (PVMA), and Faad Waheed, Executive Member ICCI, in honour of new office-bearers of ICCI. Speaking at the occasion, Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan, Chairman, Punjab Board of Investment and Trade highlighted the potential areas of investment in the Punjab and said that the business community should capitalize on them for future business promotion and growth. He stressed the need for close cooperation and regular interaction between policy-makers and business leaders to make new policies that should put the economy on the path of sustainable growth.

Shehryar Afridi terms CPEC ‘a vehicle of economic development’ for Pakistan, Afghanistan ISLAMABAD MIAN ABRAR

Kashmir Committee Chairman Shehryar Khan Afridi has said that Pakistan and Afghanistan are twin-sister states that are set to march on a path of peaceful coexistence and development, adding that the China, Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is vehicle of this economic development and prosperity.

“Pakistan and Afghanistan are twin-sister states who have lived, grew and fought together against enemies and foreign invaders. Now we need to march on a path of peaceful coexistence and economic development together. CPEC is the vehicle to economic development and youth is driver of this journey towards regional peace and prosperity,” said Afridi while addressing the participants of Pak, Afghan Youth Jirga held under the aegis of Pak-Afghan Youth Forum.

Youth icons, students and young professionals from Pakistan and Afghanistan attended the discussion aimed at sharing and identifying various problems and issues.

The webinar was organized as part of PAYF’s initiatives to enhance people-to-people connection between two countries. The Youth Jirga was also arranged in an effort to start cross-border dialogue between the youth of Pakistan and Afghanistan to understand the all-important role of the youth of both the countries as Afghanistan finally heads towards peace and stability.

The Jirga style setup enabled the participants to interact in an informal and casual atmosphere so that problems and solutions were presented by each country’s representatives amicably.

Keynote Speaker Shehryar Afridi delivered his address vehemently in Pashto, Urdu and English languages, reminding the panelists of the shared history, lineage, culture, and traditions of both the brotherly countries.

He spoke regarding how four million Afghan refugees historically have been welcomed with open arms by the Pakistani society. He said Pakistan has always looked towards the Afghans as their brotherly guests and allowed them free to roam in our country as they would in their own motherland.

Moreover, throughout the address, the message of Afridi remained the same that without a peaceful Afghanistan, the future of this region is very bleak; only together can the new generation fight the political powers that aim to bring disruption and chaos to both countries.

The panelists echoed his sentiments as they talked about the role of the youth evolved during the years. They shared now is the time where the frayed bonds between the people of both countries must be repaired in order to bring peace and stability to the region.

Ahmad Zia Mohmand, a youth representative from the civil society of Afghanistan said, “Eventhough we

have inherited a war torn nation we now have the opportunity to turn that curse into a chance.

The new generation can make a difference to set things right, with the help of the Pakistani society and the great people of Pakistan.”

Likewise, another panelist, Mr. Syed Hussain Anosh, the Executive Director of the Civil Society and Human Rights Network think tank in Afghanistan spoke about the economic gains both countries can achieve via cooperation and peaceful coexistence. He felt that the youth has to see Pak Afghan relations beyond strict bilateral contours, as Afghanistan is a gateway to Central Asia, Middle East, Iran and China.

Furthermore, a young martial arts champion and representative of the Hazara community, Ms. Farzana Hakimi spoke very eloquently about how Pak-Afghan relations are always trapped in hard politics, marred by terrorism and violence.

04

Sunday, 11 October, 2020

NEWS

IslaMaBad’s ‘hotsPots’ to undergo ‘MInI loCkdown’ aMId rIsIng CovId Cases

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NEWS DESK

"mini" lockdown will be imposed in certain coronavirus "hotspots" of the federal capital starting Sunday morning, the district health office said on Saturday.

A notification was issued, according to which in the first phase, the areas which will be put under a "mini" lockdown include G-9/4, G-10/4, I-8/2 and NPF. The health office said that a few streets of the above areas will be sealed "for now" to curtail the spread of the virus.

It urged people to cooperate with

health officials and with the security personnel during the lockdown period.

LOCKDOWN RECOMMENDED: The district health department in Islamabad had recommended that the government impose a "smart" lockdown in areas where coronavirus cases are increasing, a notification showed. According to the notification, several teams conducted Covid-19 surveillance activities in different sectors and observed that cases are increasing in street number 38, 44, 45, 46, 47, and 48 and on Sawan road adjacent to street 48, in sector G-10/4.

"Street numbers 25 and 29 in sector I8/2 and street numbers 85 and 89 of sector

Mill owner arrested in wheat misappropriation case SUKKUR STAF REPORT

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Sukkur arrested a flour mill owner in a wheat misappropriation case on Saturday. Ashok Kumar, a flour mill owner, has been arrested from Ghotki, NAB sources said. The accused had purchased wheat from government stocks on credit basis but failed to pay over 100 million rupees amount in a fixed period, according to NAB. “The bureau will produce accused Ashok Kumar before an accountability court to seek physical remand of the accused for investigation,” sources said. It is to be mentioned here that NAB Sukkur bureau had authorised scores of inquiries against officials of provincial food department and others on the allegations of misappropriation of wheat stock available at Provisional Reserve Centers (PRCs) in different districts in Sindh. NAB Sukkur had also conducted inquiries against the food department officials and flour mill owners on the allegations of the release of wheat stock on a 180 days credit basis where the flour mill owners did not pay the amount after laps of 180 days.

G-9/4 have the same trend of increasing Covid-19 cases," it said.

It was recommended that in light of these developments, if a timely lockdown is imposed in these locations, it will help reduce the transmission in these streets and other sectors of Islamabad.

Islamabad has so far registered 17,210 coronavirus infections, 188 deaths and 16,279 recoveries from the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Saturday warned of increasing risks of Covid19 spread due to the organisation of public gatherings in the country.

It stated that the final decision regarding public gatherings will be taken in the upcoming session of the national coordination committee.

In a statement, Federal Minister for Planning and the NCOC head Asad Umar said that the federal government is effectively working to improve the lifestyle of the nationals.

According to the NCOC statement, “Public gatherings are banned due to coronavirus pandemic around the world and the organisation of crowded events could endanger the national success against the virus.”

CM Buzdar hands over 571 new vehicles to Punjab Police LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has stressed that Punjab police “will have to deliver in accordance with the aspirations of the people”. The chief minister was addressing a ceremony on Saturday where 571 new vehicles were handed over to Punjab Police aimed at protecting the lives and property of people in the province.The chief minister said that the promise to advance police on modern lines has been fulfilled.

He said 500 new vehicles have been given at police stations, 27 vehicles will be handed over to Punjab Highway Patrol Police while Elite Force will get 24 vehicles.

He said necessary resources have been provided to the police to deliver the services to the people according to their aspirations.

Buzdar reiterated that police have been made free from political influence through provision of required re-

sources, adding that new vehicles will improve the efficiency of the police besides further improving the patrolling system at highways. He said that improvement in the patrolling system will also help maintain law and order in rural areas.

The chief minister said that the police department was deprived of required resources in the past. He said that genuine demands of the police have been fulfilled; therefore, the government expects better performance from the department.Inspector General Police Punjab Inaam Ghani gave a detailed briefing to the chief minister about the police vehicles.

Federal Ministers Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Asad Umar, Shafqat Mahmood and Fawad Chaudhary, WHIP National Assembly Chief Malik Amir Dogar, and Advisor to PM Mirza Shahzad Akbar attended the ceremony.

Provincial Ministers Mian Mahmood-ur-Rasheed, Dr Yasmeen Rashid and Mian Aslam Iqbal were also present on the occasion.

okara teen girl raped by uncle dies during abortion OKARA INP

A 14-year-old girl died during an operation after she went through an abortion on Saturday as her uncle kept raping her for a long period of time, resulting in pregnancy in Okara. The latest horrific story surfaced just days after the rape and murder of two and-ahalf-year-old Zainab in Charsadda as the country is still shocked after the unresolved horrendous motorway gang-rape case with the main accused still at large. Fourteenyear-old Uzma was living with her maternal aunt after her parents separated amid domestic quarrels. But the poor girl did not know that the new home would prove to be a hell for her. According to details, Uzma went through this tragic life at Chak No 5.4/L located near Okara city. The unending sexual assaults meant that she became pregnant. But when the culprit, Ghulam Anwar, and his wife Sajida Bibi came to know about it, they opted for abortion, a process leading to her worsening condition. Later, they took her out of the village for an operation where she lost her life due to the multiple complications.

She was a six-month pregnant at the time of the abortion. However, police have arrested Ghulam Anwar and Sajida. By the time this report was filed, it is expected that the accused would face rape and murder charges in the case. Talking about the issue, the locals confirmed the reports that her uncle had been raping her over a long period.

Ring Road to turn Rawalpindi into hub of trade activities: RCCI RAWALPINDI TLTP

Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) President Nasir Mirza has said that the Ring Road project would be a game changer for Rawalpindi, as the proposed industrial zones can turn the city into a hub of trade activities.

He said this after a briefing session on the Ring Road project was held at the RCCI, which was

attended by a large number of representatives of trade associations of the city and officials and members of the chamber. Mirza said that this is an important project for the development of Rawalpindi and should be completed as soon as possible. The government and the RDA should purchase land for the proposed industrial zones, he added. He said stakeholders should be taken on board while finalizing the allocation and

demarcation of industrial zones.

Punjab Management Unit (PMU) Deputy Project Director Muhammad Abdullah in a detailed presentation said that the Ring Road project is a 65km road for which Rs6.5 billion have been released for the purchase of land. The proposed project includes construction of industrial zones as well as health city, dry port, bus and truck terminals and theme parks.

A proposal for rapid rail transit is

also under consideration in the Ring Road project. He assured that the suggestions of the stakeholders would be shared with the project director so that they could be made a part of the project. RCCI Senior Vice President Osman Ashraf, Vice President Shahraiz A Malik, former presidents, representatives of Anjuman-e-Tajiran and members of the executive committee were also present on the occasion.

Young doctors to rally in Isb on 14th against formation of PMC ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The Young Doctors Association (YDA) on Saturday announced it will March to Islamabad on October 14, saying all wings of the association unanimously reject the formation of the Pakistan Medical Commission. The statement came after a meeting held via video link of all the provincial units of the association. The meeting was attended by presidents and cabinet members of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad.

"The Pakistan Medical Commission is an unconstitutional, undemocratic and illegal body," it was agreed. According to YDA, the formation of the PMC is also "against international law".

Punjab govt to establish Insaaf academies for students LAHORE: Punjab Education Minister Murad Raas on Saturday announced the provincial government’s plan to establish Insaaf academies across the province. Raas announced that recorded lecturers will be delivered to students who get registered in the academies, adding that students could self-assess their skills through online tests to be made available on its website. The education minister said that the government is working to promote the English language in schools and 1,000 master trainers have been prepared for achieving the targets. Earlier in February, the Punjab government had announced plans to establish 100 Insaaf schools in Lahore this year. As per details, the Punjab Education Authority (PEA) had decided to establish 100 such schools in Lahore before the start of a new educational session. A notification has been issued in this regard. According to a notification, 100 schools would be set up in rented buildings for which the education authority has approved Rs200m. TLTP

It stressed that licensing bodies around the world comprise stakeholders that are elected. The doctors' association said that with implementation of the new law, "what would have been a bright future for millions of students across Pakistan has been darkened". An organised movement against the law was announced in all the provinces of Pakistan, including the pursuance of legal action. It also announced the formation of student committees at the medical college level. Doctors from across Pakistan will march to Islamabad on October 14, said YDA, adding that after this, a "full-fledged movement" will be launched in all the major cities of the country. Pakistan Islamic Medical Association, Pakistan Medical Association, representatives bodies of health professionals and other associations of medical professionals have already declared the bill passed by the parliament a violation of the Constitution.

Sunday, 11 October, 2020

Pakistan's it exPorts surge 24Pc desPite covid-19: minister KARACHI

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APP

NFORMATION Technology and Telecommunications Minister Syed Aminul Haq has said that despite the coronavirus outbreak, the IT exports of Pakistan increased by 24pc in the financial year 2019-20, as compared to the financial year 2018-19.

He was speaking as the chief guest at the Intellectual Property Excellence Awards co-hosted by the Intellectual Property Association of Pakistan and Brands Foundation at a local hotel on Saturday.

He said that a 36pc increase in IT exports was recorded in August 2020 as compared to August 2019. IT exports of Pakistan increased from $178 million in August 2019 to the $242 million in August 2020.

The IT minister on the occasion also distributed awards and certificates under different categories.

Syed Aminul Haq has said that if intellectual property is protected then the country will develop. There is a lack of awareness among the people regarding intellectual property, he added.

The minister also called for the need to create awareness about intel-

lectual property among the students of educational institutions.

“If the Intellectual Property Association of Pakistan has any suggestions, we will convey them to the prime minister.”

He said that PM Imran Khan wants to simplify the doing of business and the government would extend full cooperation in this regard.

