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Opposition echoing Indian propaganda against army: PM Imran

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“The purpose of this [Indian propaganda] was to present Pakistan in a negative light in front of the world and to portray that there is chaos so that no one invests in the country, ” the premier said. “The PakistanArmy was also targeted […] India wants the army to be portrayed as a rogue army and as terrorists. ” Khan stated that it was also discovered that the fake websites unearthed in the investigation were also promoting the PDM. “This is the first time that Pakistan’s opposition has targeted the PakistanArmy in this way. There is no prior example of this. ” Khan also rubbished the claims of receiving the support of the establishment to come into power. “If the election was rigged, did you go to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) or the Supreme Court? Did you take this up in Parliament? Did you say at any forum that the election was rigged?” The premier continued and said that democracy holds its leaders accountable. “The people should ask [PPP Chairman] Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and [PML-N Vice President] Maryam Nawaz that what their qualifications are to head their political parties. If someone asks them what their job experience is they will say that their fathers are the most corrupt men in the country. This is their qualification. They have not worked for an hour in their life and are here to run a country. " “The previous rulers, who looted the wealth of the country, want to build pressure for securing a national reconciliation ordinance (NRO) on their cases. Giving them NRO by any government will be tantamount to sedition against the country, ” the PM added. Changing gears, the premier said that the government will ensure universal health coverage in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) under the Health Card Scheme by the end of next year. “Every family in Punjab and KP will have health cards, enabling them to get free medical treatment up to one million rupees in any hospital of the country. The government plans to build a health system that will ensure basic health facilities across the country. The private sector is being encouraged and facilitated to establish hospitals. ” Underlining the importance of education for overall development of the country, the premier said that the government that plans for the next generations focuses on education. “The country will grow fast, if its youth is equipped with education and technological skills. ” The PM further said his government is working to reduce the debt burden of the country. “Amajor milestone has been achieved. The country's current account has been in surplus for the last five months for the first time in 17 years. Similarly, the fiscal deficit is also being controlled. ” The visit: The visit came at a crucial time for the party and the premier who is under an increasing burden to deliver on his electoral promise of a strengthened economy independent of foreign assistance and loans even as the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on global financial markets. Earlier this week, Khan, at a ceremony held to review the performance of various ministries and divisions, said the government was left with no excuse for not delivering on its promises. “This is time for performance and delivery, ” he had said.At the ceremony, the prime minister spoke candidly about the pitfalls, the challenges as well as the hardships his government had inherited and reiterated his resolve to overcome all the obstacles in the way of good governance and public service.

NEWS 05 IndIan farMers agree tO Meet gOvernMent Over cOntentIOus farM laws

neW deLhi AGENCIES

lEADERS of Indian farmers’ unions have agreed to meet ministers on Tuesday, possibly paving the way for a seventh round of talks with the government which has so far failed to mollify growers who say three new agricultural laws threaten their livelihoods.

Worried over farmers’ roundthe-clock sit-ins on the outskirts of New Delhi, the government of Prime Minister Narendra had on Thursday invited protest leaders to further talks.

Farmers’ unions still insist they want the laws repealed, a coalition of unions called Samyukta Kisan Morcha said on Saturday in a letter to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’Welfare.

The government says the laws, which came into force in September, will unshackle farmers from having to sell their produce only at regulated wholesale markets. It argues farmers will gain if large traders, retailers and food processors can buy directly from producers, bypassing antiquated wholesale markets.

But tens of thousands of farmers have camped out on national highways demanding the government withdraw the laws that they fear will eventually dismantle regulated markets and stop the government buying rice and wheat at guaranteed prices.

Farmers’ leaders would also in Tuesday ’s meeting oppose plans to impose stiff penalties for the burning of crop stubble, a major source of air pollution, according to the farmers’letter seen by Reuters.

Modi has dismissed the farmers’ protests as motivated by his political opponents, while the main opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi has accused the prime minister of introducing the laws to help a few business people.

UN peacekeepers killed in Central African Republic before election

Bangui AGENCIES

Three United Nations peacekeepers were killed in Central African Republic, the UN mission there said on Saturday, as the government and its allies tried to fend off a rebel offensive ahead of Sunday ’s (today) presidential and legislative elections.

The Burundian peacekeepers were killed on Friday by unidentified assailants in Dekoa, about 200 km (125 miles) north of the capital Bangui, according to the UN mission, known as MINUSCA. Two more were injured, it said.

Peacekeepers were also attacked by unknown assailants in Bakouma in the southwest of the country, MINUSCAadded.

CentralAfrican Republic, which is rich in diamonds, timber and gold, has experienced five coups and numerous rebellions since independence from France in 1960. It has been gripped by insecurity since former President Francois Bozize was ousted by a rebellion in 2013.

President Faustin-Archange Touadera is seeking a second term governing the country of five million on Sunday (today). On Saturday, the constitutionalcourtdeniedopposition requeststodelaytheelections,ensuring they will go ahead as planned.

The court rejected Bozize’s presidential candidacy earlier this month, saying he did not satisfy the “good morality ” requirement because of an arrest warrant and UN sanctions against him for allegedly ordering assassinations, torture and other crimes when he was president.

The United Nations also accuses him of collaborating with a coalition of militias to prevent the elections from going ahead.

Bozize has denied ordering or committing crimes when he was president while his party, the main opposition, has denied the UN allegation, saying they have no links to militia or rebels.

India detains 75 in occupied Kashmir after local election

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India and Pakistan have claimed all of the Kashmir region since the partition of Britishruled India into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu-majority India in 1947. Two of the three wars they have fought have been over the Himalayan region The detentions undermine the verdict of the people, said Imran Nabi Dar, spokesman for the National Conference, a regional party and a key member of the alliance. The alliance’s victory shows that Kashmiris have not accepted Modi’s decision to end occupied Kashmir’s special status, said Omar Abdullah, a former chief minister and head of the National Conference. After their release from lengthy detention, Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, chief of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party, announced the alliance in October to seek a peaceful restoration of occupied Kashmir’s autonomy.

Shaheed Benazir Bhutto: A global leader

By Bashir riaz

On the eve of December 27, 2007, the sky, the ground and the hearts of the people of Pakistan bled as the country ’s beloved former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was brutally assassinated. She was a part of our family and our homes, and her loss felt personal to every single citizen, regardless of their political affiliations.

Different European countries andAmerican institutions acknowledge Shaheed BB’s contributions towards democracy, rule of law and human rights, and pay tributes to her even after her assassination.

I still remember that during a visit to Denmark in June, 1984, two renowned newspapers wrote detailed articles on Shaheed BB and gave her titles akin to “Princess of the East” and “Iron Lady ” . Such is the nature of a leader, who is respected nationally and internationally.

Shaheed BB represented the federation and was the face of unity among the provinces. Not just within Pakistan but also on international forums, she favoured dialogue and believed in conflict resolution through discussions rather than violence. She used to say that we should build bridges and stay positive. There is no doubt that the former prime minister represented the bright side and a positive image of the country.

She highlighted the Kashmir issue on various international forums. In a conference held in Morocco by the OIC, the former prime minister spoke about Kashmir and helped theAll Parties Huriyat Conference to become a member organisation. She had a clear stance on the Kashmir conflict.

She believed that the people of Kashmir should have the right to decide their future. In line with the UN resolution on the subject, she suggested a “soft border” betweenAzad Jammu and Kashmir and Indian-occupied Kashmir to give relief to the Kashmiris.This was to allow the two sides to mingle together, discuss their problems, and eventually reach a consensus on the Kashmir issue. Similarly, she raised her voice on the issue of Palestine and stopped purchases from stores owned by supporters of oppressors of the Palestinians.

Shaheed BB loved her country and never stopped propagating a positive image of the country abroad. During her exile, she continued her struggle for democracy in Pakistan. She delivered lectures in the UK and the USA, where she met their national leaders and told them about the situation of struggle for democracy in Pakistan. These meetings were not publicized because she believed success lies in discretion.

She visited Delhi in 2003, where the then Indian Prime MinisterWajpai consulted her about visiting Pakistan. When I mentioned this in an article, she advised against commenting on a private discussion as it was against diplomatic protocols. Her meetings played a significant role in building a narrative outside Pakistan that during those precarious circumstances when Pakistan was fighting terrorism, it was imperative that the people of Pakistan were onboard. The only way to achieve that was through supporting democracy in the country. As part of these efforts, Shaheed BB had to return to Pakistan, a country where her party had support across the nation.

In 2005, the US assistant secretary visitedDubaiforaconferenceandexpressedher wish to meet Shaheed BB. She was later invited to a dinner by Shaheed BB, where they heldinterestingconversation.Shepractically told her that the then President Gen Pervez Musharraf is going to rule the country for the next ten years and you would have reached the age of sixty by then. Therefore, you should consider leaving politics and become a chairperson of human rights commission.

Benazir responded: “I have not struggled for so many years only to become some representativeoftheUnitedNations.Iwillreturn toPakistan,whichismyfirstandlastpriority. Iwillstandbymypeoplewhosufferedinjails and persevered through a lot of challenges. I will never abandon my people” . Upon hearing this categorical response, the subject was changed and not brought up again.

Shaheed BB was well aware of the potential threat to her life at that time. General Musharraf had refused to provide an adequate security detail to Benazir and was adamant that she should not return to Pakistan. Such measures, or lack thereof, did not deter Shaheed BB from returning to her homeland. She knew PPP had to fight and win elections to be able to bring a real democratic change in the country.

In 2002, the election results were such that the government could not be formed by a single party and it had to be a coalition with the PPPP. In those circumstances, some representatives elected on PPPP’s tickets joined Pervez Musharraf, which was a great set-back for the party.

In 2008, Shaheed BB realized that her presence in the country amongst her people was vital to avoid a repetition of 2002. In this way, she chose to protect her party ’s ideology and vision and returned to Pakistan where forces, threatened by her democratic ideals, extinguished her life. But just like they were unable to extinguish the love of former Prime Minister Shaheed ZulfiqarAli Bhutto from the hearts of the people, similarly, they only cemented further her love in her death.

All the expectations are now linked with the torchbearers of her legacy, that is currentlybeingcarriedforwardbyChairmanBilawal Bhutto Zardari. The Bhutto family has never chosen a path that was simply easy or that was in their personal interest. This is such a family in the history of Pakistan that hasmadeimmensepersonalsacrificesforthe sakeofthecountry.Asaresult,theycontinue to rule the hearts of the common people.

The writer is the former press secretary of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and advisor to Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

06 COMMENT The system in quandary And the establishment’s dilemma

The PDM has plans like resignations from the assemblies, a march to Islamabad and a sit-in aimed at paralyzing the federal administration. Attempts to create dissensions in the opposition alliance have failed to achieve the purpose. The JUI has expelled four of its leaders while the PML(N) and PPP have categorically rejected the move suggesting the release of their leaders in return for an end to the ongoing protests. The JUI(F) chief would not be attending the Garhi Khuda Bux gathering today. he would however be represented by five of his party leaders. Meanwhile Maryam Nawaz would be present at the occasion. A PML(N) leader has said his party would not mind if the long march is delayed till March on account of the cold weather. Despite differences persisting among the components of the PDM, the alliance faces no immediate breakup.

The PTI government was never so desperately in need of crutches provided by the establishment as it is today. The Prime Minister’s incompetence at managing the allies has already led to a break with the BNP(M). Its tactic of promising the pie in the sky to every ally while knowing that it cannot deliver on the promises, has this time led the MQM to ponder dissociating itself from the alliance. The PM must have gone into conniptions when advised by GDA leader Pir Pagara to free opposition parliamentarians currently in custody and hold talks with them. As time passes there seems to be no end to the ruling alliance’s predicament.

We are told that Pakistan faces an imminent threat from India. There is a need under the circumstances for the establishment to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of building a house of cards that needs its continuous support. This has led the leaders of the ten-party alliance to name names in public gatherings that should be embarrassing for the offstage players. The JUI(F) has announced it will hold a dharna in Rawalpindi if NAB is not reined in by those who matter. To enjoy universal support the establishment needs not to be seen a party in the ongoing political standoff and has to consider the demand for every institution strictly confining itself to the sphere allotted to it by the constitution.

PTA and social media

Outlandish warnings that are a source of embarrassment for the country

DesPITe being a direct beneficiary of unregulated social media that helped propel the party into being a mainstream political contender, the PTI, since coming to power after winning the 2018 general elections has made all-out efforts to control the type and flow of content on the internet without having to outright ban major platforms and websites. To achieve this, it has to regularly request social media behemoths such as Google, Facebook and Twitter to take down selective content that is deemed offensive and sacrilegious. The latest example of this is the Pakistan TelecommunicationAuthority (PTA) issuing a notice to Wikipedia to take down a page titled ‘Present Khalifa of Islam’ containing information about Mirza Mansoor Ahmad who is recognised by the Ahmadiyya community as their fifth ‘caliph’ . Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia that is publicly accessible and can be modified by users within certain limits. The second amendment to the constitution of Pakistan in 1974 declared Ahmedis non-Muslims and in 1984 Zia-ul-haq passed an anti-Ahmadiyya ordinance that further restricted the community from practising their religion freely. These laws are exclusive to Pakistan and are therefore implementable within its borders, but beyond that, to expect a website that is viewed the world over where a vast array of information is published and updated daily, to adhere to the religious proclivities of a single nation is simply outlandish.

While the most advertised portion of the PTI’s election manifesto, both in 2013 and 2018, was to bring an end to corruption and emerge as a fresh much-needed political force that would do away with the status quo, it was also envisioned, at least by its voters, to be progressive and tolerant, projecting Pakistan on the world stage as a contender when it came to upholding the democratic principles of accountability, religious tolerance and freedom of speech. The party ’s treatment of conventional media that now works in an environment of forced self-censorship, and its fresh initiative to force social media into a similar sort of submission, displays a complete departure from the electorate’s expectations. There is a presence of both rampant hypocrisy and a severe detachment from reality when on one hand federal institutions such as the PTA are issuing warnings such as the one it has and then there is an outcry from the government when the UsA places the country on a religious freedom blacklist.

DedicatedtothelegacyofthelateHameedNizami Arif Nizami Editor

Half-way mark

Time for a reset

Arif NizAmi

PRIMe minister Imran Khan’s recent lament that, “one should never come to power without homework, ” can be generally perceived as an implicit admission of defeat. As if the PTI (Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf) government is a mega corporation rather than a political party, for the umpteenth time ministers have been asked to fill a performance report.

The PTI crossing half way through its five-year tenure, the prime minister has reshuffled the cabinet four times in trying to find the right mix to click as a team. Ironically, Khan, while in the opposition had promised a lean and mean cabinet of about twenty people, but by now has expanded to fifty plus comprising a bevy of ministers apart from special assistants, advisors and ministers of state.

These include cronies who have no experience of governance whatsoever, overnight becoming experts in their respective departments.

The prime minister has also complained that some members of his cabinet are not experienced enough. Unfortunately, facts do not support this contention. There are quite a few ministers that have served many a government in the past. One such example is the minister for finance Dr. hafeez sheikh who is also heading the FBR (Federal Board of Revenue) and the Privatization Commission, and is sort of an economic czar.The ex-World Bank apparatchik held the same position under Zardari’s government. sheikh RashidAhmed has been a minister in different governments including the sharifs. The list of such ‘experienced hands ‘is pretty long.

But even those who were thought to be brilliant in their field and were pre-selected as new blood somehow also failed to click in their boss’s eyes.Take Movement) putsch, Khan’s government is in no imthe case ofAsad Umer who joined PTI after heading mediate danger. Unlike his predecessors, the prime a large corporation where he showed mixed results. minister has been shrewd enough not to lose sight of he was pre-selected as finance minister. After the ground realties. showing reluctance on the issue of Pakistan going in Unless the prime minister wholly believes in the an IMF (International Monetary Fund) programme he system, it will become increasingly difficult for him was shown the door. to run things and also to take his team along. Khan,

The prime minister seems to be quite impressed many a times, had shown his preference for the preswith the Us presidential system. Citing the Us pres- idential system. somehow, amongst the elite, a strong ident elect joe Biden’s example, Khan in the same centre with a directly elected president is the answer ceremony ,contended that the newly elected presi- to Pakistan’s manifest problems. dent gets two and a half months to prepare himself ‘Man, on the horseback-Ayub Khan’ , the former for the job and pick his team. dictator is idolized that in his tenure Pakistan made

Admittedly the Us presidential system is unique tremendous economic progress. The fact that we lost in this respect. Nonetheless it is flawed, as the De- half the country in the process is conveniently pamocrats found out to their dismay thatTrump, the de- pered over. feated incumbent simply refused to concede. To this After trial and tribulations we have come to the day he is struggling not to conclusion that a federal parhand over power. liamentary and democratic

The PTI had plenty of system works best for Paktime to do its homework, and istan. Former military strongaccording to Khan had ing papers on virtually workevery The PTI had plenty of time to men general Zia ul haq and Pervez Musharraf, in order to department. But what went wrong? While in the opposition more time was spent on do acc its ord homework, and ing to Khan had perpetuate stroyed the mentary themselves, dedemocratic parlianature of the political agitation and to get maximum numbers of ‘electables’ on its side in order to worki every ng de papers partme on virt nt. But ually what constitution. Their sor Ayub simply with the parliame pre did ntar decesaway y syssecure a workable majority in theparliament.Ofcourse,this wasonlypossiblewithalotof went wro oppositio n n g? Wh more ile in time the was tem replacing it with the presidential form of government. The eighteenth amendhelp from powers that be who wereovertlykeentogetImran in.Afterbeingelected,thePTI a sp nd en to t on get political agitation maximum numbers ment of the constitution consensually adopted during the PPP’s government in 2010 government should its house in order to an efficient working have set organize machine of ‘ele order ctables’ o to secure n a its side in workable was an attempt to correct the anomalies introduced by past dictators in the constitution. to govern. But instead time was wasted on hair-brained schemes and satisfying naive majority in course the , thi p s arlia was ment only . Of since Khan came power, a clear disdain for eighteenthAmendment is to the expreconceived notions. The result is that way through its term the half govpossi from ble with powers a th lo at t of be h w elp ho pressed by the prime minster and his backers. somehow an impression is being deliberernment finds itself in a cul de sac.The economy, despite claims that a turnaround is were overtly keen Imran in. to get ately created that thanks to this amendment all resources have been shifted to the here, is in a mess. Current provinces, impoverishing the debt needed to pay old loans federal government in the and interest has alarmingly process. The perverse logic increased. Inflation is sky being applied here is that the high much to the chagrin of the common man. money transferred to the provinces is some kind of

A lot is being made of the consistent increase in dole not their right. As the prime minister has quite current account surplus and a nominal increase in ex- candidly admitted that his government has not much ports. These are positive signs but not enough to be time left, concerted efforts should be made to maniperceived as an advent of spring after a long hot sum- festlyimprovegovernance.heneitherhasthemajority mer. Khan has exhorted his team to show results in northeconsensustochangemattersliketinkeringwith the second half of his government’s tenure. This will the federal parliamentary nature of the constitution. be difficult as the die is already cast. Barring a miracle, it’s too late in the day to change the ethos of the Arif Nizami is Editor, Pakistan Today. He can be PTI government. contacted at arifn51@hotmail.com

Despite the joint opposition (Pakistan Democratic http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk

Why democracy?

Is democracy worth holding on to?

rAbiA Ahmed

FOR those who want to hold on to democracy it is important to remember that democracy─ the real democracy which rarely exists─ is the rule of the people. That does not necessarily mean, does not even often mean, the rule of what is right. so then, what is ‘right’? Doesn’t the concept of ‘right’ vary from thinking person to thinking person? For example, some people might think it is fine to compare religions and then decide which applies to you, while others might prefer to take the faith approach and hang on unvaryingly to what they once accepted as correct.Which of them is ‘right’?What’s more, who is to decide?

It often seems as though ‘right’as a definite circumscribed set of things exists only in the minds of the herd which accepts because they ’re expected to accept without much thought. Which seems to make democracy acceptable solely because it is the will of the majority, not because it is right.

For democracy to be ‘right’ the decisions of the majority need to be right as well. That might work in an educated society (although not necessarily so) such as switzerland which is probably home to the ‘realest’form of democracy on earth, but what of the less educated places, or the wildly less educated places such as Pakistan and India? Would you say it is right to persecute people because of their faith? That certainly appears to be the majority opinion in India and in Pakistan. Is it right to generally base one’s opinion on a narrow view of the world such as happens in these two countries? If such is the view of most of the people in these countries, then can any real democracy exist in countries like these? so should democracy be sustained not because it is necessarily right, but because it makes people happy? Does democracy make people happy? sadly, that does not appear to be the case either. eric Weiner, a few years ago, studied that very question and speaks about Moldova, once part of the UssR.hefoundMoldovatobetheepitomeoftheunhappiestsetofpeopleintheworld.Thatisnotbecause the country is not democratic, it is, or because Moldovia is poor– it is poor but not as poor as Bangladeshforinstance,butbecauseofcertaincultural attitudesthat‘belittlethevalueoftrustandfriendship, ’ values that ‘leave no space for the happiness of hope. ’ so, an unhappy democracy. Is that an oxymoron? ericWeiner once again quotes Inglehart as saying that “to assume that democracy automatically makes people happy is to assume that the tail is wagging the dog. ” Comparing China with the countries of the former UssR, the Chinese are apparently much happier than the Russians are. As for one of today ’s apparently democratic countries, the UsA, as per a 2019 Pew Research result, it came up with 58 percent of its people saying they were unhappy, specifically with the way democracy was functioning in their country. so no, the tail is definitely not wagging the dog. so why is democracy such a big thing?