He said that Digital Pakistan is the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan and “we are working under this vision”.

The minister said that the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry is a very big and important

organization and as the federal minister he wants to cooperate with KCCI. “We want to sign a memorandum of understanding with the KCCI for cooperation in IT and Telecommunication,” he added.

Addressing the function, Intellectual Property Association of Pakistan Chairman Farhan Hanif said that just as lands are grabbed, so is the creation of the people.

He said that the protection of the intellectual property is a must for the promotion of business in the country.

Brands Foundation Chief Executive Sheikh Rashid Alam also spoke on the occasion.

Govt issues foreign currency account rules to curb money laundering ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

In a bid to stop money laundering, the federal government has issued rules pertaining to foreign currency accounts.

The rules, according to a document issued by the finance ministry, have been based on the Protection of Economic Reforms act, 1992. Under the rules, a foreign currency account of an individual may be credited with the remittances received from abroad through banking channel except payment for goods exported from Pakistan.

Other than this, payment for services rendered in or

from Pakistan, proceeds of securities issued or sold to non-residents, and any foreign exchange borrowed from abroad under any general or special permission of the State Bank will also not be allowed.

The new rules do allow for people in foreign countries to send money home to Pakistan in different ways, for example, a foreign currency account may be credited through transfer from another individual foreign currency account.

Under the rules, proceeds realised on account of profit, return, and principal amount of investment made in any foreign currency denominated or foreign currency linked scheme of Government of Pakistan may be credited into the account.

Furthermore, the State Bank may issue any general or special permission for credit to the account, documents state. A foreign currency account shall not be credited with any foreign exchange purchased from an authorized dealer, exchange company or money changer except as allowed by the State Bank through general or special permission under any law.

However, foreign currency brought in from abroad and duly declared at the point of entry into Pakistan with Pakistan Customs may be credited in the account and lastly the rules state that there shall be no restriction on cash withdrawals or transfers from the foreign currency account.

British Airways allowed to operate Lahore-London flights KARACHI TLTP

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Saturday allowed the British Airways to operate direct flights from Lahore to London.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has granted permission to British Airways to land at Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore, according to a notification.

“The approval is stipulated with the condition to review the schedule/slot upon resumption of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) operation to the UK,” the notification said.

The aviation authority’s air transportation department has issued a certificate to the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom (UK).

According to a schedule, the airline will operate direct flights

from Lahore, Pakistan to London Heathrow four days a week. The direct flights from Lahore will start from October 14, 2020. All flights will be operated by a Boeing 787-8 departing from Heathrow Terminal 5, landing into Lahore’s International Airport, according to British

Airways airline.

It is pertinent to mention here that British Airways resumed flight operations to Pakistan in June 2019.

Flight operations that were suspended again due to the coronavirus pandemic resumed in August. The airline already flies from Islamabad.

NEWS

05

govt to use all resources to bring down food prices: Pm CONtINueD ON pAGe 01 Addressing a seminar of All Pakistan Insaf Lawyers Forum here, the prime minister said giving a call for public gatherings against the government is aimed to cover up corruption. He said the opposition parties made every tactic to get the country blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force as they pressured the government to carry out 34 amendments in the National Accountability Bureau law. He said, “We are proud of our armed forces that have rendered unparalleled sacrifices against war on terror and registered remarkable success against the tide of terrorism.” He said those who are speaking against the Pakistan Army are actually pursuing the agenda of India. He said the cabinet had given a nod for allowing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief to get medical treatment abroad in view of number of diseases as claimed. However, by denying his return to the country, Nawaz Sharif is proving that he belongs to a “special class that could not be questioned”. The PM said the country witnessed success in areas particularly overcoming the challenge of Covid-19 and unprecedented rise of sale of cement in last month showing growing economic activity. He said the government will not be blackmailed by the opposition's tactics and no corrupt element will be given NRO. He said those who want to protect their corruption will not be allowed to do so. The premier said rule of law is the basis of a civilized society and the State of Madina was also established on the basis of rule of law. He said, “Our country can rapidly progress by adhering to the Quaid's vision that is also rule of law.”

Business community seeks handing over of refund system from FBr to sBP ISLAMABAD STAFF RRPEORT

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) seems to be more interested in collecting refunds than taxes which is damaging the fragile economy, said Convener FPCCI Central Standing Committee on Insurance said Dr Murtaza Mughal on Saturday. The refund system should be automated and its responsibility should rest with the central bank to reduce complaints and corruption and improve the economic situation, said the senior official of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI). Mughal said that the government is trying hard to inject new blood in the economy and restore the confidence of the business community but the tax mechanism is working against it. Unrealistic tax targets have compelled the FBR to strangulate the business activities through highhandedness to show performance, he added. Dr Murtaza Mughal, who is also President of the Pakistan Economy Watch, said that FBR continues to issue SROs which violate the government’s intention to spur growth. He said that recently SRO 889 has been issued for surveillance of factories which is being opposed by the industrialists as it will trigger harassment, corruption and litigation.

Similarly, through two SROs, banks have been directed to report anyone withdrawing one million rupees or more and depositing ten million rupees or more while real estate agents have been directed to report all the sales and purchases to FBR. These SROs will damage the realty sector, discourage investment and may reverse the gains made through the construction package, amnesty scheme and other incentives offered by the government to spur growth.

He said that all over the world the real estate market is kept insulated from fear, raids and unnecessary audits but here it’s different, which is one of the reasons Pakistanis ignore the local market and invest in the realty sector of other countries.

China still adrift of Asia's leading nations, says CFA president HONG KONG AGENCIES

Chinese FA (CFA) president Chen Xuyuan has said the country’s soccer team remains well behind the game’s leading nations, but is confident head coach Li Tie is instilling the necessary traits in his squad to close the gap on Asia’s best.

Chen, who took the helm of the CFA last year, told state broadcaster CCTV on Saturday during China’s current training camp that they have yet to pull themselves into the upper echelon of the regional game despite significant investment.

“Realistically, this China national team for the training camp is far away from the world-class teams in quality,” he said. “At Asian level, we are a second

or third-tier team.”

China have struggled to match the leading sides in Asia for a generation, with the country not qualifying for the World Cup since making their debut appearance in 2002 and last advancing to the Asian Cup final two years later, which they lost.

Huge sums have been spent to improve the team’s fortunes, with the CFA hiring World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi, only for the Italian to quit last November after a 2-1 loss to Syria in the second round of Asia qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. That defeat left China second in their group, eight points behind Syria albeit with a game in hand and, with only top spot guaranteeing a place in the final qualifying phase, the chance of them missing out on yet another World Cup re-

CMYK

mains strong.

However, the Chinese could secure one of the four best runners-up spots which also offer a place in the next round.

Ex-Everton midfielder Li, 43, was made head coach this year after impressing in the Chinese Super League at Wuhan Zall and has continued to implement a policy that has seen a growing number of overseas-born players gain Chinese citizenship.

Four of the squad called up for the current camp were born outside China, with Guangzhou Evergrande central defender Tyias Browning – now known as Jiang Guangtai – the latest to be drafted into the squad.

China’s bid to keep their World Cup prospects alive is expected to resume in March when they face the Maldives in a campaign that has suffered delays due to

the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite the situation, Chen believes the team is moving forward and still hopes to reach the finals in Qatar.

“The national team has made progress in three perspectives,” he said.

“The first one is the mentality. You try 100% and make mistakes. That’s acceptable. It’s unforgivable if you don’t make enough effort.

“Second, under the tutelage of Li Tie, our training is more purposeful.

Players have developed the right habits.

“Third, the players have learnt how to play football, like their positioning and their roles.”

Chen is hoping Li’s tactical work will bear fruit in the forthcoming fixtures that will decide whether China are good enough to feature on the world stage once again.

Sunday, 11 October, 2020

06 COMMENT

A dangerous game

“I’m democracy” And other Impolitic remarks

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aRif Nizami

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S the PDm (Pakistan Democratic movement) is about to kickstart its anti-government rallies in little more than a week, battle lines are being drawn between the opposition and the ruling party. The opposition-led alliance has chosen Gujranwala, the bastion of PmL-N’s support base, as the venue for its first gathering on October 16th.

Prime minister imran Khan is making full use of his government’s relations with the security establishment to bait the opposition. With the government and the opposition at each other’s throats, Pm Khan in his latest fulmination has alleged that the opposition’s real issue with the army was that unlike other institutions they were unable to ‘control’ the iSi (inter-Services intelligence) after it ‘found out about their corruption’. it seems that the PTi chief and his cohorts are deliberately raising the ante by dragging the military into the fray. Although the army has attempted to distance itself from politics through the iSPr (inter-Services Public relations), it seems both the opposition and the government cannot help but mention the armed forces during their daily verbal spats.

This is an unfortunate state of affairs where a sitting government is posing as the sole protector of intelligence agencies simply to play politics. This cat and mouse game can cost the country dearly. Although the alleged interference of the iSi in the past

New world global terrorism India and Central Asia at the forefront

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errOriSTS from the Fergana Valley, that consists of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, and india are now the new face of global terrorism, according to an op-ed in renowned American news publication Foreign Policy. it contends that while much of the conversation over extremism has shifted towards white nationalism and racism-driven islamophobia and anti-Semitism in the West, there has been some realignment in the formation of the once prominent islamic State that is reemerging with an updated composition.

The article draws focus towards the fact that though india’s heritage of jihadism is quite old, it being the birthplace of the Deobandi movement, the country has historically not had a prominent presence in major terrorist hotspots, but that has changed of late and Syria made it possible. While many indians flocked to join iS in Syria, they were mistreated by the Arabs due to their race, eventually forcing them to land in Afghanistan, fighting alongside the iSKP. The recent attack on Jalalabad prison, carried out by a death squad of the islamic State of iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province (iSKP) where 29 people were killed, included indians and Tajiks among others. A number of Keralans and other indians have been mentioned as martyrs in the islamic State’s regular publication Al Naba, which shows that not only have they been accepted into the group but are treated as equals.

All this is in the backdrop of a divided india where Prime minister Narendra modi is actively pursuing an ultra-nationalistic Hindutva agenda, persecuting muslims, who happen to be the third-largest community of muslims in the world. Perhaps the worst example of this is the condition of indian Occupied Kashmir that has been under a state-imposed security lockdown and communications blackout since the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir via scrapping of Article 370 of the indian Constitution in August of last year. Within india, anti-muslim legislation has been passed in the shape of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, while deadly rhetoric from BJP ministers has encouraged lynch mobs to target muslims in the country. india can no longer claim any of its secular credentials nor can it nonchalantly accuse others of ‘exporting terrorism’. The country is fast becoming a breeding ground for radical jihadists and it has only itself to blame.

The role models of a free society Some alternative role models

Rabia ahmed

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OWArD Zinn, the historian, socialist and great thinker died ten years ago. He described himself as ‘a bit of an anarchist, something of a socialist, and perhaps a democratic socialist.’ Themes in his writings were mainly the Civil rights movement, the anti-war movement and the labour history of the USA. Among Howard Zinn’s most read books is A People’s History of the United States which in that country is something of an icon. it has sold more than 2,000,000 copies.

Zinn stressed that teachers must be honest with children, regardless of the child’s age, and he was honest. His viewpoint was not common in his lifetime. even today when society likes to think of itself as more politically correct, possessing a greater social conscience, the view presented to the people in most countries is geared to make them proud of what they did, historically, whereas in reality that may not always be right.

Zinn looked at the American Constitution from the standpoint of the slaves, and whether historically it protected their rights. it did not.

Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the USA, from 1829. Textbooks speak of him as “a man of the people” but Zinn saw him from the viewpoint of the Cherokees, who were the people native to Georgia, and spoke of him as a ‘a land speculator, a

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

Umar Aziz

Asher John

Joint Editor

Executive Editor

Deputy Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965

Group scandal. it is common knowledge that Arif Naqvi, the founder and CeO of the disgraced private in matters political is not a new phenomenon, but equity firm is a close friend of imran Khan, who has when the combined might of the opposition, girding also allegedly bankrolled the latter’s 2018 election its loins, is about to launch a movement, dragging the campaign.

While a no-holds barred confrontation between iSi into the political discourse is, to say the least, the government and the opposition is in full swing, counterproductive and hence dangerous.