Itisabigthingbecausethereisnoalternative.Yet democracy is in crisis, which must be addressed. ArundhatiRoysays:‘Thecrisisofmoderndemocracy is a profound one. Free elections, a free press and an independentjudiciarymeanlittlewhenthefreemarket has reduced them to commodities available on sale to the highest bidder. ’Roy is, as always very right. But in this case she does not go far enough. There is that thingcalledtheconstitutionthatallocatespower:who holds the power, and how much.

Think UsA. One must keep doing that because that country has so pushed itself under everyone’s noseasthegreatestdemocracyintheworld.Ithadnot reckoned with Donald Trump who arrived, it must be admitted, because of democracy. That in itself must be enough to push the whole concept into the ground, but one must not be as arbitrary as that. Yet it was Donald Trump who ensured that the supreme Court was loaded with his personal appointees prior to the elections. Trump’s accusations of unfair elections have failed in every state, mainly because there was no proof to support the claim. he has claimed that his accusation should be heard by the Us supreme Court but himself accepts that this will be difficult to achieve. Probably, if there were a way to take matters tothesupremeCourtMrTrumpmaysucceedinoverturning the elections by means of his appointees in that Court. Instead he has resorted to a pardoning and murdering spree before he is forced to leave office, executing death row inmates, and pardoning proven criminals who have claim to his friendship.

Why is this President, or any President, given the power to pardon and execute? how does that fit in with the capabilities of a man or woman who was elected to govern the country and who in MrTrump’s casehasnolegalknowledgeatall,whowouldbehard put to pronounce legal terms if it ever came to that. If a person is guilty of and has confessed to a crime, it is the law courts who must punish that person or let the person off. If a person is condemned to die, it is the law courts who must assess their behaviour and their crime, it is the law courts that must take steps to free them or carry on with a punishment. Ajudge, be it in any country must be a neutral, well paid individual which puts him or her beyond bribery. he or she must not be a political appointee which completely negates the idea of neutrality.Any hint of such a thing should be considered a crime worth the highest punishment. A person who contravenes the neutrality of the judiciary must be liable to the same punishment as awarded for treason. To uphold the independence of the judiciary, to strive for justice must be the supreme factor in any democracy. And it is only a free press, and a public that is free to speak, that can ensure this.

The leadership of Pakistan appears struck by the problems faced by the newly elected President of the UsA with regards to a handover from the previous government.That is valid. But will the leadership also take note of how important it is for the judiciary to be independent? An independent judiciary with judges free from persecution is the most important factor in a democracy. Without that there is chaos and no justice.

The Quaid tion of their political masters in preference to upholding the interests of the state, thus plunging in into an irretrievable fall away from the lofty ideals it was to embrace and promote. The path from a liberal and egalitarian state He not only dominated the world that he lived in. He reshaped it. to It a bigoted and has destroyed intolerant the found one atio has nal been ethos lethal. of the Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Mohammad Ali Jinnah did all three. ” –Stanley Wolpert I T is extremely difficult to write about people one admires deeply as it would be for me to write about the Quaid, Mohammad Ali Jinnah. he was not just another human being, another leader. he was a largerthan-life presence who not only dominated the world that he lived in, but also reshaped it.And looking at what we have made of the country that he left behind, it is also painful to take to the pen. One needs to begin at the beginning, but where is it that beginning? his childhood days or his early life struggles? Or his joining the Congress only to become disenchanted with its policies and leaving it? Or being persuaded to lead the Muslim League and the ensuing struggle for Pakistan? Or the mammoth opposition that he encountered and the grit and courage with which he demolished that? Or the boundless strength of his character and the indomitable faith that he had in the success of his mission? Or the travails that he suffered in his personal life and the indelible marks of pain that he carried through the rest of his living years? There was all that and, then some more, which one may not be able to encapsulate because limited is the power of the words, and even more limited the capacity of the mind. In the context of my piece, I would be more concerned about the country that he left behind with his death in 1948 and what it has been reduced to after 73 years of independence. The crowning of his success was no less than a miracle, but through all the years since then, we have frittered away the glorious opportunities of turning the newly-born country into a formidable powerhouse dedicated to the welfare of its people. Instead, it has been shaped into a monolith, nibbling away at the resources and opporCandid Corner rAoof hAsAN matching resolve for meeting the challenge. As long as he lived, he shouldered it all with an incredible reservoir of devotion and dedication that he was able to generate in spite of an emaciated body. This was no less than a herculean struggle as the disease was eating him from inside and he knew that he did not have long to live. But he never paused for a moment. The treasure that he left behind is contained in his address to the first Constituent Assembly in Karachi on 11 August 1947 when he had set forth the principles that Pakistan should espouse in its quest for a vibrant future. he wanted to see the country grow as a liberal, egalitarian, nondiscriminating, tolerant and progressive entity as was effectively conveyed in his landmark speech: “You are free.You are free to go to your temples. You are free to go to your mosques or any other place or worship in this state of Pakistan.You may belong to any religion or caste or creed -- that has nothing to do with the business of the state” . Thus, as the first defining principle of the new-born country, he separated religion from the affairs of the state. he elaborated this further: “We are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle: that we are all citizens, and equal citizens, of one state” . As practical demonstration of these enshrining values, the Quaid ensured that his first cabinet had adequate representation from the minority communities: Jogendra Nath Mandal, a hindu, was sworn in as minister of law and labour and Zafrauullah Khan, a member of the Ahmedi community, as minister of foreign affairs. Pakistan’s first holiday calendar included the celebratory days of all its minority communities. The second fundamental principal that he established was the distinction between the state and the government. he did so in his address to the civil servants in Peshawar in April 1948: “Governments are formed, governments are defeated. Prime Ministers come and go, ministers come and go, but you stay on...You should never be influenced by any political pressure, by any state, rendering it vulnerable and insecure. The reasons can be directly attributed to the failure of the state in provisioning for its people so that their self-esteem is not compromised and they are not forced to squander the values which the Quaid had endeavoured to instil in them. The fulfilment of the social contract which is the cardinal base giving the state its foremost legitimacy was replaced by the insatiable greed of those who ruled the country, irrespective of which party they belonged to, or which institution they represented. They were driven not by the enthusiasm to serve the people, but the lust to indulge in perpetuating their personal interests and those of their anointed successors. Much has gone wrong and remedying it would require courage and conviction of the same measure that the Quaid demonstrated throughout his years of struggle for Pakistan and his battle in fighting a mortal disease. But, this must be preceded by cultivating a deep-set faith that we have to revert to a Pakistan that was envisioned at the time of its creation, and not the one it has regressed to becoming now. Alongside being the unquestioned leader of millions, the Quaid was also a sensitive human being.The personal pain that he suffered through his marriage with Ruttie resonates poignantly through each word of the last letter that she wrote to him barely a few weeks before she died at the age of 29: “I have suffered much, sweetheart, because I have loved much. The measure of my agony has been in accord to the measure of my love... Darling I love you– I love you– and had I loved you just a little less I might have remained with you– only after one has created a very beautiful blossom, one does not drag it through the mire... I have loved you, my darling, as it is given to few men to be loved” . Few men have ever devoted themselves to a cause as single-mindedly as the Quaid did to the cause of Pakistan.As a nation, we owe it to him to turn the fate of the country around to what it was envisioned to becoming– a compassionate, caring and tolerant state devoted to serving its people without any distinction or discrimination. Just the way the Quaid dreamt it. The tragedy is that we continue to drift away from that dream. Few men have ever devoted themselves to a cause as single-mindedly as the Quaid did to the cause of Pakistan. As a nation, we owe it to him to turn the fate of the country around to what it was envisioned to becoming– a compassionate, caring and tolerant state devoted to serving its people without any distinction or discrimination. Just the way the Quaid dreamt it. The tragedy is that we continue to drift away from that dream tunities that should have been committed exclusively to bringing its marginalised communities out of poverty. In pursuit of his passion for creating a separate homeland for the Muslims of the subcontinent, there were few around him who had any political party or any individual politician...You must not fall victim to any pressure, but do your duty as servants of the people and the state, fearlessly and honestly ” . What we have instead are bureaucrats perpetually beholden to the benefacThe writer is a political and security strategist, and heads the Regional Peace Institute –an Islamabad-based think tank. Email: raoofhasan@hotmail.com. Twitter: @RaoofHasan

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 Remembering the Daughter of the East

DAUGhTeR of a Brave Father and Leader ZulfikarAli Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto laid down her life like her father to let democracy prevail in a country where the curse of totalitarianism had usurped the rights of people. she emerged as the leader of poor masses when they had lost hope, after eleven long years of despotism, autocracy, and tyranny. That decade of hopelessness and iron hand rule had badly dented the administrative structure and political setup of the country.

The young Benazir accompanied his father at the ceremony of the historical simla agreement as a daughter she must have learned the tricks of maintaining diplomatic relations, from his father, who was probably one of the foremost diplomats Pakistan has ever had.

As a leader, she was brave, audacious, courageous, intuitive, and more importantly attached with her people. On the other hand, she also faced severe criticism from her opponents who were against her political existence. They kept alleging her of being "Western" throughout her political career because of her modern and rational approach towards politics. she did not choose this path but the path chose her because she committed to carrying her father,s legacy so she followed him too. Those who were at the peak of their lives in the late 70s and early 80s would have tested the tyranny of General Zia who,s sole aim of life after the assassination of ZulfikarAli Bhutto was to put hurdles in the way of Benazir so that she can not achieve her ultimate goal that was to make Pakistan Peoples Party a political force again.Abid of her assassination was also made.

After Zia had perished everybody would have thought that it was now going to be all easy and facile for her but a less severe and more challenging period of her political Journey started. On 2 December 1988 she became the first woman to hold the office of Prime Minister in a Muslim country, but could, not last long in that office and her government was dismissed after two years by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan. The role of Nawaz sharif, her political rival was also instrumental in her dismissal from the office.

During that brief tenure, she lifted bans from trade unions and also gave independence to the media. Because her rival was Chief executive of the biggest province of the country so it became durable for her to introduce any uniform method or policy for the country

In 1993 she again rose to the office of Prime minister but this time with a weak majority. During that second term, she attempted to resolve the economic crisis and tried to form a steady foreign policy. she was also optimistic about resolving the issue of unemployment in the country.

Benazir who had been facing tragedies and deceptions throughout her political journey was stuck by another perfidy when her most trusted ally who also was near to her father, Mr. Farooq Laghari the then President of Pakistan dismissed her government using the same sword of article 58( 2 b) she remained under house arrest, imprisonment and suffered acute torture and persecution, despite all these hardships and austerities she always believed that democracy is the best revenge

On 27th of December in the year 2007 she embraced martyrdom in the same city Rawalpindi where her father was hanged. I would like to conclude with the words of hameedAlwani who assisted her during her days of exile; " People say that democracy in Pakistan is shambling but even that shambling democracy is just because of Mohtramma BB shaheed,s oblations" KAMRAN KHAMISO KHOWAJA SuJAWAl Roll on Brexit!

The so-called Brexit deal between the UK and the eU has just reached the final stage at last with both the parties almost clinching the final deal. On the other part, there have been different stories and confusing signals from certain quarters about the long- awaited deal.

As a result of the Brexit deal, business patterns, facets of export/import and farming and job scene are all up for some more breaking points. But it is all about the good rapport and business coexistence between the peers and neighbors at the end of the day.

In general, cutting a deal takes a lot of efforts and introspection. similarly, it is these two big regions like the UK and europe that have to take the final call on the matter. Maybe, they are just fresh off the boat as for Brexit. There will be initial hiccups. however, they have to bear the brunt of everything out there.

More to the point, there have been many underlying problems among so many regions in the UK and eU. One report shows that the farmers involved in scottish seed potatoes cultivation have been left out of the Brexit business pact. These seed potato farmers from scotland have been giving out excellent agriculture output through heavy farm produce worldwide. hence, no farmers should be left out in the lurch mainly because of their beautiful agriculture activities. By the way, my native places like Korkai, Tiruchendur, Tuticorin, Tirunelveli, Marthandam, Nagercoil, Kanyakumari all in Tamil Nadu have long been yielding larger agriculture produce at various levels. Therefore, cherry-picking-choosing only the benefits- won't do. so in the current context, the UK and the eU should adjust to the new patterns through mutual understanding and encouraging all the agriculture and business activities across the board. P SENTHIl SARAvANA DuRAI MuMbAI Procrastination

ACCORDING to Merriam-Webster the procrastinate means to put off intentionally and habitually. The word itself tells us the meaning of it. high levels of human beings are willing to procrastinate. We always think for tomorrow but when tomorrow comes but we will forget and again try the same word for tomorrow. Why are we back? Is a question always asked to the Government but it is the issue of us. We are procrastinating everytime. We wait for tomorrow. When you delay work for a good reason, you ’re not procrastinating. What’s a good reason? When your work improves with the delay. The problems of us are when we say that we don't know and wait for tomorrow but reality we must learn today. May we cannot do tomorrow. There are a lot of benefits of stopping procrastination. If we stop , we will be very strong and we cannot deceive ourselves.As a request to all to beat procrastination and tell yourself to do it today , not tomorrow. May you get very stronger. JANSHAIR AMEER KEcH

08 WORLDVIEW TRUMP TO CIA: SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR WAR ON TERROR

inTercepT Matthew Cole

YeArS from now, we will forgive historians who, when documenting the Donald Trump presidency — its cold indifference to hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 deaths, its pandemic denialism, its migrant family separations, its use of the Justice Department as a political cudgel and the attorney general as a Mafia lawyer, the president’s genuine attempt to subvert the 2020 election results, and his impeachment — fail to note a bureaucratic dust-up between the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon in the waning days of the administration.

Last week, news broke that Trump’s acting defense secretary, Christopher Miller, sent a letter to the CIAnotifying the agency that the Pentagon would review the terms of its military support to CIA operations. News reports suggested that the Pentagon was planning to strip the CIA of its support for counterterrorism missions around the world almost immediately. Drones, elite soldiers, fuel, and medical evacuation of casualties, for example, would disappear almost overnight. CNN reported that the Pentagon was “planning to withdraw most support for CIAcounter-terror missions by the beginning of next year. ” The New York Times suggested that the purpose was to “make it difficult” for the CIA to conduct its covert war in Afghanistan as Trump reduces the number of U.S. troops there. ABC News described the decision as “ unprecedented. ” The cuts would leave CIA paramilitary officers to die should they suffer casualties, former officers told the press.

But interviews with six current and former national security officials, including some directly involved in the Pentagon’s review, suggest it is neither immediate nor controversial. Instead, the review serves as a coda for the Trump administration’s chaos — and as an unintentional gift to the incoming Biden administration.

Miller’s letter to CIA Director Gina haspel informed her that the Pentagon would update a classified 2005 memoranTimes of india Robin DaviD

The so-called ‘love jihad’ laws that many Indian states hope to pass after Uttar Pradesh’s ordinance, aim to stop Muslim men from marrying hindu women after converting them. Ironically enough, the same laws may help India become a lifetime member of an exclusive club of Muslim-dominated countries, that consider it their moral responsibility to police love between interfaith couples.

Many of these countries have religion integrated into their Constitution. This makes the case for India, which is a secular republic, more stark.

A PENTAGON REVIEW OF ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CIA WILL ALLOW BIDEN TO QUICKLY REASSESS THE FOREVER WARS FROM 9/11

dum of understanding outlining the terms of Defense Department support to CIAmissions. The Donald rumsfeld-led Pentagon wrote the memo in the early years of what the George W. Bush administration called the global war on terror. In the immediate weeks and months after the September 11 attacks, the Pentagon discovered that it had neither the intelligence capability nor the nimbleness that the CIA showed in their quick deployment to Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda conceived of and trained for the attacks; the CIA needed special operations forces to buttress their tiny paramilitary division.

As the Pentagon and CIA footprints grew in war zones, defense officials grew concerned about how soldiers and resources slipped into CIAoperations without the department’s notification.

The two sides struck a deal and the memorandum of understanding was born. The memorandum was spearheaded by Stephen Cambone, then the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, and one of his top deputies, Lt. Gen. William “Jerry ” Boykin, who coordinated their secret programs with the CIA, and then established an agreement where the Defense Department would share personnel and other military support to the agency. The purpose was to expedite and delegate the authority to pass Defense Department personnel and resources over to the agency.As part of the new framework, the Pentagon also outlined the terms of how special forces soldiers, for example, might be loaned to the CIA’s paramilitary division and deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq, where they would operate under the intelligence agency ’s authorities. In the ensuing years, the CIA and the Pentagon developed a close working relationship on and off foreign battlefields as two consecutive administrations spent at least tens of billions of dollars on a secret ecosystem — tools, weapons, and people — for killing.

Fast forward to Donald Trump. he campaigned in 2016 on pulling out U.S. troops from the wars which began after 9/11 and later, as president, declared victory over the Islamic State. In 2018, the Pentagon, led by Defense Secretary James Mattis, published a new national defense strategy as a blueprint for a new era. Counterterrorism was no longer the country ’s “primary concern. ” The new strategy called long-term strategic competition with China, russia, North Korea, and Iran the top priorities.

But as with all things in the Trump administration, chaos reigned, and the tension between Trump’s policy-by-tweet and his

In September 2015, when the hadiya case had still not made headlines and love jihad was a fringe idea in mainstream Indian politics, the US Library of Congress released the ‘Prohibition of interfaith marriage’ report. It listed 29 countries that barred or restricted marriages between consenting adults of different faiths.

Not surprisingly, 26 of these were Muslim-dominated countries, many of them infamous for tightly controlling individual liberty. The names were predictable – Saudi Arabia, Syria, egypt, Iran, Iraq, the UAe, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen …

But the list also had three countries that don’t belong to the Muslim world –India, Israel and Myanmar. effectively, the world knew of India as a country averse to interfaith marriages even before Uttar Pradesh passed its ordinance.

The only saving grace was that the Special Marriage Act allowed interfaith couples to get married after creating roadblocks, like giving a 30-day notice to the marriage registrar and putting up the notice at a public place so that society at national security officials, including those he once fawned over, caused constant confusion and internal conflict. Mattis resigned after Trump announced in December 2018 that the United States would unilaterally remove its forces from Syria, leaving America’s allies, the Kurds, vulnerable to slaughter by Turkish forces. Trump withdrew some troops but not for almost another year and under a new defense secretary, Mark esper. The forces in Syria only moved to neighboring Iraq. By then, it was clear that Trump wanted to end America’s forever wars, not out of some secret humanitarianism or morality, but rather to save money and make U.S. foreign policy, especially in the Middle east, much more transactional.

Trump reportedly tried several times to pull troops out ofAfghanistan but was said to have been blocked or slow-rolled by the national security establishment. After he lost the November election, Trump fired esper because he was said to have resisted the move.As a result, Miller replaced esper and quickly went about announcing that troops were indeed coming home.

As almost an afterthought, Miller and the acting undersecretary of defense for intelligence, ezra Cohen-Watnick, also pushed to update the 2005 sharing agreement to fall in line with the change in national security policy, several defense officials told The Intercept. They said that fears of resource cuts to the CIA are unfounded overall. “We could come out saying we’re going to do more [support for the CIA] because it’s more costly to go after russia and China, ” a senior defense official with knowledge of the review told The Intercept. “If you look at 10 years, it will probably be increased because it is more costly to do these things, and the risk is higher against the state actor. The only group that is hyperventilating about this are a small group of people who have become [counterterrorism] focused. ”

A secondary justification for rewriting the agreement is to allow the Pentagon to answer a simple question that has plagued military officials for years: how much support do we provide to the CIA, and how is it used?“We’ ve been trying to get a handle on what is the totality of what we’re giving, ” the Pentagon official said. “And nobody knew. We realized that we had lost track of how much was being given over the years. We have no idea, but it’s enormous, and that freaked people out because it’s like, holy shit, this has totally run away from us. ”

For military officials, the support to the CIA has become just like any other part of large comes to know that two consenting adults are taking the risk of crossing religious borders for love.

But, in the end, many still managed to marry despite pressure from their families and religious groups. Now, with state governments getting involved, the concept of love jihad is in the process of getting legitimacy. The laws will add another layer of difficulty to the entire process, that many couples will never be able to pass.

Laws are meant to protect people from persecution. But laws based on love jihad conspiracies may end up legally persecuting many interfaith couples. They will be prosecuted simply because they fell in love. In the process, India will be even more firmly ensconced in the exclusive club of love policemen.

It would perhaps be worthwhile to look at exactly where these 29 countries stand on overall freedom. The human Freedom Index, 2019, released in December last year, listed New Zealand, Switzerland, hong Kong, Canada andAustralia as the top five freest jurisdictions in the world. Prepared by the Cato Institute in the Pentagon’s self-licking ice cream cone: one with no end. The agreement has persisted for 15 years, even as national security priorities have changed. Two military officials who spoke with The Intercept said the Pentagon couldn’t answer congressional committees’ questions about how the CIA used the Pentagon’s resources.As a result, the new memo will insist that the CIAprovide more information to the Pentagon on where and how their support, including forces, is used. “If you want our huge amount of resources which we provide you — [and] it is a good partnership — you need to tell us what our people are being used for, on a real-time basis, so we can assess whether or not it is legal, whether or not it’s a good budgetary decision, whether it is a good use of resources, ” the senior Pentagon official said. “We don’t have any of that. ”

According to the senior Pentagon official involved in the review, the Pentagon is asking the CIA to use military support in the so-called great nation competition and use fewer resources in their counterterrorism efforts. It is all part of a more considerable effort to move the military ’s resources away from hunting suspected Islamic militants worldwide and toward the now two-year-old focus on other global powers. The military is letting the CIA know that they are ending its forever wars in a strategic sense.