These kind of shenanigans in the country’s che- the state of the economy, contrary to official claims, quered history are nothing new. The way the iSi dis- still remains in dire straits. The World Bank, in its retributed large sums of money through mehran Bank port on South Asia has projected that Pakistan’s economy will grow by a mere 0.5% to the anti-PPP alliance iJi to in the current fiscal year as oppolitically engineer the 1990 posed to the optimistic official general elections, is part of our target of 2.5%. even this target sordid history. ironically, mian could be unachievable, the reNawaz Sharif was a major benWhile a no-holds barred port warns, if the Covid-19 eficiary of money being doled pandemic again flares up in the out using shady characters such confrontation between the country. as Younis Habib, the head of in this backdrop, instead of government and the the Bank at the time. interestingly, before opposition is in full swing, the bringing the opposition onboard through some consensus Sharif became Prime minister for a third time, when he state of the economy, contrary building, both inside and outside of parliament, the governhosted a number of prominent to official claims, still remains ment and the opposition are on journalists, including myself, he admitted that he also re- in dire straits. The World Bank, a collision course. As matters stand, there will be no winners ceived a significant sum of in its report on South Asia in the end game. The opposimoney from the controversial iJi election fund. When i has projected that Pakistan’s tion with its back to the wall, perhaps feels that it has no pressed how much money he had received, the reply was economy will grow by a mere other option but to oust the government through street agithat it was only a small 0.5% in the current fiscal year tation. if the democratic project amount. At this point Ahsan fails yet again, it will be big setiqbal interjected that he would as opposed to the optimistic back for Pakistan. answer this question. Sharif Unfortunately, there is little official target of 2.5% finally relented and said that it light at the end of the tunnel. was only rs 2.5 million. The Pm Khan is fixated upon his real sum which the former single-minded agenda to hound Prime minister received rethe opposition is his reckless mains under dispute, with pursuit of a corruption-free Pakistan, through blatant some alleging that it was much more.

As if this was not enough, recent revelations by political victimisation. With all of the government’s former DG FiA Bashir memon regarding instructions attention going towards thwarting an overcharged opfrom Prime minister imran Khan to him are shock- position, normal functioning of the government is at ing. in an interview, Bashir alleges that he was or- a standstill. The elimination of corruption is a noble dered by the “highest office” to frame terrorism pursuit indeed, but there are other pressing matters charges against members of PmL-N Vice President that need to be looked at and addressed as well. maryam Nawaz’s social media cell after a picture of Arif Nizami is Editor, Pakistan Today. He can be the first lady was circulated on social media.

A more serious allegation is that Bashir was or- contacted at arifn51@hotmail.com http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk dered to drop an ongoing investigation into the Abraaj

Government and opposition at each other’s throats

rime minister imran Khan claims that he is not afraid of the iSi because the agency knows he is not involved in corruption while those in the opposition are. Does mr Khan mean that the iSi keeps tabs on politicians’ activities, particularly their financial transactions? The agency was created to foil enemy countries’ plots against Pakistan. One expects it to fully concentrate on the onerous role assigned to it. There are a number of civilian agencies that already keep an eye on the shenanigans of the politicians, the oldest being the intelligence Bureau followed by the FiA and NAB. mr Khan’s unpremeditated remarks will unnecessarily bring the role of the iSi into public focus Demands have been made in the past that Parliament legislate a charter for the iSi defining precisely its scope and limitations After mr Khan’s remarks there is a likelihood of the revival of these demands.

Few others than the diehard PTi crowd would agree with mr Khan that mr Nawaz Sharif was following the indian agenda. The former Pm has made it abundantly clear that he only criticizes the few in the establishment who interfere in national politics and manipulate the elections, but has utmost respect for the rest, who act in accordance with their role defined in the Constitution. mr Khan seems to have forgotten that he has himself criticised the establishment’s role in politics and that too in interviews given to indian channels. mr Khan’s “i’m democracy” claim would sound hollow to many. During the last two years he has given Parliament little importance, preferring instead to appear on the electronic media or express his view through tweets.

The PTi government has frequently bypassed Parliament by promulgating ordinances. The NAB continues to spare the ruling alliance while targeting the opposition figures, which does not happen in democracies. Under the PTi, the media has come increasingly under pressure. The signals of TV channels giving airtime to opposition representatives have been jammed. Journalists who dared to broach subjects deemed off limits by some have been subjected to harassment campaigns. in the World Press Freedom index 2020, Pakistan has slid down another three places to reach 145th position out of 180 countries. The indicators expose PTi’s claims of being a genuinely democratic party.

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merchant, slave trader, and the most aggressive enemy of the indians in early American history.’ in his book he presented Jackson as a man who exploited native land mercilessly and was responsible for a great deal of death and destruction.

Predictably, Donald Trump calls A People’s History of the United States a ‘propaganda tract,’ and ‘a book that tries to make students ashamed of their history.’ Well if the facts are shameful, then so be it.

Being aware of a mistake is the only positive side of making one, because knowing what went wrong can prevent it from happening again, and US society has proved itself to be far from free and democratic. But this is speaking not of just US history, but of the history of any country. Do we in Pakistan know anything about what happened in 1971, if this generation has even heard that something happened then? Should we be proud of what took place then? Are we allowed to talk about it?

Zinn understood a young person’s need for icons and role models, and encouraged them to study their heroes, those currently held up as icons and role models. He wanted them to think outside the box and work out whether or not those icons deserve to be on a pedestal. Unless we do this, our world, everyone’s world will never change. it will go on as it is, at the mercy of war and those who make coin from it. There will always be hunger, disease, racism, sexism dominating our lives. instead of Christopher Columbus and other imperialists, Zinn suggested other role models: mark Twain who worked against the Spanish American war, Helen Keller whose achievements were not just for those deprived of vision; she was a pacifist, a staunch supporter of women’s suffrage, labour rights and socialism. Zinn suggested muhammad Ali, the boxer whose greatest fights were outside the ring he was king of: his support of black rights, his insistence on personal identity, and his refusal to fight in the Vietnam War. Zinn’s view is that a past to be proud is defined by dissidents, and by exponents of peace whose goal is the uplift of the masses, not by those who wage war. if that is so, who should our heroes be? The men in brass or people like Abdus Salam, the great Pakistan physicist and Nobel prize winner, hounded out of the country for his religion. Faiz Ahmad Faiz, the poet who wrote with magic words, a man who spent time in prison for his leftist views. Asma Jehangir, who founded Pakistan’s first legal aid centre, a human rights activist and lawyer who worked on behalf of the poor and most defenseless. Her life was

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threatened, she was assaulted and also placed under house arrest for her protests when General musharraf proclaimed a State of emergency. There was Abdus Sattar edhi whose services to the poor and needy can never be praised enough. He was opposed throughout his life by conservative religious groups for his work for all who needed help, regardless of their faith.

There was Akhtar Hameed Khan, whose model of community participation in development has been studied around the world. He set up the Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi, and earlier a similar project in Comilla in what is now Bangladesh. He was severely criticised here for his liberal views and was even charged with blasphemy. Parveen rahman, his pupil and colleague, was similarly criticised and eventually shot dead. malala Yousafzai, an excellent role model for young people. She defied the Taliban when they imposed a ban on women’s education in Swat, and was shot because of it. She survived and went on to win a Nobel Prize and continues to work for women and children’s right to education.

And Ghamidi, the scholar of religion and the man who right wing scholars such as mufti muneeb ur rehman love to hate for his rational understanding of islam. Ghamidi has moved from Pakistan saying he would like to return when things change.

Last, but definitely not least, is muhammad the man (peace be upon him) who belongs to all of us and can rightfully be claimed by the people of all and any country as their hero and role model. in discussing and understanding whom we are unfortunately as hampered as we are in our understanding of all of the above.

What all these figures share strikingly in common is a brush with violence, in the case of some such as Parveen rahman and malala, much more than a brush. They also share the fact that their work has led to the uplift of society, contributed to its knowledge, well-being and happiness. Their sufferings tell us a great deal about our flawed understanding of heroism and idols, greatly because of the curbs placed on our study of their contributions and personalities. it is suffocating to live in an unventilated society. minds function better in an open atmosphere, not to mention the fact that fewer people suffer. Pakistan has made many mistakes, but it also has a lot to be proud of, something that its people will discover if they are permitted to study and understand both.

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

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Sunday, 11 October, 2020

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

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

Local government THe local government system serves the nursery of democracy and is considered the basic form and breeding ground of democracy. The tool that helps sort out basic problems pertaining to health education and infrastructure. Local government in gilgit Baltistan has been dysfunctional since 2007. Unpaid to this the basic problems faced by residents of far flung villages at the district level. in the past local government elections traditionally used to be held on the very next day of the election day of the GB council, unpaid the audience of the election procedure more lively and fascinating my request to the federal and provincial government and election commission conduct the local government elections at the same time as the elections to GB legislative assembly.

SAkiNA Rizvi kARACHi

Climate change

A three-layered badge of shame A coalition of criminals coming together in a last-ditch battle for survival

Candid Corner Raoof hasaN “Commit a crime and the world is made of glass. Commit a crime and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals, in the woods, the track of every partridge and fox and squirrel and mole.”

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

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UriNG his speech before the multiParty Conference, and after heaping a pile of invective upon the military, Nawaz Sharif said that “our fight is not with imran Khan. it is with those who brought him”. A few days later, Ahsan iqbal said that “those who think we have a fight with the military are wrong”. With this level of confusion, one is at a loss to make out whose opinion will prevail, or whether they have already gutted their leader’s narrative? much is being made otherwise of the purported movement to be launched by a self-serving conglomerate of political parties, dubbed as the Pakistan Democratic movement (PDm). The coalition is being led by one who was defeated in both the constituencies from where he contested the last elections, and whose party has few stakes in the incumbent assemblies. Contrary to the name it carries, the purpose of the movement could be anything but serving the cause of democracy. A cursory glance at the past histories of its component parties would provide substance for my point.

The PPP’s espousal of democratic norms does not exist beyond its thin cosmetic layer.

The party was the brainchild of Z. A. Bhutto who built his political career as a worker of two military dictators, whose role during the 1971 crisis was highly dubious, who remains the only civilian martial law administrator of the country to date, and who ruled as an autocrat demolishing all opposition through acts of state terror.

The party has since been taken over by a wicked manipulator who, as President, unleashed a merciless spree of loot and plunder, and weakened the federation. He is faced with multiple cases of corruption in various courts of law.

The architect of the PmL(N) literally opened his eyes in the lap of a dictator. in furthering his political career, he stabbed everyone who was perceived as a threat and used the power of sacks of the green stuff to turn people into despicable lackeys. His history in government is replete with a passionate and frenetic espousal of corruption and confrontations. Along the way, he virtually dismantled the state institutions, reduc-

order 84 mNAs to resign from the National Asing them to extensions of his personal fiefdom.

He wears a three-layered badge of shame: sembly. We’ll then see how elections to the Senhe has been declared a liar, thus ineligible for ate are held”. So the real objective is not to fight holding any public office for life by the Surpeme for democracy, but usurp the democratic right of Court, a fugitive by the islamabad High Court PTi to gain a majority in the Senate to carry out (iHC) and a convict by the Accountability Court. its welfare agenda for the people of Pakistan. imran Khan will not feed this new-found Proceedings to declare him a proclaimed offender (PO) are currently underway at the iHC. bonhomie group any reprieve because he is not His daughter, maryam Safdar, who happens carrying forth a legacy of corruption. He was to be his deputy also in the true Sharifian dem- elected by the people to break the criminal logocratic tradition, has also been declared a con- jam that his predecessors had systematically built around the jugular of the country, constrictvict, a liar and a forger by the court.

The history of JUi(F), led by Fazlur ing its breathing. The state had been reduced to rehman, revolves around the decrepit use of the a mere skeleton surviving on the miserly dolecaptive students of its seminaries as ammuni- outs thrown its way by the mafias which suction to advance political interests. Historically, ceeded each other into the echelons of power. the mother-party opposed the creation of Pak- But as the world watches, dispossessing these istan, but its followers conveniently jumped in mafias of their lucrative captive, the state of Pakto lay a claim to ruling the newly-independent istan itself, was never going to be an easy task. it is the very same mafias which have country. He has been part of all sickly dispensations tailored by dictators or otherwise, the banded together again in one last bid to challenge the Prime minislatest ones being the ter. But what they don’t government put torealise is that they are gether by General pitted against a person musharraf and the subsequent oligarchies of Pakistan shall rise, beating all who is a consummate fighter. He does not Zardari and Sharifs. He is an incessant and odds, subduing all challenges. have any skeletons in closet and he has no malevolent provocateur These mafias will run out of his corruption cases awaitof sectarian divide and ing him. He has not hatred. His sole angst is their wicked tricks, but Imran looted and plundered rooted in his being left out of Parliament and Khan will stand like a rock for this country. instead of benefiting from the state power for the first time the cause of Pakistan. The largesse, he brought it during his political caglory and honour even reer and would readily broad coalition of criminals is before he had entered go for even the most demeaning compromise if a desperate effort to escape politics, be it in the domain of cricket, the canoffered. the process of accountability cer hospital, the Namal The entire fuss that University, and so much is being created around by forcing a deal. But there is else.

These are living this so-called movetestaments of his love ment is contrived by the no deal that I see on the and commitment to Pakinstitution which calls horizon. All I see are the istan and its people. itself the fourth pillar of None of this can ever be the state. This charade vanquished forces of evil erased. But he also has has been enacted resomething else which peatedly by people sitsprawled across the expanse they can’t ever dream ting as anchors and analysts on the televi- of the country that they mauled of: an unshakable faith to put this country on sion screens and the so remorselessly track, backed by a steely ones who litter the print character and an inpages with their opindomitable resolve to ions sold a dime-acharter it to the finishing dozen. Their doomsday line. scenarios should have Take it from me: Pakistan shall rise, beating brought an end of the incumbent government long ago. But not only has that not happened, it all odds, subduing all challenges. These mafias has continued to grow in strength with con- will run out of their wicked tricks, but imran stantly improving indicators, nationally and in- Khan will stand like a rock for the cause of Pakistan. The broad coalition of criminals is a desternationally. its successful fight against covid-19 has perate effort to escape the process of been applauded by the WHO and the world, but accountability by forcing a deal. But there is no criticised at home. its social initiatives have won deal that i see on the horizon. All i see are the plaudits all over, but been castigated domesti- vanquished forces of evil sprawled across the cally. The slightest mishap is reported repeatedly expanse of the country that they mauled so rein bold headlines, but even the ground-breaking morselessly.

They deserve no respite. They shall have achievements seldom find a mention– all because the government would not agree to extend nothing to celebrate. Their end is well-nigh near. political bribes to the owners and operators of The writer is a political and security stratethe media industry in the country. This is why they promote crime and criminals to earn their gist, and heads the regional Peace institute – an islamabad-based think tank. email: pound of flesh.

Twitter: it is Khawaja Asif who dragged the cat out raoofhasan@hotmail.com. of the bag. He boasted that “Nawaz Sharif will @raoofHasan

CLimATe change seems to be the mother of all problems of the 21st century. it is a grave concern for people's lives as well as country's future.

Climate change is one of the major impacts in the world and it is getting worse day by day. There are many issues which will affect future generations. Climate change has caused some major problems.

The planet has been warmed by 1.4 degrees. The climate change is effecting the polar region too much. it has caused by increasing the carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. But Pakistan is most vulnerable to climate change and it had very low technical and financial capacity to adopt to its adverse impacts. The weather conditions can affect the country and the earth is getting hot year by year. On the other hand, global warming is caused the excessive emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. But unfortunately, Pakistan is the seventh affected country in the world. At last, it is responsibility of every Pakistani to work hard to save Pakistan's generation from climate change because of numerous activities of humans have caused a lot of problems for the country's future.

MAHTAJ SHoukAT TuRbAT

Saving biodiversity iT is a fact that with passage of time population is going in a high level and this population is affecting the huge number of animals body yet the biodiversity is increasing in this modern world. Simply biodiversity is the variety of life on earth. That can be called ( plants, animals, fungi and micro- organisms). The humans activities are affecting the biodiversity and the life of them are being finish among them some were estimate species or same are endangered species. in the past 5 million people were living on earth. in present 700 million population is available on earth. The population is affecting the biodiversity. example, cutting trees in forest to put animals in danger.

They are being less due to the human actions.

Government is requested to focus on those biodiversity who are endangered species and to put them in a park or something else where the life should be save.

FoziA RASHid kECH

Polio POLiO virus is alarmingly increasing in our country Pakistan in marked rate. Pakistan was the victim of polio virus and still it is . many youths passed away in Pakistan due to polio virus. And hundreds of cases were there in Pakistan. However, there have been 147 documented cases of polio virus in Pakistan in 2019. And it is estimated that 74 doucmented cases of polio virus in 2020. Pakistan is not stepping forward to polio virus and not constructing with the victim people. So, government should take a dire action about this menace in the country.

She should eradicate polio virus in Pakistan and treat the patients in a brilliant way. iMTAiz JAvid AWARAN

Land management LAND management plays a drastic role for the comfortability of country's population. Land management is the fundamental requirement of every country. But unfortunately, in Pakistan land is not managed in a nice method. However, land is a scare resource in Pakistan where 80 percent of the land is arid or semi arid . The majority of the rapidly growing population depends on dry lands to support their livelihood through agro pastoral activities. Besides this , unsustainable land management practices and increased demand for natural resources are the main causes of land degradation and desertification. Cm and other authorities of Pakistan should manage the land and place Pakistan's population and should solve all kinds of reasons of dismanagement of lands. if these problems will not be solve then further population of Pakistan can suffer a lot.

YASMEEN RAHMAT AWARAN

Covid-19 liability DeADLY virus has destroyed the complete world. A virus which we heard before but don't know that it has many effects. many countries had suffered and still suffering from the deadly virus covid 19.The virus brought many changes in lifestyle such as wearing mask, no picinic at all, no shaking hand with others plus much more. Also the prices of SOPs had increases and food price is at the sky. How can a poor person afford one time food with high prices? During covid 19 many had suffered such as unemployed. it is requested to the government of Pakistan that complete world is suffering from this deadly virus and try to decrease the prices of food that a poor person should not be hungry.

SHAYzANTH JuMMAH AbSoR

Sunday, 11 October, 2020

08 WORLD VIEW

It Is not Islam that Is In crIsIs. It Is macron and hIs government IN A DESPERATE BID FOR VOTES, THE FRENCH PRESIDENT IS TURNING TO THE OLDEST TRICK IN THE RIGHT-WING BOOK: ISLAMOPHOBIA

middle easT eye

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MAliA BOuATTiA

RENCH President Emmanuel Macron, following a disastrous first three years in office, is preparing for re-election by mobilising the oldest trick in the right-wing book: going after Muslims.

Macron spent much of his hour-long speech on Friday addressing the measures that will be introduced to protect France from so-called separatism, painting a vivid picture of the Muslim threat and how he will take control of Islam in his country - a religion he says “is in crisis all over the world today”.

Even if we were to entertain this utterly baseless statement, Macron’s confidence in being able to "solve" the issues that plague a religion shared by more than 1.5 billion people worldwide is, in itself, quite breathtaking.

PUBLIC SECTOR STRIKES Perhaps he’s tapping into the persona he presented during his first presidential election campaign in 2017, the Macron who oozed confidence and showed the people that he had things firmly under control.

The issue is, he didn’t actually have things under control. The public sector strikes in the spring of 2018 were followed

by the gilets jaunes movement that erupted in November of that year, which was in turn followed by a mass railway strike the next year. This vividly demonstrated that speeches in slick suits were not enough to appease people suffering from a long-term social crisis, repeatedly made worse by Macron’s government and its assaults on working people.

Since early into his term, the president has faced popular fury in the streets and workplaces against labour reforms, rising fuel prices, and wider issues such as unemployment, lack of affordable housing, police violence and more.

The coronavirus pandemic was seen as a partial relief for Macron. It meant introducing exceptional laws, repression and a total lockdown in the streets, allowing him to project a sense of “control” as people feared for their lives and those of others. But this period also reinforced the many failures of Macron’s government. From divestment of state funds from welfare and social services, to a crisis of unemployment and poverty, the problems didn’t end under the lockdown; rather, they intensified, as did the anger.

DEMANDING ACCOUNTABILITY The French state was also under the microscope as Black Lives Matter demonstrations swept across the western world. France was being held accountable on the world stage over the deaths of numerous Black and Arab youth at the hands of police, chief among them Adama Traore, a young Black

man from the poor Parisian suburbs who was killed in police custody. His case highlighted, once more, the systemic racism so notorious within the French state, and so deeply rooted in its colonial past.

Thousands of people took to the streets of the capital and other major cities, demanding an end to the violence and accountability for the officers involved in these murders. The mobilisations delivered another blow to Macron’s carefully cultivated image of change. Every statement he made about recognising the negative colonial history of France sounded hollow as the grandchildren of the colonised fought back against racism and state violence.

With such a period of social upheaval, dissatisfaction and distrust towards the state, it beggars belief that the response by Macron has been to double down on more of the same, attacking some of the poorest and most oppressed in the country. This wastes state resources while failing to address a growing economic and social crisis, increasing rates of Covid-19 infections, and overstretched public health services.

Instead, Macron has effectively declared that the curtailing of civil liberties will be the priority of the Elysee. His plans sound more and more like the UK’s approach to socalled counter-extremism. Stricter monitoring of mosques, ending the import of imams from abroad and scrutinising their financing, Macron is replicating what has become the new normal in all nations that have signed

up to the “war on terror”.

Even sports organisations and other associations are expected to be under surveillance for their role in being a front for Islamism. Sound familiar? First they came for the Muslims.

DEEPLY ROOTED RACISM The strategy of “training and promoting in France a generation of imams and intellectuals who defend an Islam fully compatible with the values of the republic” is not a new one.

France adopted these methods during its colonisation of Algeria, not just within the sphere of religion, but also among communities where it would select and “educate” a small minority of Algerians who would be known as les evolues (the evolved ones).

They were expected to adopt and love the values of the French republic, then go out to convince the rest of the Algerian people against seeking liberation.

The racism of the republic still runs deep, despite Macron’s past attempts to engage in discussions on the horrors of French colonialism. The civilising mission continues. Muslims must be educated, even on how to practice their own religion. Otherwise, they revert to old, barbaric tendencies, and worse, rebel against the French state.

Even Macron’s use of “Islam” in reference to the so-called crisis, as opposed to Muslims, is a way of portraying the problem as ideological, fundamental and connected to the religion as a whole.

It also serves to distance himself from the 5.7 million French Muslims who will be impacted by his policies. He has no interest in addressing their struggles, their disproportionate presence in socioeconomically marginalised neighbourhoods, their discrimination within education or employment, or their brutalisation at the hands of

Power struggles entangle the Vatican

Financial Times TONY BARBER

Sometimes for excellent reasons, presidents and prime ministers in democracies are prone to suspect plots aimed at removing them or forcing fundamental policy changes. The reign of Pope Francis, now in its eighth year, testifies to the fact that ruthless power struggles go on at the Vatican, too.

The infighting revolves around alleged financial crimes, sexual abuse scandals, doctrinal disputes and Pope Francis’s efforts to reform the Vatican’s administrative apparatus. All are being weaponised in a contest for control of the Roman Catholic Church that has persisted since the death in 2005 of John Paul II, the secondlongest-serving pope in the Church’s more than 2,000-year history.

What distinguishes these events from turbulent episodes in earlier eras, such as the Italian Renaissance, is that they are tangled up with political battles and culture wars being fought in the US and other western societies, not to mention Africa and Asia. Rightwing secular politicians are aligned with ultra-conservative clerics in wanting to see the back of the Pope and his reforms. Liberal politicians and progressives among the world’s Roman Catholics, estimated by the Vatican to number more than 1.3bn people, hope that he will succeed.

Matters came to the boil last month when the Argentine-born pope took the unusual step of forcing the resignation of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, an Italian prelate, on grounds of suspected embezzlement of Church funds. The cardinal, who denies wrongdoing, lost his job as head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Vatican agency that oversees canonisations.

Cardinal Becciu was a very powerful figure from 2011 to 2018 at the Curia, the Holy See’s central administrative organ. As number two at the Curia’s secretariat of state, he was at dag-

gers drawn with Cardinal George Pell, an Australian whom the Pope appointed in 2014 to bring transparency to the Vatican’s notoriously opaque finances.

Cardinal Pell was sentenced to prison in Melbourne last year for sexual molestation of two choirboys, but in April Australia’s highest court overturned his conviction. Now allegations have surfaced in the Italian media that Cardinal Becciu tried to influence his rival’s trial by bribing a witness for his testimony.

Both the Italian cardinal and the witness reject the allegations as false. The clashes show how controversies at the Holy See overlap. Cardinal Becciu was behind a multimillion-pound London property deal that is under investigation by Vatican magistrates. Until he lost his job last year, Cardinal Pell’s responsibility was to throw light on precisely such mysterious investments.

Rival Vatican factions and their allies in national Catholic hierarchies are seizing on these and other scandals to discredit their opponents in matters of religious doctrine. During his

vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and has endorsed various dark conspiracy theories dear to the radical right.

It must be remembered that the Pope, though reform-minded, is not the Holy See’s equivalent of Mikhail Gorbachev. The former Soviet leader pushed liberal reforms so far that he reformed his country out of existence. It is inconceivable that Pope Francis would take such risks, either in reinterpreting doctrine or in reorganising the Curia.

In fact, many Catholic commentators contend that the cause closest to the Pope’s heart is what the Vatican thinks of as the “missionary conversion” of societies where organised religion is stagnant or in decline. As he put it last year, in an exchange of Christmas greetings with Curia officials, the Christian faith “especially in Europe, but also in large parts of the west, is no longer an obvious premise of our common life, but rather is often denied, derided, marginalised or ridiculed”.

Still, Pope Francis has tried — not hard

reign, Pope Francis has put much effort into wresting control of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican agency that enforces theological discipline, from the conservatives who held sway after 1981 under John Paul and Benedict XVI, his successor.

Pope Francis distanced himself from his two predecessors in 2016 by publishing an apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, which aired the possibility of allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments.