“[Director haspel] wants out of the war on terror, ” the senior Pentagon official continued. “She thinks that takes the CIAaway from its core mission of going after russia and China. And it’s 20 years later, and we had to do [that] at the time, it’s 20 years now, and a shift has to be made. ”

A CIA spokesperson, asked whether haspel indeed believed the war on terror had taken the agency away from its core mission, referred to a speech she gave in 2018. “Another strategic priority, ” haspel said at the time, “is to invest more heavily in collecting against the hardest issues. Our efforts against these difficult intelligence gaps have been overshadowed over the years by the intelligence community ’s justifiably heavy emphasis on counterterrorism in the wake of 9/11. Groups such as the so-called Islamic State and Al Qaeda remain squarely in our sights, but we are sharpening our focus on nationstate adversaries. ”

CIA counterterrorism veterans believe the review stems from Trump making a last-minute effort to punish the CIAfor various offenses, but mostly because the agency concluded that russia interfered in the 2016 election to help him become presthe US, Fraser Institute in Canada and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Germany, the researchers prepare the annual index on 78 parameters. These include rule of law, security and safety, movement, religious freedom, freedom of association, freedom of assembly and civil society, freedom of expression, freedom of identity and relationships among others.

As expected, almost all the 29 countries did poorly on the index, not even making it to the top 75 ranks. Israel was the only exception, getting the 46th rank. India finished 94th. Jordan, ranked 80th, and Lebanon at the 88th spot, finished a few notches above India.

Pakistan finished 140th, and Bangladesh 138th. Syria raised no eyebrows for finishing last in the list of 162 countries. Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Algeria, Libya, egypt, Iraq, Sudan, Yemen and Syria dominated the list between ranks 148 and 162.

One can, of course, argue that India’s poor rank is not only because of the marriage laws. Yes, but these are definitely a concern and they don’t help. It also tells us to look at a deeper issue – how free are we as Indian citizens and how free do we want to be?

We live in an age where the state not only tells us who we can fall in love with and who we can’t, it also tells us which meats we can eat and the eating of which ident. A retired senior intelligence official told The Intercept that a senior congressional aide on an intelligence committee asked the White house last week to explain Miller’s letter to the CIA. The retired official said the aide was told, “It’s because the president’s followers believe the agency played a role” in Trump’s election loss last month. The retired official said the White house acknowledged that the claim of CIA involvement in Trump’s election loss was unfounded, but the facts didn’t matter. The message from the White house, according to the retired official, was that “it matters what Trump’s supporters think, and they think that’s the case. ”

Given Trump’s pettiness and thinskinned demeanor, it may very well be that Trump ordered the Pentagon to take its toys away from the CIA, but it also doesn’t matter.

The senior Pentagon official involved in the review insisted that the review be completed and signed off by acting secretary Miller by January 5, 2021, the day before Congress will most likely certify the electoral College victory for Joe Biden. A Pentagon spokesperson disputed that the memo would be finished by then.Why do the review now, weeks before a new president takes office?“Because nobody wants to do this, ” the senior Pentagon official said. “It’s like ripping off a Band-Aid. ”

While it is unusual to order a review so close to a new administration’s term, it is also ineffective. The senior Pentagon official refused to explain why January 5 was chosen as the date for completing the review. While it appears to be related to Congress’s certification of the electoral College, several national security officials insist that the Pentagon cannot implement any changes reflected in the new memo before or shortly after President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. So the review ’s conclusions cannot be foisted on the incoming administration.

But it does provide Biden with an unintentional gift. By forcing the incoming administration to respond to the review shortly after taking power, Trump’s team provides Biden with an opportunity to quickly take stock of 20 years of lethal operations, both in direct view and secret — and make a decision to end an unwinnable war.

Somewhat predictably, the part of the national security state that sees a threat to its future missions or budget is portraying dire consequences. “It’s the head of the snake, going ‘Turn!’” a former senior military officer told The Intercept. “The tail never likes it. ”

A lame-duck president agitating for a useful bureaucratic change as a parting shot at the deep state is the same delusional logic that came with much of Trump ’ s four years: occasionally doing the right thing for all the

India joins the love police

DRACONIAN INTERFAITH MARRIAGE LAWS RING THE DEATH KNELL FOR INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY

wrong reasons. meats will land us in jail. There is a fear that the government will soon tell OTTs like Netflix what they can show Indian audiences and what they can’t, because it has brought the platforms under its control.

It is also passing laws that can jail you without a credible reason and is refusing a straw and a pair of spectacles to jailed activists despite them needing these basic things on medical grounds.

It is perhaps time that we tell our governments where we, as citizens, draw red lines when it comes to our personal lives. And we will have to stand up for even those we disagree with. Individual freedom has to be the same for all, without worrying about who occupies which end of the ideological or political spectrum.

It is important to remember that if you bend a law to suit the ones you identify with, we make it vulnerable.And once you make the law vulnerable, you make it so for all, including yourself.

It is also important to remember that individual liberty and human dignity are closely linked.The government has to see its citizens as autonomous beings with agency. Citizens can’t be treated as subservient subjects of the state and nothing more.

Air Canada Boeing 737-8 MAX suffers engine issue

AnAir Canada Boeing Co 737-8 Max en route betweenArizona and Montreal with three crew members on board suffered an engine issue that forced the crew to divert the aircraft to Tucson, Arizona, the Canadian airline company said in an emailed statement on Friday. Shortly after the takeoff, the pilots received an “engine indication” and “decided to shut down one engine, ” anAir Canada spokesman said. “The aircraft then diverted to Tucson, where it landed normally and remains. ” The incident took place on Dec. 22. The crew received a left engine hydraulic low pressure indication and declared a PAN PAN emergency before diverting the flight, Belgian aviation news websiteAviation24.be here reported. “Modern aircraft are designed to operate with one engine and our crews train for such operations” , theAir Canada statement added. In a response to a Reuters request for comment, a Boeing spokeswoman referred to Air Canada for information on the incident and did not provide any additional comment. agencies

Japan Finance Minister welcomes UK-EU Brexit deal

TOKYO agencies

Japan welcomed a free trade agreement between Britain and the European Union that negotiators managed to secure just days before Brexit came into force, Finance Minister TaroAso said on Friday. “It should be highly valued that a broad agreement was clinched between the two, ”Aso told reporters after a cabinet meeting. Britain clinched a narrow Brexit trade deal with the European Union on Thursday, just seven days before it exits one of the world’s biggest trading blocs.

Japan November factory output seen rising for sixth month, outlook dims

TOKYO

agencies

Japan’s industrial output likely grew for a sixth straight month in November in a sign of gradual recovery in factory activity, although a recent resurgence in Covid-19 infections clouds the outlook, a Reuters poll showed on Friday. The trade ministry data due at 8:50 a.m. on Monday (2350 GMT Sunday) is likely to show factory output rose 1.2% in November from the previous month, slowing from a 3.9% gain in October, a Reuters poll of 17 economists showed. Japan’s factory output has been recovering from a pandemic-related downturn earlier this year, bolstered by global demand for automobiles and IT-related goods as well as capital goods, but some analysts said the outlook was uncertain. Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute said new virus infections in Europe andAmerica have stalled economic activity there. U.S. car sales are slowing and the Chinese economy ’s recovery to its pre-pandemic growth path has run its course, which will put a lid on Japan’s factory output, he said. “As such, Japan’s factory activity will seesaw in December and January, ” he added. The world’s third-largest economy has rebounded from the second quarter’s COVID-induced deep slump, lifted by rising exports and a pick-up in privatesector consumption. However, analysts worry that a recent resurgence in coronavirus infections in Japan and elsewhere may keep any recovery modest.

bUSinESS 09 BrEXiT TrAdE dEAl pUBlishEd As UK CAlls For ENd To 'Ugly' divisioNs

LONDON agencies

BRITAIN on Saturday published the text of its narrow trade agreement with the European Union just five days before it exits one of the world’s biggest trading blocs in its most momentous global shift since the loss of empire.

The text includes a 1,246-page trade document, as well as accords on nuclear energy, exchanging classified information, civil nuclear energy and a series of joint declarations.

The “Draft EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement” means that from 2300 GMT on Dec. 31, when Britain finally leaves the European Union’s single market and customs union, there will be no tariffs or quotas on the movement of goods originating in either place between the United Kingdom and the EU.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson cast the deal as the final implementation of the will of the British people who voted 52-48% for Brexit in a 2016 referendum, while Europe’s leaders said it was time to leave Brexit behind.

Michael Gove, a senior British minister who campaigned alongside Johnson to leave the EU, said the deal would allow Britain to put some of the divisions of the nearly five-year Brexit crisis behind it.

“Friendships have been strained, families were divided and our politics has been rancorous and, at times, ugly, ” Gove wrote in The Times. “We can develop a new pattern of friendly cooperation with the EU, a special relationship if you will, between sovereign equals, ” Gove said.

The Brexit referendum exposed a United Kingdom divided about much more than the European Union, and has fueled soul-searching about everything from secession and immigration to capitalism, empire and modern Britishness.

Such musings amid the political crisis over Brexit have left allies puzzled by a country, the world’s No. 6 economy and a pillar of the NATO alliance, that was for decades touted as a confident pillar of Western economic and political stability. BREXIT DEAL: The two sides finally clinchedatradedealonChristmasEvethat explicitlyrecognisesthattradeandinvestment require conditions for “a level playing field for open and fair competition. ”

If, though, there are “significant divergences” on rules between the two sides, then they can “rebalance” the agreement.

Each side will have an independent subsidy control adjudicator, though it was not immediately clear which body would do this in Britain, which had insisted on being free of any jurisdiction by the European Court of Justice.

On services, which comprise up to 80% of Britain’s economy, the two sides simply commit “to establish a favourable climate for the development of trade and investment between them” .

On fishing rights, Johnson agreed to a 5-1/2 year period to phase in new rules on what EU boats can catch in British waters, after which there will be annual consultations on the EU catch.

Britain will no longer take part in security sharing organisations and databases such as Europol, Eurojust and SIS-II, though there will be some cooperation for the exchange of passenger information and DNA, fingerprints and vehicle registration data.

The text includes many detailed annexes including on rules of origin, fish, the wine trade, medicines, chemicals and security data cooperation.

EU states are now working to implement the deal by Jan. 1 through a fasttrack procedure known as “provisional application” .

However, the European Commission said in publishing the treaty that the fasttrack approach would hold only until end-February as the European Parliament’s consent - expected in the first weeks of 2021 - is still needed to permanently apply it.