Conservatives reacted with fury to what would be a sharp break with Catholic tradition.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a former papal nuncio, or ambassador, to the US, called in 2018 for Francis’s resignation. In this US election year, the archbishop has emerged as a

enough, secular critics say — to tackle the problems of sexual abuse and financial misconduct. These have festered ever since John Paul’s 1978-2005 pontificate. One reason why they are so intractable is that the Polish-born pope is a revered figure in modern Catholic history — in 2014 he was elevated to sainthood.

Francis, the first non-European pontiff since the Syrian-born Gregory III almost 1,300 years ago, is 83 years old. Benedict, his predecessor, resigned as pope in 2013 shortly before his 86th birthday. The dismissal of Cardinal Becciu suggests Pope Francis remains determined to prevail in the Vatican’s power struggles. But the struggles have such deep roots that there is every reason to think they will continue long after the reign of Pope Francis has ended.

the state. His political agenda has amplified all of these issues; it is in his interests and those of his political base to continue this.

When the French president declares that he will “defend the republic and its values and ensure it respects its promises of equality and emancipation”, it is of course a dog whistle to the far-right, but also a way to reassure the elite around him whose interests he serves.

A QUESTION OF CIVIL LIBERTIES The question, as we know only too well in the UK, isn’t limited to Muslims. Once a population accepts that the civil liberties of one racialised group can be taken away, it undermines its ability to defend everyone’s.

Once Muslim teachers, organisations, representatives and clubs can be policed and spied on, it does not take long for others to follow.

The French people have demanded better from their government, applied pressure by striking and mobilising in the streets, and demonstrated exactly how they feel about its policies. Now, their government has clearly decided that this must stop, and it is looking to its neighbours across the channel for a solution.

Maybe Macron is yet again blinded by his hubris and taken in by his own imagebuilding efforts. He forgets that there were many evolues who betrayed the colony, and instead joined the Algerian struggle for decolonisation. His hope is that he will galvanise the French right to vote for him and split a notoriously Islamophobic left, just in time for the election.

Our hope is that in response to a presidential term that has been paved with dissent against the state and its institutions, the masses in France will rise up once again and reject this attempt to stifle political freedom under the guise of combating extremism.

It is not Islam that is in crisis. It is Macron, his government, and the system they are trying to defend. The 2022 election presents a real opportunity to consign them to the dustbin of history.

Malia Bouattia is an activist, the former president of the National Union of Students, co-founder of the Students not Suspects/Educators not Informants Network and presenter/panelist on British Muslim TV's Women Like Us.

After the end of history neW sTaTesman The reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990, as the historian Robert Saunders writes later in the issue, was greeted as proof of the supremacy of the Western model. “What we may be witnessing,” wrote Francis Fukuyama in The End of History and the Last Man, “[is] the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalisation of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.”

But liberal globalisation’s apparent triumph proved a false dawn. The 11 September 2001 attacks and the ensuing “war on terror” destroyed the illusion of global peace; the 2008 financial crisis destroyed that of perpetual growth.

Today, the world’s three most populous countries – China, India and the United States – are ruled by authoritarian nationalists. For Germany, as our international editor Jeremy Cliffe wrote on our website on 3 October, “the subsequent 30 years have been the best in German history; peaceful, prosperous, democratically stable and mature, and marked by a lurching but undeniable progress towards a modern and open society”. But in Europe, Brexit and the rise of “illiberal democracy” in Poland and Hungary have halted the project of “ever closer union”.

In the US, Donald Trump has defined himself against multilateralism and the international, rules-based order.

Should he be defeated by Democratic candidate Joe Biden in next month’s presidential election, he has repeatedly suggested that he may refuse to leave office. Far from seeking to promote democracy, Mr Trump envies and admires despots such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un.

Beyond the West, the assumption that economic liberalism would lead inevitably to political liberalism has proved a delusion. Xi Jinping, China’s most powerful leader since Chairman Mao, has positioned himself as ruler for life. In India, by championing Hindu supremacism, Narendra Modi is destroying a once proud secular democracy. In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right defender of military dictator-

ship, has eroded the Amazon at the fastest rate in more than a decade.

This Illiberal International is not the only force that has undermined the secular faith of progress. As our columnist Helen Thompson writes in this week’s issue, we are no longer “distinguished from our ancestors by a psychological ignorance of what happens when all else is overwhelmed by disease”.

In ten months, the Covid-19 pandemic has led officially to more than a million deaths and the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression. The complacent boast by liberal optimists that each successive year is “the greatest in human history” has been silenced. The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which include the eradication of poverty and improved access to education, are not expected to be met until 2092, ten years later than previously forecast.

Covid-19 is a symptom of what the Swedish academic Andreas Malm describes as a new era of “chronic emergency”. In advance of the pandemic, scientists had warned that infectious diseases were emerging at an unprecedented rate. The climate crisis is intensifying the threat, for example by forcing viral hosts such as bats from their natural habitats. A paper by the US National Academy of Sciences projects that the number of “emerging infectious disease events” in the world will rise by more than five per year.

In this new era, as John Gray wrote in the New Statesman in 2015, “the state is returning to its primary function, which is the provision of security”. Far from merely ensuring the efficient functioning of the market, governments will be forced to undertake ever greater responsibility for their citizens’ security and material wellbeing.

But global cooperation remains indispensable. Faced with Covid-19, states have retreated into self-defeating nationalism. Yet in an era of global emergencies, splendid isolation is an illusion. The security of each country depends upon the security of all. The age of liberal triumphalism has ended, but it should not be replaced by one of progressive defeatism.

Sunday, 11 October, 2020

BUSINESS 09

NA speaker vows to develop agri sector, protect farmers' rights SWABI STAFF REPORT

National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Saturday promised that at least half of Rs170 million allocated to Swabi district for poverty alleviation would be spent to make barren lands cultivable for farming so that better quality seeds could be provided to the farmers for enhanced productivity. He said that making barren land fit for farming would flourish the cultivation of olives, flowers, and other crops which will boost trade and help in earning of farmers. He also said that a special NA committee on agriculture will take all possible steps to protect the rights of farmers, and formulate a policy for welfare of farmers and improvement in crops and quality of seeds. “The government is also working to improve research in agriculture sector as it is the backbone of country’s economy,” he said, speaking at a seminar held at Fatima Fertilizr Limited on improvement of wheat seeds. “By making the barren lands fertile, provision of better quality seeds will not only bring positive change but also help alleviate poverty and creating job opportunities in the region.” He continued, “For the first time in the National Assembly, a voice has been raised to resolve the problems of farmers. All possible steps would be taken for development of Swabi district, poverty alleviation and welfare of farmers.” He said the government would utilize all available resources for welfare of farmers as they play a key role in the national economy. Later, Asad Qaiser also inaugurated an open air gymnasium at Yasir Shah Cricket Academy in Shah Mansoor Sports Stadium.

BANks to get timely suBsidy for provisioN of loANs to youth: pm ISLAMABAD

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STAFF REPORT

RIME Minister Imran Khan has reiterated his commitment to ensure timely provision of subsidy to banks to provide easy loans to youth. The PM said this in a meeting with presidents and heads of different banks regarding the provision of easy loans to youth under Kamyab Jawan Entrepreneurship Scheme on Saturday.

He said that the government will also ensure that problems faced by the banks are resolved on priority basis.

Appreciating full participation and interest of all banks in Kamyab Jawan scheme, he said after promotion of construction activities in the country, cooperation of banks in providing business opportunities to youth is praiseworthy.

The premier expressed satisfaction over the transparency and mechanism of the loan disbursement programme to youth and praised the participation of banks. He directed the economic team for ensuring the uninterrupted disbursement of loans.

He said the cooperation of banks is very important to groom the skills of the young generation. He ordered authorities to ensure timely provision of subsidy to banks for loan disbursement besides resolving all issues on a priority basis.

Imran Khan said that youth could play an important role in stabilising national economy and the government is prioritising their assistance in construction, industries and information technology sectors.

Speaking on the occasion, Special Assistant on Youth Affairs Muhammad Usman Dar said that the government has allocated Rs100 billion for three years to provide better business opportunities to youth of coun-

try. He said that 470,000 applications have been received so far and loans are being provided after verification.

The meeting was also informed that 21 banks are participating in the scheme. The banks will provide loans of fifteen billion rupees this year.

The meeting decided to set up a high-level steering committee under chairmanship of deputy governor of State Bank to ensure uninterrupted disbursement of loans and success of the scheme.

A progress report on Kamyab Jawan Entrepreneurship Scheme will regularly be submitted to the prime minister.

Kamyab Jawan programme was launched last year for the socio-economic development of the youth in the country. The session was attended by the PM's aide on Youth Affairs Usman Dar, Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, SBP governor, Abdul Razak Dawood, presidents and heads of different banks.

Covid-19 to push 150 million into extreme poverty by 2021: WB WASHINGTON AGENCIES

Extreme global poverty is expected to rise in 2020 for the first time in over 20 years due to the disruption caused by the “extraordinary” coronavirus crisis, the World Bank has warned. According to a new report, the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to push an additional 88 million to 115 million people into extreme poverty this year, with the total rising to as many as 150 million by 2021, depending on the severity of the economic contraction. Extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1.90 a day, is likely to affect between 9.1 percent and 9.4 percent of the world’s population this year, it said. That would represent a regression to the rate of 9.2 percent in 2017. Had the pandemic not convulsed the globe, the poverty rate was expected to drop to 7.9 percent in 2020. “The pandemic and global recession may cause over 1.4 percent of the world’s population to fall into extreme poverty,” said World Bank Group President David Malpass. “In order to reverse this serious setback to development progress and poverty reduction, countries will need to prepare for a different economy post-Covid, by allowing capital, labor, skills, and innovation to move into new businesses and sectors.” The World Bank estimates that by 2030, the global poverty rate could be about seven percent.

While less than a tenth of the world’s population lives on less than $1.90 a day, close to a quarter of the population lives on less than $3.20 a day, and more than 40 percent of the world’s population (almost 3.3 billion people) live on less than $5.50 a day. “The current moment of crisis is extraordinary. No prior disease has become a global threat so quickly as Covid-19. Never have the world’s poorest people resided so disproportionately in conflict-affected territories and countries. Changes in global weather patterns induced by human activity are unprecedented,” said the report.

LAHORE: Man repairs a cartwheel at his roadside setup. ZUBAIR MEhFOOZ

Work on mega hydropower projects underway to overcome energy crisis, KP CM says PESHAWAR AZIZ BUNERI

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, while stressing the need of optimum utilization of hydropower potential of the province, has said that the provincial government is working on a number of mega hydropower projects to overcome energy crisis.

Chairing a performance review meeting of the Energy and Power Department held on Saturday, the CM said that upon completion, these projects would not only help overcome the energy crisis in the province, but would also give impetus to industrial and economic activities and help create new employment opportunities in the province.

Briefing the meeting about the progress made so far on various developmental projects of the department,

the committee was informed that 94pc work on Jabori Hydropower Project, Mansehra, had been completed while the remaining work would be completed by the end of this year.

The project, on completion, will generate more than 71GW electricity per annum. Similarly, 88pc work on Karora Hydropower Project, Shangla, had been completed and the remaining work would be completed by January next year, and the project will have a power generating capacity of 72GW electricity per annum.

It was further informed that 85pc work had been completed on 40MW Kotu Hydropower Project, Lower Dir, whereas physical progress on 84MW Matiltan Hydropower Project is 47pc.

The meeting was told that the Executive Committee of National Economic Council had accorded approval to 157MW Madayan and 88MG Gabral

Hydropower Projects to be executed under the Khyber Pakhtinkhwa Hydropower and Renewable Energy Programme. Work on 300MW Balakot Hydropower Project will be started next year, the meeting was informed.

Expressing his satisfaction on the overall performance of the department, Mehmood Khan directed the high ups of the department for result oriented steps to ensure timely completion of all the ongoing projects and to ensure progress on the new projects as per the given timelines.

It was told that the newly established Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Transmission and Grid System Company had been formally registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). The company has been set up with the aim to have a separate and independent transmission and grid infrastructure of the provincial

government for the supply of locally produced electricity to the local industries, Special Economic Zones, and other commercial consumers on incentivized rates.

Regarding the micro hydel power projects it was apprised that in the first phase 307 projects had been completed in 11 districts of the province having a total production capacity of 25000 Kilowatt whereas 672 micro hydel power projects would be started in the second phase.

With regard to the solarization programme of the department, it was informed that 300 mosques had been solarized in the newly merged districts, and work has been started on the solarization of 4,000 more mosques in the province. Tenders have also been issued for the solarization of 8,000 schools and 187 Basic Health Units across the province.

Daraz ‘facilitating’ fraud with TikTok engagement products on marketplace BABAR KHAN JAVED Merchants under the names NextGenTech and Garden Seeds are among a handful of businesses using 3rd party marketplace on Daraz.pk to sell fake likes, followers, views, and more around TikTok. In this regard, Xaxis associate business director Ghulam Jilani Kothari was the first to spot the listings, sharing his findings in a LinkedIn post.