China will conduct talks on EU investment pact 'at its own pace'

BEIJING agencies

China will conduct talks on an investment pact with the European Union “at its own pace” , its foreign ministry said on Friday, raising doubts about whether a deal can be sealed by year-end. Negotiations for the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, which would grant European companies greater access to the Chinese market, have gone on for six years.

An EU official said last week that a deal was close following a push from Germany, which holds the EU presidency until the end of the year and is the biggest European exporter to China. But the latest comments by the Chinese government suggest otherwise.

China will “conduct talks at its own pace on the premise of safeguarding its security and developmental interests” , foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a news briefing on Friday.

His comments echoed that of the commerce ministry, which said late on Thursday that reaching an agreement required effort from both sides to “meet each other halfway ” .

Wang’s latest comments were also a walk-back from a day earlier. On Thursday, Wang had denied that talks were stuck due to China making more demands on nuclear energy. “As I understand, talks are goings smoothly, ” he had said.

A senior Western diplomat in Beijing told Reuters that China had asked Europe for “impossible things” , such as access to sensitive sectors such as energy, water treatment and public utilities.

Another major sticking point is China’s reluctance to ratify international laws related to labour and other aspects of sustainable development, the diplomat added.

Japan aims to eliminate gasoline vehicles by mid-2030s, boost green growth

TOKYO agencies

Japan aims to eliminate gasoline-powered vehicles in the next 15 years, the government said on Friday in a plan to reach net zero carbon emissions and generate nearly $2 trillion a year in green growth by 2050.

The “green growth strategy, ” targeting the hydrogen and auto industries, is meant as an action plan to achieve Prime MinisterYoshihide Suga’s October pledge to eliminate carbon emissions on a net basis by mid-century.

Sugahasmadegreeninvestmentatopprioritytohelp revive the economy hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and to bringJapanintolinewiththeEuropeanUnion,Chinaand other economies setting ambitious emissions targets.

“The government has set up ambitious targets to achieve a carbon neutral society in 2050, ” said Yukari Takamura, professor at the University of Tokyo.

“Making clear goals and policy direction in the green growth strategy will give incentives for companies to invest in future technology. ”

The government will offer tax incentives and other financial support to companies, targeting 90 trillion yen ($870 billion) a year in additional economic growth through green investment and sales by 2030 and 190 trillion yen ($1.8 trillion) by 2050.

A2 trillion yen green fund will support corporate investment in green technology.

The plan seeks to replace the sale of new gasolinepowered vehicles with electric vehicles, including hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles, by the mid-2030s. To accelerate the spread of electric vehicles, the government targets slashing the cost of vehicle batteries by more than half to 10,000 yen or less per kilowatt hour by 2030.

It aims to boost hydrogen consumption to 3 million tonnes by 2030 and to about 20 million tonnes by 2050 from 200 tonnes in 2017, in areas such as power generation and transportation.

Erdogan says Turkey will break economic 'triangle of evil' with reforms

ANKARA agencies

Turkey will bring in structural reforms to break the “triangle of evil” of interest rates, inflation and exchange rates, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, addingAnkara was determined to form a system based on production and employment. Erdogan promised a slate of judicial and economic reforms last month, leading to expectations of the possible release of politicians, including Kurdish ones, and human rights advocates from jail. But Erdogan’s recent comments on court rulings and criticism aimed at his government have fuelled scepticism about his pledge. Speaking via videolink at a ceremony inAnkara, Erdogan said 2021 would be “the year of democratic and economic reforms” and that efforts to present the reforms to parliament would move “as soon as possible” . “We hope to overcome troubles from economic attacks and the pandemic measures as soon as possible. By speeding up structural reforms, we are determined to form a system based on production and employment and breaking the interest rates, inflation and exchange rates triangle of evil, ” Erdogan said. “We are not carrying out democratic reforms because anyone forced us to, but because our people deserve them, ” he added. Erdogan has called interest rates the “mother of all evil” and says he believes high rates stoke inflation counter to monetary theory. He has often characterised Turkey ’s economic woes as the result of foreign attacks on the economy. Turkey ’s central bank hiked interest rates by 200 basis points to 17% on Thursday, seeking to cool double-digit inflation and bolster its credibility under new governor NaciAgbal. Turkey has also faced criticism from rights groups and its Western allies for a widespread crackdown following an abortive coup in 2016, under which thousands of people from the military, public and private sector were detained, sacked or arrested.

EU trade deal brings little progress for UK's giant financial sector

LONDON agencies

The European Union cannot decide yet on granting Britain access to the bloc’s financial market, even though London and Brussels have agreed a trade deal, a European Commission official said on Thursday.

While the landmark trade deal agreed on Thursday set rules for industries such as fishing and agriculture, it did not cover Britain’s much larger and influential finance sector.

There were hopes the trade deal would pave the way for more access to the EU for Britain’s finance industry, but the EU indicated it was in no rush to grant it.

Brussels has only granted financial market access, known as “equivalence” , for two financial activities from Jan. 1, when Britain will have left the EU’s single market.

The Bank of England has said there could be disruption in markets if no further access is allowed.

Just minutes after Britain and the EU hailed their agreement on trade, the bloc’s executive said it wanted a “series of further clarifications” on how Britain will diverge from EU rules after Dec. 31.

“For these reasons, the Commission cannot finalise its assessment of the UK’s equivalence in the 28 areas (under discussion) and thus will not take decisions at this point in time. The assessments will therefore continue, ” the official said.

The City of London finance hub secured no special treatment, leaving it on a par with arch rival New York 3,500 miles away as the EU seeks to reduce reliance on UK financial services.

The trade deal refers to financial services in the same way as the bloc’s other trade agreements, the official said.

Both sides will discuss how they can move forward on equivalence, stopping short of any commitment to grant access, Britain said.

The two sides will also aim to agree by March 2021 a memorandum of understanding on regulatory cooperation in financial services. Countries such as Canada and the United States already have such cooperation.

“There’s some good language about equivalenceforfinancialservices,perhapsnot as much as we would have liked, but it is nonethelessgoingtoenableourdynamicCity ofLondongetonanprosper,asneverbefore, ” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Britain was unable to replicate its trade deal with Japan that streamlines financial market access paperwork and avoids heavy conditions on data handling.

“We hope it (the trade deal) can lay the foundations for a collaborative future partnership as independent partners, ” said City of London leader Catherine McGuinness.

Simon Morris, a financial services partner at law firm CMS, said Britain was probably still aiming for a separate agreement covering financial services.

Luxembourg for Finance said the trade dealshouldmakeBrusselsmoreamenableto granting equivalence beyond the 18 months for derivatives clearing, and six months for settling Irish securities agreed so far.

Without an extension to derivatives trading, New York is poised to pick up business from London next month.

Britain’s finance ministry, which had no immediate comment, has said changes to rules will not lower standards. Banks and tradingplatformsinBritainhaveopenedhubs in the EU to avoid disruption to customers.

“The City now needs to take its future in its own hands, ” said Daniel Pinto, founder and CEO of Stanhope Capital Group.

10 FOREIGNNEWS Motor home explodes in Nashville, possible human remains found near site

NASHVILLE AGENCIES

A motor home parked on a street exploded in downtown Nashville at dawn on Friday, moments after a recorded message emanating from the vehicle warned of a bomb, in what police called an “intentional act” in the heart of America’s country music capital.ur content will begin in 19 seconds Three people were injured in the Christmas morning blast, though none critically. Authorities said it was uncertain whether anyone was inside the recreational vehicle when it exploded, but police reported hours later that investigators had found possible human remains nearby. Nashville Mayor John Cooper ordered a curfew imposed around the blast site through the holiday weekend as FBI investigators comb the scene, though police said they were aware of no further threats to Tennessee’s most populous city. Authorities offered no explanation as to a possible motive, and there was no claim of responsibility. The blast came just moments after officers responded to reports of gunfire in the area and discovered the recreational vehicle parked outside an AT&T building in downtown Nashville at about 6 a.m. CST (1200 GMT). Police heard a recorded voice warning that a “bomb would detonate in 15 minutes, ” Nashville Police Chief John Drake told reporters. The message, as captured in a recording broadcast later by local television news stations, said: “This area must be evacuated now. This area must be evacuated now. If you can hear this message, evacuate now. If you can hear this message, evacuate now. ” Officers quickly went door-to-door in nearby buildings to hustle people to safety, and called for dispatch of the police bomb squad, which was on its way to the scene when the vehicle blew up, police spokesman Don Aaron said. The Metro Nashville Police Department posted a photo of the recreational vehicle on its Twitter feed and said that the vehicle had arrived in the area at 1:22 a.m. MOTIVE UNCLEAR: Damage to AT&T facilities from the explosion caused widespread disruptions of telephone, internet and fiber optic TV service in central Tennessee and parts of several neighboring states, including Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia, the company said. Drake said authorities had received no threats of an attack prior to the reports of gunfire at the outset of the incident, describing the blast as a “total surprise. ” “We had no pre-warnings at all, ” he said. The blast could be heard for miles and was felt at least nine blocks away, knocking one officer off his feet, Aaron said. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting in the probe, agency officials said. Nashville’s vice mayor, Jim Shulman, told CNN the incident appeared to have been a solitary act, though bomb-sniffing dogs were being led through the downtown area as a precaution.

Netanyahu speaks with Morocco's king, invites him to Israel

JERUSALEM AGENCIES

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Saturday with Morocco’s King Mohammed VI and invited him to visit Israel, Netanyahu ’s office said. The two leaders spoke about moving forward with a U.S. -brokered agreement announced earlier this month to normalize bilateral ties, according to the Israeli statement. Netanyahu also thanked King Mohammed for hosting an official Israeli delegation this week. King Mohammed underscored the close ties between the Moroccan Jewish community and the monarchy, the Royal Court said in a statement. While welcoming the resumption of relations with Israel, the King said Morocco’s position regarding Palestine remains unchanged. Rabat advocates the twostate solution and the unique character of Jerusalem as a city of three religions.

JapaN oFFICIal, CallINg TaIwaN 'red lINe' , urges BIdeN To 'Be sTroNg'

TOKYO AGENCIES

atop Japanese defence official on Saturday urged U.S. President-elect Joe Biden to “be strong” in supportingTaiwan in the face of an aggressive China, calling the island’s safety a “red line. ”

“We are concerned China will expand its aggressive stance into areas other than Hong Kong. I think one of the next targets, or what everyone is worried about, is Taiwan, ” State Minister of Defense Yasuhide Nakayama told Reuters.

In an interview, Nakayama, Japan’s deputy defence minister, urged Biden to take a similar line on Taiwan as outgoing President Donald Trump, who has significantly boosted military sales to the Chinese-claimed island and increased engagement.

Japan’s engagement with Taiwan has also flourished in recent years on a largely non-governmental basis.Tokyomaintainsa“oneChina”policy,delicately balancing its relationships with neighbouring giant China and its longtime military ally in Washington.