The practice of selling fake engagement metrics caters to a market where advertisers and agencies prioritise content creators that can boast a huge following or content engagement, which are two areas ripe with ad fraud as reported by Profit. A report by cybersecurity firm Cheq projected that fake fans cost advertisers $1.3 billion in 2019 alone.

As a result, the Alibaba Group-owned eCommerce business is inadvertently con-

tributing to the global ad fraud problem by allowing merchants to sell a service that content creators use to inflate either their actual reach with fake followers or doctor their engagement rate, both with the end goal of fooling advertisers and agencies that are too avaricious for influencer marketing planning tools or fraud detection software.

In its listing, NextGenTech tells prospective buyers that they should directly message the service instead of waiting for Daraz delivery, circumventing the very marketplace they are using for product discovery. The merchant claims to offer buyers, 100 organic TikTok followers, while the service offered by Garden Seeds rather transparently offers 1,000 inactive followers that are outside Pakistan.

The latter scenario can also be detected by influencer marketing campaign planning software such as Upfluence or Traackr, with the aforementioned merchants counting on

the unwillingness of advertisers and agencies to invest in fraud countermeasures.

WHY THE FUSS? In August, the California Fourth District Court of Appeals reversed a 2019 trial court ruling and reinstated claims from a woman who says she suffered third-degree burns when a defective laptop battery she bought from a third-party seller on Amazon caught fire. In doing so, the appeals court held Amazon liable for defective products sold on its Marketplace – which accounted for half of its $280B revenue in 2019 – meaning that if you buy a defective third-party product on Amazon, it might be Amazon that’s responsible.

A few weeks later, Amazon public policy leader Brian Huseman said that the company would back the AB 3262 bill – which would extend strict liability law to online marketplaces – provided that this legislation is applied equally to all stores including all online marketplaces.

CMYK

Profit recognizes that exploding batteries and fake followers are not directly comparable in the harm they do and yet it is true that fake followers, likes, and engagement misleads content consumers and future advertisers that may want to engage with a content creator for the purpose of influencer marketing.

“Let me be honest,” said Neil Patel, a digital marketing consultant. “You can’t pay money for followers on social media and then expect that those followers are committed to you or that there’s even a real person behind the account.”

The documentary “The Social Dilemma” also states that inflated reach and content engagement sets a benchmark for ordinary social media users – that do not know that a content creator is using a service to buy fake followers – and has been tied to teen suicide and depression as a result of not matching the inflated engagement of others.

In the realm of ‘you get what you pay for’, Profit also acknowledges that advertisers and agencies that actively opt-out of using inexpensive fraud detection software, are reaping what they sow in being duped.

As with the digital advertising fraud problem, which has been categorized as organized crime, fake followers for content creators and the revenue raked in can be used to fund nefarious criminal organizations – which is the case worldwide.

“When we talk about influencers in Pakistan the audience quality of influencers is 65% on average,” said Umais Naveed, business head of Digital Engagement Network.

“However, you come across Influencers with an audience quality of less than 50% more often than not. With DEN we work with Influencers who have an audience quality at least an average or more so brands associated with us get the best return on their investment.”

Sunday, 11 October, 2020

10 FOREIGN NEWS trump approves revised covid-19 relief package: white house

NoRth KoREa disPlays ballistic missilEs, Kim aPologisEs FoR EcoNomic woEs

WASHINGTON

SEOUL

AGENCIES

US President Donald Trump has approved a revised Covid19 relief package in the negotiations with congressional Democrats, White House's National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said. "The president has just recently met with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin," Kudlow said in an interview with Fox Business Network. "The president has approved a revised package. He has approved a revised package. He would like to do a deal," Kudlow said, declining to provide details about the package. "It will be relatively broad-based. But I can't go through details ...

That's going to be hashed out in the discussions," said the White House official. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is expected to discuss a new 1.8-trillion-U.S.dollar relief proposal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when the two speak Friday afternoon, according to The Wall Street Journal. The White House proposal marks a further winnowing of the distance between the administration and Democratic leaders over the relief package's overall price tag, the Journal reported. The Democrats-controlled House last week passed a 2.2-trillion-dollar relief bill, but it's unlikely to win support from Senate Republicans. The Trump administration had previously offered Pelosi an approximately 1.6 trillion dollar package. The White House's new offer came after Pelosi on Thursday rejected moving forward a standalone bill aimed at providing new aid to U.S. airlines in the absence of a bigger Covid-19 relief package. "I have been very open to having a single, standalone bill for the airlines for part of a bigger bill. But there is no standalone bill without a bigger bill," Pelosi said Thursday at a weekly press conference.

bangladesh weighs death penalty for rapists as protests flare

a

AGENCIES

N apparently emotional Kim Jong Un apologised for failing to improve North Koreans’ lives in an address to an unprecedented predawn military parade on Saturday that showcased the country’s long-range ballistic missiles for the first time in two years.

The country marked the 75th anniversary of the founding of its ruling Workers’ Party with a raft of concerts and festivals, and the ceremony was seen around the region as an event where Kim could deliver messages to domestic and foreign audiences.

The parade featured North Korea’s ballistic missiles for the first time since Kim began meeting with international leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, in 2018. “We will continue to build our national defence power and self-defensive war deterrence,” Kim said, but vowed that the country’s military power would not be used preemptively. He made no direct mention of the United States or the nowstalled denuclearisation talks.

Kim blamed international sanctions, typhoons, and the coronavirus for preventing him from delivering on promises of economic progress.

“I am ashamed that I have never been able to repay you properly for your enormous trust,” he said.

“My efforts and devotion were not sufficient to bring our people out of difficult livelihoods.”

LOUISIANA

DHAKA Protests rocked Bangladesh on Saturday as hundreds of people took to the streets to demand justice after a series of rapes and sexual assaults that have spurred the government to seek capital punishment for offenders. Such incidents have surged in Bangladesh in recent years, with gang rapes accounting for more than a fifth of the nearly 1,000 attacks reported between January and September, says human rights group Ain-o-Salish Kendra. “Hang the rapists,” shouted protesters gathered in the capital Dhaka and elsewhere, hundreds of students among them. Many carried placards bearing messages such as “No mercy to rapists” and “Please tell me, am I next?” This week’s protests have prompted the government to consider introducing the death penalty for offenders, with the cabinet set to receive a proposal for urgent amendments on Monday. “We are making the proposal on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s orders,” Law Minister Anisul Huq told Reuters. “We want to make sure those who are guilty get the highest punishment.” Saturday’s demonstrations were sparked by a video of a group of men stripping and attacking a woman for almost half an hour in the southeastern district of Noakhali. An investigation by an autonomous state body, the National Human Rights Commission, found the woman in the video had been raped repeatedly and terrorised with weapons by one of the group over the last year. Also fuelling outcry was the gang rape of a woman in a hostel in the northern district of Sylhet that led to the arrests of several members of the student wing of the ruling party. On Saturday, Huq, the law minister, vowed legal action against the criminals regardless of their political ties, saying he aimed for their punishment without “unnecessary” delays. Many more rapes go unreported because women fear being stigmatised. Rights activists blame the increasing rapes on a lack of awareness, a culture of impunity and protection of suspects by influential individuals for political reasons.

Even when survivors file a complaint, prosecution is very rare and takes years to complete. The United Nations and rights groups have called for urgent reform of the criminal justice system to ensure perpetrators are held responsible.

global pandemic, suggesting North Korean authorities are concerned more with political history and national morale than with preventing a Covid-19 superspreader event,” said Leif-Eric Easley, who teaches at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

Earlier in the day, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said South Korea and US intelligence authorities were closely monitoring developments.

It was the first time that the parade has been held before dawn.

South Korean officials said this week that Kim could use the event as a “low intensity” show of power ahead of the US presidential election on Nov 3, as denuclearisation talks with Washington have stalled.

For weeks commercial satellite imagery has shown thousands of North Korean soldiers practicing marching, and South Korean officials have said the North could use the parade to unveil a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), or a new submarine-launched ballistic missile.

Foreign diplomats in Pyongyang have often been invited to observe past celebrations. But the Russian Embassy said on social media that all diplomatic missions have been advised this year to “refrain as much as possible” from travelling in the city, approaching the event venue and taking photos and videos.

In a congratulatory message to Kim for the anniversary, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he intended to “defend, consolidate and develop” ties with North Korea, its state media said on Saturday.

Hurricane Delta hits US Gulf coast at 160kph AGENCIES

AGENCIES

Sometimes appearing emotional, Kim thanked the military for working hard to respond to a series of damaging summer typhoons, and for preventing a coronavirus outbreak.

Kim said he was grateful that not a single North Korean had tested positive for the disease, an assertion that South Korea and the United States have previously questioned.

Officials in Seoul and Washington had said the North might unveil new strategic weapons. Initial footage of the parade showed conventional troops marching in formation and what appeared to be ballistic missiles on vehicles.

The video showed Kim make an appearance as a clock struck midnight. Dressed in a grey suit and tie, he waved to the crowd and accepted flowers from children while surrounded by military officials in Pyongyang’s recently renovated Kim Il Sung Square.

Kim said he hopes that North and South Korea will join hands again after the coronavirus crisis is over.

While attendees at other holiday events were shown wearing masks, no one at the parade appeared to be wearing any masks.

CORONAVIRUS MEASURES: The event comes as the isolated country carries out strict measures against the coronavirus.

State media said the curbs have caused delays in some of Kim’s key economic and construction projects, already dogged by international sanctions.

“It is an impressively large gathering during a

Hurricane Delta slammed into the US Gulf coast with a deadly storm surge and violent winds, threatening to batter an area of Louisiana still recovering from Hurricane Laura.

Delta made landfall at 6pm local time in a rural, marshy stretch west of New Orleans, as a category 2 storm with 160kph winds. It was the record 10th tropical storm or hurricane to hit the US this year.

The storm is the latest in a string of natural disasters in the country.

In California, wildfires have burned an unprecedented 4 million acres. The Atlantic, meanwhile, has spawned 25 storms this year, the second most after 2005.

Delta is weaker than the ferocious blast that Laura unleashed. But it brings flooding and a storm surge that could reach as high as 11 feet in some places.

The hurricane came ashore near Cameron,

Louisiana, a tiny bayou town that’s still in ruins after Laura roared through in late August.

Delta shut about 92 per cent of oil production and 62 per cent of gas output as it crossed the Gulf on Friday.

The storm will probably cause about $2 billion in losses and destruction to Louisiana, said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeller with Enki Research.

In the city of Lake Charles, 50km inland from where Delta came ashore, rain pelted the tarp-covered roofs of buildings that Hurricane Laura damaged when it barrelled through.

“It’s devastating and it’s emotional for the citizenry,” Mayor Nic Hunter said as he prepared to ride out the storm in downtown Lake Charles.

As Delta approached, winds picked up in inland areas such as Lafayette, where occasionally strong gusts buffeted trees and sheets of rain were falling.

Many parishes and towns implemented curfews Friday until Saturday morning to encourage people to stay off the roads during the worst of the storm.

Iran permits Iraqi Airways to evacuate nationals amid pandemic TEHRAN TLTP

The Civil Aviation Organization of Iran permitted Iraq's flag-carrier to conduct restricted flights from Iran to evacuate nationals amid a renewed surge in the number of coronavirus cases in the country.

In a recent statement by the CAOI, it was not specified how many flights the Iraqi Airways would be able to conduct from Iran as of October 9. However, the permit comes days after Iranian authorities said they had revoked flight certificates for Iraqi Airways after the company violated the rules and carried

visa-holding passengers from Iran.

The CAOI underlined that the Iraqi Airways would only be allowed to evacuate nationals from Iran and flights would not accommodate Iranian passengers. Millions of Iranians normally go to Iraq each year in days leading to and after Arbaeen which marks the 40th day after the martyrdom anniversary of Holy Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Imam Hossein (AS).

However, a renewed surge in the number of positive coronavirus cases in Iran has prompted the government to tighten restrictions on travel and movement.

Police crackdown on marathon antiKremlin protest in Russia's Far East MOSCOW AGENCIES

Police in Russia’s Far East broke up a longrunning anti-Kremlin protest with force on Saturday, detaining 25 people according to local authorities, in response to what they called an illegal attempt to erect protest tents in a central square. The demonstrations, in the city of Khabarovsk, have been going on for the last three months against President Vladimir Putin’s handling of a regional political crisis. Video footage on social media showed baton-wielding police wearing body armour hauling protesters away and dismantling tents as a woman screamed “What country do you live in?”

Residents of Khabarovsk, about 6,110 km (3,800 miles) east of Moscow, started holding weekly rallies after the July 9 detention of Sergei Furgal, the region’s popular governor, over murder charges he denies. The protests have highlighted anger among some in the Far East over what they see as policies emanating from detached Moscow-based authorities who have neglected them for years. Supporters of Furgal, who is a member of the nationalist LDPR party, say he is being punished for defeating a candidate from the ruling proPutin United Russia party in 2018. The Kremlin says Furgal has serious charges to answer. Opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who is recovering in Germany from what Berlin says was an attack on him using a nerve agent, condemned police. “The authorities in Russia are simply scoundrels,” Navalny wrote on Twitter. “When half of the people in Khabarovsk took to the streets, they hid like cockroaches. They waited three months, the number of people grew less, they grew bolder, and they then went out and began to beat people for no reason,” he said.

China urges US to protect global environment, avoid creating troubles BEIJING TLTP

China urges the United States to stop slandering Beijing, and make real contributions to protecting the global environment instead of creating trouble, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

Hua made the remarks at a press briefing in response to recent US accusations over China's environmental issues. She said the Chinese government attaches great importance to ecological and environmental protection. It has made resource conservation and environmental protection a basic state policy and sustainable development a national strategy. It has earnestly fulfilled its

obligations under international environmental treaties on climate change, biodiversity governance, ozone layer protection and chemical pollution prevention and control with remarkable results.

As for carbon emissions, Hua said that by the end of 2019, China's CO2 emissions per unit of the GDP were 48.1 percent less compared with those in 2005, and the share of non-fossil fuels reached 15.3 percent, achieving 2020 climate action targets ahead of schedule. Investment in renewable energy exceeded 100 billion U.S. dollars for five consecutive years, and China is home to over half of the world's new energy vehicles. The country has announced that it will enhance the nationally-determined contribution tar-

gets, and strive for the peaking of CO2 emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060.

China has contributed greatly to global forest resources, sustainable forest products and trade, Hua said, adding that from 2009 to 2019, China completed afforestation of 70.39 million hectares, registering the highest increase in forest resources worldwide, according to the spokesperson.

Noting China strictly manages solid waste and marine debris, she said by the end of 2020, the country will basically achieve the goal of zero import of solid waste.

Nearly 99 percent of China's urban household waste is treated to make it harmless.

China implements the world's most rigorous

Vessel Monitoring System and has zero tolerance for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, Hua added.

Hua said China has also been deeply involved in international exchange and cooperation. It was the first to sign and ratify the Convention on Biological Diversity. It initiated the Belt and Road Initiative International Green Development Coalition. It has undertaken exchange and cooperation on environmental protection with more than 100 countries, carried out a large number of cooperation projects on biodiversity, and played a constructive role in improving global governance on biodiversity.

"By contrast, the per capita emissions of the United States are three times the

global average, more than twice -- once almost five times -- that of China, with accumulated emissions about three times that of China's," Hua said.

Facts have proved that the United States itself is the biggest perpetrator damaging international environmental cooperation, and poses the most potent threat to the global environment, Hua said.

Noting that US officials have discredited and attacked China entirely for political reasons, Hua said they should stop the malicious slanders against China, reflect upon its own behavior, assume its responsibility to the environment and make tangible contributions to the protection of the global environment instead of stirring up troubles.

Sunday, 11 October, 2020

AWAIS ZIA'S 92* ouTShINES ShoAIB MAlIk'S hEroICS AS BAloChISTAN CruSh kP

I

NEWS DESK

N a clash close to the top of the table, Balochistan avenged their crushing defeat against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last week by inflicting a similar loss on Mohammad Rizwan's side.

Awais Zia's unbeaten 49-ball 92 helped Balochistan make short work of the 155run target, which they achieved with six wickets and 20 balls to spare.

After Shaheen Afridi removed Abdul Bangalzai for a first-ball duck and Bismillah Khan in his second over, Zia took

charge of the chase single-handedly.

Brushing aside the further losses of Imran Butt and his skipper Haris Sohail, Zia farmed the strike with Akbar-urRehman at the other end, who played his part, finishing unbeaten on 24 and hitting the winning runs.

After winning the toss, Balochistan had put KP in and removed both in-form players Mohammad Hafeez and Rizwan cheaply. Fakhar Zaman struggled to get going in the face of tight bowling, particularly by Akif Javed and Khurram Shehzad, whose combined figures of 8-0-40-3 a telltale sign of KP's struggles with the bat.

Naseem Shah Withdrawn From National T20 Cup Due To Groin Niggle

NEWS DESK

STAFF REPORT

Central Punjab fast bowler Naseem Shah has been withdrawn from the National T20 Cup after complaining of a niggle in groin. He has been replaced in the Central Punjab squad by left-arm fast bowler Waqas Maqsood. Naseem will now report at the National High Performance Centre in Lahore where the PCB medical panel will carry out a detailed and complete investigation on his injury. Medical and Sports Sciences Director Dr Sohail Saleem said, “Naseem is an asset who needs to be handled with care. As soon as he showed discomfort, we decided to withdraw him from the tournament and bring him to Lahore so that we can investigate the injury.”

NEWS DESK Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly’s request for a shorter than mandated quarantine period for the Indian team in Brisbane, ahead of its tour of Australia, is likely to be rejected, said a report in the Sydney Morning Herald. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the rules of the game, which restarted with the Test series between England and the West Indies in July.

Players have to be in quarantine for two weeks and be tested for the virus before they can take the field. “Queensland health officials are set to make cricket’s most powerful nation adhere to strict national protocols, details of which have delayed Cricket Australia announcing a revised schedule for its $300 million summer,” the daily wrote in its report. India is keen on a reduced quarantine and wants the players to be allowed to train in a bio-secure bubble instead of being restricted to a hotel room, which, the BCCI fears, can take a toll on the fitness of its players. “We just hope the number of quarantine days get reduced a bit.

The 38-year-old is only the third cricketer ever to reach the milestone after West Indian duo of Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard.

Gayle leads the list with 13,296 runs while Pollard has 10,370 runs to his credit.

The next Asian batsman in leading T20 runs scorers list is India’s Virat Kohli who has 9,033 runs in shortest format of professional cricket.

Malik played 395th T20 match of his career on Saturday - the most by any Asian. He needs to play five more to become only the fourth cricketer in the world to play 400 T20s.

Boxer Mohammad Wasim upbeat ahead of December return

RAWALPINDI

India’s request for shorter quarantine in Australia likely to be rejected

It was left to veteran Shoaib Malik to take them to a competitive total, as he rolled back the years to wallop 74 off 44 balls to help his side get past 150. But support from the other end wasn't forthcoming, of which they eventually paid the price.

10,000 T20 RUNS Meanwhile, Shoaib Malik created history by becoming the first Asian cricketer to complete 10,000 runs in T20 cricket.

Malik reached this milestone during his smashing knock against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the National T20 Cup match.

Pakistan’s top professional boxer Mohammad Wasim is set to mark his return to the boxing ring in December - more than a year after he last fought.

Wasim was earlier scheduled for a fight in March but the contest was called off due to the Covid-19 pandemic but he is now ready for action.

“I am fighting again in December, I am preparing hard for my next fight and will soon be leaving for the UK to attend my training camp,” he said in an interview with a private media outlet.

Nicknamed “Falcon”, Wasim has a record of 10-1 in 11 professional fights since turning pro after winning several medals for the country as an amateur boxer.

Wasim said that the lockdown due to Covid-19 was de-

pressing but he tried to keep himself fit even while being quarantined at home.

“I was last scheduled to fight in March, but it couldn’t happen. Everything was closed due to the pandemic. I was home but I continued my training the way I could,” Wasim stated.

“Now I have started formal practice with my coach Nasir in Islamabad, I’ve been doing this for the last two weeks and now I will leave for the UK on Sunday where I will have my proper training camp ahead of my next fight,” he said.

The venue and opponent for his next fight will be confirmed in due course but Wasim is confident that he will continue the form that he gained with back-to-back wins in Dubai against Conrado Tanamor and Ganigan López.

“I want my countrymen to keep praying for my success,” he requested to fellow Pakistanis.

Firmino brace helps Brazil hammer Bolivia in World Cup qualifier LIVERPOOL

SPORTS 11 Sindh fined for slow over-rate RAWALPINDI STAFF REPORT

Sindh have been fined Rs25,000 for maintaining a slow over-rate during their Friday’s National T20 Cup fixture against Southern Punjab. In the stipulated time, Sindh were two overs short of their target after taking into account time allowances and, as such, were charged under Article 2.22 of the PCB’s Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel that deals with minimum over-rate offences. The charge was levelled by on-field umpires Ghaffar Kazmi and Rashid Riaz, third umpire Asif Yaqoob and fourth umpire Saqib Khan. Sindh captain Sarfaraz Ahmed pleaded guilty and accepted the sanction proposed by match referee Nadeem Arshad.

‘England considering Pakistan tour in Jan 2021’ NEWS DESK The England national cricket team could visit Pakistan for the first time since the 2015-16 season in January 2021, a local media outlet reported citing a PCB official. The report states that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is entertaining the idea to send its national team to Pakistan for a three-match T20I series. In the last week of January, the England team will be in UAE and may travel to Pakistan for five days. The Pakistan cricket team toured England for three T20Is and as many Tests in Covid-19 times. Both teams played in a bio-secure environment at two venues. At that time, many former cricketers suggested the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) ask ECB for a return tour. ECB had also thanked the Green shirt for coming to the UK despite coronavirus situation. PCB chief executive Wasim Khan also thanked the 44-member national squad for a full tour of England amidst difficult and unusual circumstances.

PCB asks Misbah, Azhar to be careful about code of conduct in future

AGENCIES

NEWS DESK

Liverpool striker Roberto Firmino scored a brace as Brazil romped to a 5-0 victory over Bolivia in their opening 2022 World Cup qualifier on Friday.

Barcelona playmaker Philippe Coutinho and Paris SaintGermain defender Marquinhos also got on the scoresheet while star forward Neymar set up two goals in a totally onesided encounter that sent Brazil top of the South American qualifying table.

In a Corinthians Arena deserted due to Covid-19 restrictions, Bolivia showed almost no ambition as Brazil dominated throughout, with PSG's Neymar starting after overcoming a back problem.

Inside the first minute, winger Everton volleyed wide from inside the six-yard box and three minutes later his cross was headed off-target by Marquinhos from a position.

Bolivia couldn't get out of their half, or on the ball, as Coutinho and Everton created a slew of chances down Brazil's left.

The pressure told on 16 minutes as Marquinhos headed home from an identical position to his earlier chance as fullback Danilo swung over a cross from the right following a short corner.

Even a first half downpour couldn't dampen Brazil's thrust as Coutinho forced a diving one-handed save from goalkeeper Carlos Lampe with a deflected shot.

At times it looked like a handball game with Brazil

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has advised head coach Misbahul Haq and skipper Azhar Ali to remain careful in the future and to not do anything that violates their contract, local media reported on Saturday. Advisory on the precautionary measure was issued after they met Prime Minister Imran Khan in Islamabad couple of weeks ago to share concerns on new domestic cricket structure. Misbah, Azhar and Mohammad Hafeez had met the prime minister in a bid to convince him that departmental cricket should be reinstated – much to the chagrin of Chairman Ehsan Mani and CEO Wasim Khan – who were kept completely out of the loop and only attended the meeting upon receiving a last-minute invitation by the PM Office. Mani and Wasim, who as per Geo Super’s sources “are unhappy and disappointed”, had summoned the trio following the meeting. “It was a weird situation for Chairman Ehsan Mani and he did not like it,” the source had said. The cricketers were summoned for getting round cricketing authorities and directly approaching Prime Minister Imran Khan to complain about the new domestic cricket structure, Geo Super reported.

camped on the edge of Bolivia's box, and the visitors keeping 10 men behind the ball at all times.

But on the half hour, left-back Renan Lodi got in behind the defence and his cross from the left was turned home from barely a yard out by Firmino.

Chapter 56 as Djokovic and Nadal eye history in Roland Garros blockbuster PARIS AGENCIES

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal meet for the 56th time on Sunday in a Roland Garros final blockbuster with history on the line for both men.

World number one Djokovic is chasing an 18th Grand Slam title and a second French Open which would make him the first man in half a century to win all four Slams twice.

Defending champion Nadal, the world number two, can win a 13th Roland Garros and 20th major which would tie the all-time men's record held by Roger Federer.

Victory on Sunday would also give the 34-year-old Spaniard a 100th match win in Paris against just two defeats in 15 years.

One of those losses came against Djokovic in the 2015 quarter-finals, the last time the pair clashed on the crushed red brick surface of Court Philippe Chatrier.

The Serb has won 37 matches in 2020 with his one defeat self-inflicted via his infamous default at the US Open.

Stefanos Tsitsipas, who pushed Djokovic to five sets in a breathless semifinal, sees few flaws in the top seed's game.

"He has reached almost perfection," said the Greek. The 22-year-old matched Djokovic when it came to all-out assault on Friday night but at the crunch moments, the Serbian wall stood firm as the world number one saved 11 of 15 break points he faced.

Djokovic, 33, has a 29-26 edge over Nadal in their long-running rivalry.

He has won 14 of their last 18 meetings

and the last three at the Slams.