Japan shares strategic interests with Taiwan, which sits in sea lanes through which much of Japan’s energy supplies and trade flow.

“So far, I haven’t yet seen a clear policy or an announcement on Taiwan from Joe Biden. I would like to hear it quickly, then we can also prepare our response on Taiwan in accordance, ” Nakayama said.

During the presidential campaign, Biden called for strengthening ties with Taiwan and other “likeminded democracies. ”

Decades ago as senator, Biden questioned whether the United States had an “obligation” to defend Taiwan. But many in his foreign policy circles acknowledge that U.S. imperatives have changed as a rising, authoritarian China has become more assertive and sought to shape global institutions.

An official in Biden’s transition team said the president-elect believes U.S. support for Taiwan “must remain strong, principled, and bipartisan. ”

“Once in office, he will continue to support a peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues consistent with the wishes and best interests of the people of Taiwan, ” the official said.

BeijinghasbeenangeredbyincreasedU.S.support forTaiwan,includingarmssalesandvisitstoTaipeiby senior U.S. officials, further straining already poor Sino-U.S.ties.ChinaconsidersdemocraticallyrunTaiwan one of its provinces and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under Beijing’s control. ‘RED LINE’: “Taiwan is China’s internal affair, ” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Friday. “We firmly oppose interference in China’s internal affairs by any country or anyone by any means. ”

InTaipei, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou noted the strong bipartisan U.S. support for Taiwan based on the “shared language” of freedom and democracy.

“Taiwan looks forward to working closely with the Biden team, to continue to steadily improve Taiwan-U.S. relations on the basis of the existing solid friendship, ” she said.

U.S. officials in Tokyo could not be reached as the embassy was closed for Christmas.

“There’s a red line inAsia - China and Taiwan, ” Nakayama said, citing a red line that former President Barack Obama declared over Syria’s use of chemical weapons - a line Damascus then crossed. Biden was Obama’s vice president.

“How will Joe Biden in theWhite House react in any case if China crosses this red line?” said Nakayama, who attended a memorial for the late formerTaiwanese president LeeTeng-hui inAugust, before taking his defence position. “The United States is the leader of the democratic countries. I have a strong feeling to say:America, be strong!”

Chinese fighter jets in recent months have conducted waves of forays, including crossing the sensitive mid-line between China andTaiwan, ratcheting up pressure tactics to erode Taiwan’s will to resist, say current and former senior Taiwanese and U.S. military officers.

Taiwan deployed its navy and air force on Sunday as a Chinese aircraft carrier group led by the country ’s newest carrier sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, a day after a U.S. warship transited the same waterway.

Millions of Americans lose jobless benefits as Trump refuses to sign aid bill

PALM BEACH AGENCIES

Millions of Americans saw their jobless benefits expire on Saturday after U.S. President Donald Trump refused to sign into law a $2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package, protesting that it did not do enough to help everyday people.

Trump stunned Republicans and Democrats alike when he said this week he was unhappy with the massive bill, which provides $892 billion in badly needed coronavirus relief, including extending special unemployment benefits expiring on Dec. 26, and $1.4 trillion for normal government spending.

Without Trump’s signature, about 14 million people could lose those extra benefits, according to Labor Department data. A partial government shutdown will begin on Tuesday unless Congress can agree a stop-gap government funding bill before then.

After months of wrangling, Republicans and Democrats agreed to the package last weekend, with the support of the White House. Trump, who hands over power to Democratic Presidentelect Joe Biden on Jan. 20, did not object to terms of the deal before Congress voted it through on Monday night.

But since then he has complained that the bill gives too much money to special interests, cultural projects and foreign aid, while its one-time $600 stimulus checks to millions of struggling Americans were too small. He has demanded that be raised to $2,000.

“Why would politicians not want to give people $2,000, rather than only $600?...Give our people the money!” the billionaire president tweeted on Christmas Day, much of which he spent golfing at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

Many economists agree the bill’s aid is too low but say the immediate support is still welcome and necessary.

Asource familiar with the situation said Trump’s objection to the bill caught many White House officials by surprise. While the outgoing president’s strategy for the bill remains unclear, he has not vetoed it and could still sign it in coming days.

On Saturday, he was scheduled to remain in Mar-a-Lago, where the bill has been sent and awaits his decision. Biden, whose Nov. 3 electoral victory Trump refuses to acknowledge, is spending the holiday in his home state of Delaware and had no public events scheduled for Saturday.

First case of new Covid-19 variant found in France as cases rise

PARIS AGENCIES

France recorded its first case of the new variant of coronavirus, as the number of cases and deaths from Covid-19 mounted in the country, increasing concerns of a new wave of the virus hitting the euro zone’s second-biggest economy. The French health ministry said a Frenchman who recently arrived back in France from London had tested positive for the new variant of the coronavirus. The ministry said the case — the first in France — had been found in the city of Tours. The man in question arrived from London on Dec. 19. He was currently selfisolating and felt alright, the ministry added. British Health Secretary Matt Hancock had said on December 14 that a spike in Covid-19 cases in the United Kingdom might have been linked to the new variant of the virus in the country. Hancock said more than 1,000 cases of the new variant had been identified, mainly in southeastern England. Countries around the world have in recent days closed their borders to both Britain and SouthAfrica following the identification of cases of the new, fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus in those countries. France registered 20,262 new, confirmed Covid19 cases and 159 more related deaths in hospitals in the last 24 hours. France’s number of confirmed Covid-19 cases now stands at 2,547,771 while its Covid-19 death toll stands at 62,427 – the seventh-highest in the world.

Four injured in Berlin shooting, police say

BERLIN: Four people were injured in a shooting in the German capital Berlin in the early hours of Saturday, police said.Apolice spokeswoman said four people were taken to hospital in the altercation involving several people in the Kreuzberg district, adding there was no indication of a political motive. The Berlin fire service said earlier on Twitter that three people were seriously injured in the shooting. AGENCIES

Britain says thousands of lorries cross Channel after virus testing stepped up

DOVER AGENCIES

More than 4,500 lorries, among a huge backlog of trucks stranded for days in the British port of Dover, crossed the Channel on Friday after extra troops were deployed to step up coronavirus testing, a minister said.

Ferry services between Dover and the French port of Calais resumed on Thursday, ending a blockade France had imposed for several days following the discovery of a new coronavirus variant in England.

British transport minister Grant Shapps said on Twitter on Friday that more than 10,000 coronavirus tests had been carried out on lorry drivers and only 24 of them had tested positive.

“Over 4,500 HGVs (heavy goods vehicles) are back over the Channel, ” Shapps said.

Britain deployed additional troops to help clear the queues of lorries waiting for COVID-19 tests before being allowed to board cross-channel ferries. British media said 800 extra soldiers were sent to support 300 initially deployed.

Soldierscheckedvehiclesanddrivers’ documents at the entrance to the port. In one case, French officials, who were in Dovertohelpclearthebacklog,wereseen administering a nasal swab to a driver.

The French and British governments agreed to end the blockade on Tuesday but the British authorities had said it would take days to clear the long lines of trucks.

Kane Williamson's 94* puTs neW aheaD on aTTriTional Day

SPORTS 11 ZealanD

WELLINGOTN AGENCIES

aN unhurried unbeaten 94 from Kane Williamson steered New Zealand through a testing opening day at Mount Maunganui, helping them end it only three down despite a number of testing spells from Pakistan. The visitors could have found more reward for their efforts with a bit more luck and better catching, but the experience and skill of Williamson, Ross Taylor and Henry Nicholls eventually ensured New Zealand had their noses ahead at stumps.

Shaheen Afridi was Pakistan's only wicket-taker - the left-armer dismissed both openers in his first spell, then broke a 120-run third-wicket stand between Taylor and Williamson, and could have had another wicket with the second new ball late in the day, when he found Williamson's edge only for Haris Sohail to put down a low chance at first slip. Williamson was on 86 then.

Williamson had survived another dropped catch shortly before lunch when he was on 18, when Naseem Shah had straightened one from just short of a length to find his edge. This one was even harder, with Shan Masood having to dive to his left for a one-handed chance inches from FaheemAshraf too, in his early spells, from the turf. and hostility and seam movement from

Both dropped chances, in a way, re- Naseem Shah after a wayward first spell. flected Williamson's mastery at the crease, But there were missed chances - the simthe softest hands in world cricket ensuring plest of them a drop at fine leg from Mohamthe edges didn't carry to a more comfortable madAbbas when Naseem induced Nicholls, height. There were plenty of other, more who was batting on 6, to hook in the air - as straightforward manifestations of well as phases where Pakistan let the game Williamson's skill and technique, of drift. course - those late defensive Most crucial was the period shots off both feet that are of 20 overs before Pakistan more than about bat hit b ti all ng hitt bal i l n , g ba the t New ZealaNd took dur the ing second whic n h ew ball, time leaves outs displaying ide im off stump maculate 222 for 3 Williamson made 68 and N runs. icholls There judgment of length as much as line, the precise weight transfer into N (willia icholls msoN 94* , 42* , Taylor wasn't a outright but neith whole lot of bad bowling, er Afridi nor checked And drives. for much of the 70, afridi 3-55) t Ab his bas phas bowle e, and d th d e uring other day, he needed best, because s to be ome at of his Pakvs PakisTaN bowlers didn't quite their levels of skill or match intenistan's bowling was of the sity. The fields were perhaps highest quality.Afridi tested both overly defensive too, particularly edges from his left-arm-over angle, cre- when Yasir Shah bowled, and the ating constant doubt in the batsmen's minds legspinner never settled into a rhythm as to whether the ball would swing against against a right-left combination that was takthat angle or not. MohammadAbbas was al- ing frequent singles. most hypnotically accurate, his stock line New Zealand also made every effort to more middle-and-off than off-stump, making unsettle Yasir. Taylor had shown the first batsmen play ball after ball while getting it glimpse of this game-plan in the last halfto nibble both ways. There was discipline hour before tea, when he paddle-swept and slog-swept him for two fours and a six in the space of two overs, and Nicholls - who used the sweep often and well - and Williamson who used his feet to get out of the crease at every opportunity - kept at it.

In all,Yasir conceded 56 runs in 16 overs to end the day as Pakistan's most expensive bowler. Naseem, who was erratic in his first three-over spell and later possibly over-used the short ball, conceded 51 in 15 overs.

There was much to admire in Pakistan's bowling otherwise, though, particularly in the first two sessions.

The most recent visitors to these shores, West Indies, had wasted the new ball in favourable conditions in their first Test in Hamilton, bowling too short and not making the top order play enough. Pakistan's opening bowlers didn't repeat that mistake, and Afridi was on target straightaway. His first ball asked Tom Latham those two most pressing questions - come forward or go back, and play or leave - and hesitant responses to both led to an outside edge running away between third slip and gully. Latham didn't survive a similar examination two balls later, however, edging straight to third slip.