However, the pair's most recent three matches on clay have all gone Nadal's way with Djokovic's last victory on the dirt coming in the Rome quarter-finals four years ago. At the French Open, Nadal has a 6-1 advantage, including wins in the 2012 and 2014 finals.

'NOT MY BIGGEST MATCH' "This is the house of Rafa," said Djokovic, describing facing the Spaniard on clay as the sport's "biggest challenge".

However, he insists that he has played far more significant finals and pointed to his first win over Nadal at a Slam at Wimbledon in 2011.

"I don't think this is the biggest match that I have ever played in my life," he said.

"In terms of importance, probably the

CMYK

first Wimbledon final that I actually played against him.

"Wimbledon was always the one that I wanted to win as a kid and dreamed of winning. That's probably the one that stands out." Djokovic also put his 2016 Paris final win over Andy Murray, which allowed him to celebrate a career Grand Slam, above Sunday's latest instalment of his Nadal rivalry.

"Every French Open final that I played was the match of my life before I actually won it." Despite his high praise for his opponent, Djokovic sees an advantage for him with the tournament being played in the autumn than its traditional spring and early summer slot.

The weather is cooler, the conditions heavier. "The conditions are different than the ones that we are used to playing in May

and June," said Djokovic.

"I think that could be a better chance for me, obviously the ball is not bouncing as high over the shoulder as he likes it usually."

Nadal thrives in the heat and bright sunshine and has been wary of the chill and the damp throughout the tournament, complaining that players are exposed to dangers as a result. His run to a 13th final in Paris has been untroubled as he has yet to drop a set.

However, he has only faced one seed -Argentine number 12 Diego Schwartzman in the semi-finals. His other five opponents were all outside the top 70; two were ranked 213 and 236. Nadal is cautious of reading too much into his smooth progress in Paris or his overall 17-7 clay court record over Djokovic.

Sunday, 11 October, 2020

PrAyEr TImINGS

NEWS

PAKIsTAN welcOmes ceAsefIre IN NAgOrNO-KArAbAKh

P

NEWS DESK

AKISTAN on Saturday welcomed the ceasefire announced in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and hoped "humanitarian conditions" in this period will be honoured.

"The recently announced ceasefire between Azerbaijan and Armenia is a positive development for peace and stability," said a statement by the Foreign Office.

"We hope that the humanitarian conditions agreed upon by the parties would be honoured."

According to the statement, "Pakistan believes that sustainable peace between the two parties would depend on the complete and comprehensive implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions and withdrawal of Armenian forces from Azerbaijani territories."

To that end, Pakistan will "continue to stand by the

‘PAKISTAN HOPES HUMANITARIAN CONDITIONS AGREED UPON BY ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN WILL BE HONOURED DURING THE CEASEFIRE PERIOD’ brotherly nation of Azerbaijan", the statement added.

CEASEFIRE AFTER TWO WEEKS Earlier today, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a ceasefire and to begin “substantive talks” over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh after nearly two weeks of fierce clashes.

Bitter fighting in the central Asian region has claimed hundreds of lives, forced thousands to flee, and stirred fears of a full-blown war that could suck in regional powers Turkey and Russia.

Speaking after 11 hours of Moscow-mediated talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russian Foreign Min-

ister Sergei Lavrov said the warring sides had agreed to a ceasefire from “12 hours 00 minutes on October 10 on humanitarian grounds”. It was not immediately clear whether the pause in fighting would come into effect at noon in Moscow or the local time in Karabakh.

During the ceasefire — mediated by the International Committee of the Red Cross — the parties will exchange bodies and prisoners, Lavrov said, reading from a statement. “Concrete parameters of the ceasefire will be agreed separately,” the statement added.

Russia’s top diplomat also said that Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to start negotiating a peaceful solution

STAFF rEPOrT

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has said that closing eyes like a pigeon will not avert dangers and there is a need to be prepared at every level to fight the storm coming from India by realising the evil intentions of the enemy.

"The followers of Hindutva do not want to eliminate the Muslims in India and Kashmir alone but are conspiring, what they are publicly saying, to extend their frontiers up to Kohala, Azad Pattan and Wakhan," he insisted.

He expressed these views while addressing a luncheon hosted in honour of the leaders and workers of the Milli Yakjehti Council (National Solidarity Council) at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, Muzaffarabad, on Saturday.

The president urged the religious scholars and spiritual

leaders to use the forums of mosques, Imambargahs, seminaries, and shrines to caution the people about the imminent dangers, and tell them that the fascist Indian rulers have altogether changed the status of occupied Kashmir, and now they are eyeing on Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The religious scholars, besides promoting unity and harmony among different schools of thought, should mentally prepare the nation to counter the threats confronting the country, he urged. About the situation prevailing in occupied Kashmir, the AJK president said that Indian designs can be gauged from the fact that it has deployed one million regular troops in the held territory while the former Soviet Union had deployed 250,000 troops during the 20 years war and later the United States had deployed 150,000 troops to capture Afghanistan. He went on to say that India had deployed one million troops to not fight any terrorism but to slaughter eight million Kashmiri people.

Allies to leave Afghanistan together: NATO chief

TAIPEI

TLTP

AGENCIES

Nine days after testing positive for Covid19, US President Donald Trump delivers a White House address Saturday to hundreds of partisans, in hopes of relaunching his struggling campaign less than four weeks from Election Day. Trump has declared he is feeling "really good" -- but doubts linger over his health, with the president's doctor appearing more concerned about pleasing his star patient than communicating transparently with the public. "Right now I'm medication-free, I'm not taking any medications as of, you know,

5:41

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Indian forces kill two freedom fighters in held Kashmir: police

Khan said that after having failed to suppress the Kashmiri people through inhuman repression, India has decided to change the demography of Kashmir by settling Indian Hindus in occupied Kashmir so that the Kashmir issue is buried for good.

Speaking at the function, Jamaat Islami Pakistan leader Liaqat Baloch said that all tricks and plans of the fascist Indian regime are bound to fail, and Kashmir would certainly become independent.

Declaring Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan as the first defence lines of Pakistan, Liaqat Baloch said that the people of both regions must get the rights equal to their Pakistani compatriots. He warned that the federal government must not take any action about Gilgit-Baltistan, which is harmful for the Kashmir liberation movement in any sense, and said that a plebiscite in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions was the sole solution to the Kashmir issue.

AGENCIES

Taiwan wants to have “meaningful dialogue” with China on an equal basis, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Saturday, extending an olive branch at a time of heightened military tension with Beijing, which claims the island as sovereign Chinese territory.

Taiwan has come under increasing pressure from Beijing, which has ramped up air force activity near the island in the past few weeks, including crossing the Taiwan Strait’s sensitive mid line that normally serves as an unofficial buffer zone.

China says it is responding to “collusion” between Washington and Taipei, angered at growing US support for the self-governed island. Beijing views this as a precursor to Taiwan declaring formal

independence, a red line for China.

Speaking at National Day celebrations, Tsai described the situation in the Taiwan Strait as “quite tense.” This, along with disputes in the South China Sea, a China-India border conflict and China’s crackdown in Hong Kong, showed democracy and peace in the region were facing big challenges, she said. If Beijing can heed Taiwan’s voice and jointly facilitate reconciliation and peaceful dialogue, regional tension can surely be resolved, she added.

“As long as the Beijing authorities are willing to resolve antagonisms and improve cross-strait relations, while parity and dignity are maintained, we are willing to work together to facilitate meaningful dialogue,” Tsai said.

There was no immediate reaction from China,

Trump addresses supporters at White House, before Florida rally WASHINGTON

ASR MAGHRIB ISHA 4:01

NEWS DESK Indian security forces on Saturday killed two freedom fighters in an encounter in Kulgam district of held Jammu and Kashmir, local police said. The agencies launched a cordon and search operation in Chingam area of Kulgam district late Friday night following specific inputs about the presence of freedom fighters there, a police officer said. He said the search operation turned into an encounter after the fighters fired upon a security forces party, who retaliated. In the exchange of fire, two fighters were killed, the officer said, adding their identity and group affiliation is being ascertained. The operation is still going on, he said.

Taiwan president calls for ‘meaningful dialogue’ with China

SKOPJE NATO insisted recently that its members would consult and decide together on when to leave Afghanistan, after US President Donald Trump vowed to bring American troops home by Christmas.

Trump, trailing in polls ahead of the November 3 presidential election, made his surprise announcement on Twitter during the week, dramatically speeding up the timeline for ending America's longest war.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg repeated the alliance's longstanding position that it will end its mission in Afghanistan only when conditions on the ground permit. "We decided to go into Afghanistan together, we will make decisions on future adjustments together, and when the time is right, we will leave together," Stoltenberg said at a news conference after talks with North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.

ZUHR 11:55

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to the territorial dispute.

“Azerbaijan and Armenia begin substantive negotiations with the purpose of achieving a peaceful settlement as soon as possible,” Lavrov told reporters, adding that such talks would be mediated by France, Russia and the US. Renewed fighting over Karabakh — an ethnic Armenian region of Azerbaijan that broke from Baku’s control in a devastating war in the early 1990s — has claimed some 400 lives and forced thousands of people from their homes.

The heavy clashes erupted late last month, with both sides blaming the other for the biggest outbreak in violence since a 1994 ceasefire left the status of Karabakh in limbo. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who has repeatedly vowed to use his military to retake the breakaway province, said earlier that the talks represented a historic opportunity for Armenia. “We are giving Armenia a chance to settle the conflict peacefully,” he said.

“This is their last chance.” Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said his country was “ready for the resumption of the peace process” led by international brokers. Heavy clashes continued into Friday, Armenian and Azerbaijani defence officials said, with further civilian deaths reported, even after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the Moscow meeting and appealed for a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds.

The shelling started again in Stepanakert, the provincial capital of Karabakh, where an AFP journalist heard several explosions and saw the remains of a rocket in a crater next to a cemetery for dead soldiers.

AJK president warns of India’s evil designs against Muslims MUZAFFARABAD

FAJR SUNRISE 4:45

probably eight hours ago," Trump told Fox News on Friday night, the first on-camera interview since his diagnosis and three-night hospitalization.

For months, taking their cue from a president who mostly shunned, and at times mocked, the wearing of masks, White House advisors were rarely seen masked inside the West Wing.

Since Trump and his wife Melania tested positive, the mood has shifted. A source with knowledge of planning for Saturday's outdoor event said all guests will be required to wear a mask to listen to Trump give his address from a White House balcony.

A similar gathering two weeks ago, to

announce the nomination of conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, has been singled out as a likely source of many of the dozens of positive cases since linked to the White House.

Anthony Fauci, the respected director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, has referred to it as a "superspreader event."

Many questions remain unanswered about the White House outbreak, with more than a dozen cases recorded in the president's inner circle, including his spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany.

"When was the president's last negative Covid test?" asked Pete Buttigieg, a former

which cut off a formal talks mechanism in 2016 after she first won office. Tsai said she was committed to maintaining stability in the Taiwan Strait, but that this was the responsibility of both sides.

Still, she has made strengthening Taiwan’s armed forces a priority and said she would keep pushing this, upholding the principle of neither seeking war nor fearing it.

“Our commitment to our sovereignty and democratic values will not change, but we will also maintain strategic flexibility and be responsive to changes,” she said, without elaborating.

The United States has been pushing Taiwan to modernise its military so they can become a “porcupine”, hard for China to attack. Washington, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taipei, though it is its strongest global backer.

contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, now tipped for a prominent role in a Joe Biden administration should he defeat Trump on November 3. 213,000 AMERICANS DEAD Trump's biggest liability -- overwhelming public dissatisfaction over his handling of the pandemic -- has returned as the headline issue of the campaign thanks to his own infection, with cases again on the rise nationwide. The seven-day average of new daily cases recorded between October 3 and 9 -47,184 -- was the highest since the week of August 13 to 19 with an average of 47,530 new cases, according to an AFP analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.

"Over 213,000 Americans have died from this virus -- and the hard truth is it didn't have to happen this way," Biden tweeted on Saturday.

Barack Obama's former vice president - who is currently riding close to 10 points ahead in national polls and has solidified his lead in key battleground states -- is continu-

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

ing to campaign at his own pace.

In the Republican camp, meanwhile, there is increasingly palpable concern at the state of the race -- with some party heavyweights openly sounding the alarm.

"If on Election Day people are angry and they've given up hope and they're depressed... I think it could be a terrible election," Senator Ted Cruz warned this week.

"I think we could lose the White House and both houses of Congress, that it could be a bloodbath of Watergate proportions."

Trump insists the pollsters are all wrong -- and is counting the days until he can get back onto the campaign trail, with a first rally set for Monday in crucial swing state Florida. "The president does such a great job when he's talking directly to the American people," said his spokesman Hogan Gidley on Fox News Saturday, "without the filter of the mainstream media."

"We'll be having more announcements of more events upcoming, because the president wants to be out there."