Afridi followed this up in the 11th over with the wicket ofTom Blundell, who failed to get his weight fully forward into a drive, and edged low to third slip.

Afridi and Abbas were back in tandem after lunch, and Taylor and Williamson survived another searching examination.Afridi produced a rare loose drive from Williamson, away from his body, and the ball streaked away past gully. Abbas, at the stumps nearly every ball while hardly ever straying too straight, found Taylor's edge with a full ball that swung wickedly late, away from off stump, and once again the ball ran away through the cordon.

WhileWilliamson was content to stay in his bubble and get his runs when they came, Taylor was more opportunistic, square-cutting balls that would have been too close to off stump for other batsmen, and showing a greater preparedness to drive at full balls that weren't quite half-volleys.

Taylor was on 66 to Williamson's 49 at tea, butAfridi dismissed him soon after the break, setting him up beautifully. First he bowled a series of full balls slanting away from the right-hander, fairly wide of off stump, then he sent down a bouncer that Taylor ducked under. Having pushed him back in this manner, Afridi followed up with a perfect length ball hugging a tight channel around off stump. Taylor played for the possibility of inswing, and the ball seamed away instead, and kicked up steeply to kiss the shoulder of the bat through to the keeper.

shadab Khan, imam-ul-haq ruled out of new Zealand tour

WELLINGTON AGENCIES

Shadab Khan has been ruled out of the remainder of the New Zealand tour and from the upcoming home series against SouthAfrica after being diagnosed with a high-grade injury to his left thigh. Batsman Imam-ul-Haq has also been ruled out of the ongoing New Zealand tour because of his left thumb fracture and he will fly back to Pakistan on Sunday. Khan missed the ongoing first Test in Mount Maunganui with the same injury and MRI scans have confirmed a fresh tear in his thigh for which he has been advised six weeks of rest. He will, however, continue to stay with the squad in New Zealand. Khan had earlier missed the home white-ball series against Zimbabwe in October-November with a groin injury, but had recovered in time for the New Zealand tour. The injury became worse during a tour game in Christchurch, but he was cleared to lead Pakistan in the T20Is after BabarAzam also fractured his thumb that made him miss the first Test too. Khan's thigh injury is different from his previous injury. He was diagnosed with "high grade full thickness tear to the Rectus Femoris muscle" , an injury he had sustained during the third T20I against New Zealand. "The MRI reports have confirmed it is a fresh injury and not the one that had sidelined him from the Zimbabwe series last month, " Dr Sohail Saleem, Pakistan's team doctor, said. "The latest injury will be treated conservatively and Shadab will undergo a six-week rehabilitation programme during which he will have weekly ultrasound scans.After the competition of the six-week period, the medical panel will assess and evaluate the injury before making a call on Shadab's return to competitive cricket. " Imam, on the other hand, will return home and rest before the home series against SouthAfrica that starts on January 26. He had fractured his left thumb during a training session in Queenstown. Azam, who fractured his right thumb, is showing signs of recovery and he hit the nets for batting practice recently but the decision of his participation in the second Test, which starts on January 3, will be taken closer to the game.

Robin Jackman, former England seamer and broadcaster, dies aged 75

LONDON AGENCIES

Robin Jackman, the former Surrey and England seamer who went on to become one of the leading broadcasters in South African cricket, has died at the age of 75.

Jackman, who made his Test debut in 1981 at the age of 35, claimed 14 wickets at 31.78 in his four England appearances, and also featured in 15 ODIs between 1974 and 1983.

In the course of a domestic career that began in 1966, Jackman took more than 1400 first-class wickets at 22.80, and scored 5681 runs at 17.69, with 17 half-centuries. His career-best of 8 for 40 came for Rhodesia against Natal in 1972-73.

Jackman was born in India in 1945 and grew up in England, but coached and played for Rhodesia and Western Province over 11 seasons, a relationship that led the Guyana government to deny him a visa on that 1980-81 England tour.

He passed away at 3.30pm South Africa time on Christmas Day, and is survived by his wife Yvonne and two daughters. His death comes just 48 hours after that of his former Surrey team-mate John Edrich, who died aged 83 on December 23.

The ICC reacted to the news in a statement: 'We are saddened to learn about the death of legendary commentator and former England bowler Robin Jackman, who has passed away aged 75. The thoughts of the cricketing world go out to his family and friends during this difficult time. '

Domestic sponsors agree to extend contracts for delayed Tokyo games

TOKYO AGENCIES

Tokyo 2020 organisers said on Thursday that all 68 domestic sponsors for the Summer Olympics have agreed in principle to extend their contracts for the delayed games, as growing coronavirus infections in Japan overshadow the event. The Tokyo Olympics had originally been scheduled for 2020 but were postponed by a year because of the pandemic. “Partner companies told me about the difficult situation they are in because of the pandemic, ” Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori told a news conference. “But they also told me they definitely want the games to be held, and that they are willing to offer as much support as they can. ” Tokyo 2020 organisers expect more than 22 billion yen ($212 million) in additional contributions from them, Mori said. The domestic sponsors include companies hit hard by a steep fall in travel demand amid the pandemic, such as JapanAirlines Co Ltd,All NipponAirways Co Ltd and travel agency JTB Corp., which plans to cut its workforce by 6,500. “There must have been various debates within each company ... I believe they have decided to continue cooperating with us upon realising the historical significance of what may be a once-in-ahundred-year event. ” Besides tourism and transportation companies, the list of sponsors also includes Canon Inc, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp and other Japanese household names. Recent Japanese newspaper polls show two-thirds of the public believe the game should be postponed again or cancelled altogether. But Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has repeatedly said e is determined to hold the Olympics as proof that humanity has defeated the virus. On Monday, national associations of medical professionals declared a state of medical emergency as the country ’s medical system creaks under the strain of the pandemic.

aaron summers set to be first australian to play Pakistan domestic cricket

LAHORE AGENCIES

Fast bowler Aaron Summers is set to make history by becoming the first Australian to take part in domestic cricket in Pakistan. ESPNcricinfo understands the 24-year-old will play for Southern Punjab in the 2021 OneDay Cup, which begins on January 8 and runs until the end of the month. The deal is understood to be in its final stages, with official confirmation from the PCB imminent. While Australia's borders are currently closed to both departures and arrivals due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Summers has received a travel exemption from the Australian government, clearing the path for him to come to Pakistan.

The PCB's playing conditions do not prevent the inclusion of overseas players, but does currently limit it to a maximum of one per side. They must, however, make sure to obtain a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from their home board and their team has to apply for their inclusion either a month before the start of the season or via special request afterwards. It is understood Southern Punjab made a special request, given the 2020-21 season is underway, which the PCB appears set to approve.

Instances of foreign cricketers playing on Pakistan's domestic circuit have generally been rare, though not completely unheard of. Fourteen Afghanistan players featured for Afghan Cheetahs in the 2011-12 Faysal T20 Cup. YaminAhmadzai, theAfghanistan fast bowler, played five first-class games in Pakistan in 2016-17. Zimbabwe allrounder Sikandar Raza played in the National T20 Cup that same season. In 2009, former England Uunder-19 player Bilal Shafayat played for Habib Bank, while Afghanistan fast bowler Hamid Hassan represented Pakistan customs. It was a side Mohammad Nabi had earlier represented, too, and a pair of Zimbabwean cricketers were believed to be considering signing first-class contracts in Pakistan, only for those deals to ultimately fall through.

PCB chairman Ehsan Mani did say on a podcast this year that he would like to see foreign cricketers playing in Pakistan's firstclass system, but the chances of this happening were considered fairly remote. The restructuring of the first-class system, which slashed the number of teams from 16 to just six - getting rid of all departments in the process - further reduced the number of players that could potentially be on show. And while several high-profile foreign players have now played in the Pakistan Super League, the first-class system is not considered nearly as alluring.

That the first overseas player lined up to play first-class cricket in Pakistan is Australian is not insignificant either. They are the only Full Member not to tour Pakistan this century. Australia's last visit came in 1999, with the 'A' side touring in 2007. A number of high-profile Australians have played the PSL in Pakistan, though, and a World XI that played three T20Is in Lahore in 2017 includedTim Paine, the current captain of the Test side.

Landmark deal aside, in Summers, Southern Punjab will gain an express fast bowler to complement the options they have in their ranks. Summers was selected by Karachi Kings in the 2019 PSL and played two matches without quite making an impression, and remained unpicked this year.

He rose to prominence in the Big Bash League thanks to his fierce pace, outgunning on debut an attack that also included Jofra Archer and Tymal Mills. The meteoric rise

NEWS

AbscOndIng bLA MILITAnTs decLAred PO In chInese cOnsuLATe ATTAcK cAse

KARACHI STAFF REPORT

AN anti-terrorism court in Karachi has declared 17 absconding suspects of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a global terrorist group, as proclaimed offenders in a case pertaining to the 2018 attack on the Chinese consulate in Sindh capital and executed permanent arrest warrants for them.

Three suicide attackers stormed the PARIS AGENCIES Hungary stole a march on its fellow EU of rollouts in several other countries inwould be a crucial step towards ending a pandemic that has killed more than 1.7 million around the world, crippled economies and destroyed businesses and line workers at hospitals in1the capital

The first worker to receive the shot 19 cases with 8,951 deaths. More than 6,000 people are still in hospital with Covid-19, straining the central European aged 68 and 75, said while playing table

“We will get the vaccination because our daughter had a baby in France last LONDON AGENCIES countries from the Covid-19 pandemic, a

“For some time, an overarching theme

The CEBR said China’s “skilful management of the pandemic” , with its strict early lockdown, and hits to long-term growth in the West meant China’s relative before slowing to 4.5 per cent a year from

While the United States was likely to have a strong post-pandemic rebound in

Japan would remain the world’s thirdbiggest economy, in dollar terms, until the early 2030s when it would be overtaken by India, pushing Germany down from fourth to fifth. biggest economy by the CEBR’s measure, ket, British GDP in dollars was forecast to

Europe accounted for 19 per cent of output in the top 10 global economies in 2020 but that will fall to 12 per cent by 2035, or lower if there is an acrimonious split between the EU and Britain, the CEBR said. global economy was likely to show up in

“We see an economic cycle with rising borrowed massively to fund their response

“But the underlying trends that have been accelerated by this point to a greener consulate in the upscale Clifton neighbourhood amid a series of gunshots and an explosion on November 23, 2018, but were

killed before they could force their way in with a car packed with explosives. The attack was later claimed by theAfghanistanbased BLA.

In August, the court issued the nonbailable warrants for the arrest of the suspects, which include Hyrbyair Marri; Aslam Baloch, alias Achhu; Bashir Zaib; Noor Bux Mengal; Kareem Marri; ‘captain’ Rehman Gul; ‘commanders’ Nisar; Sheikhu; Gaindi; Sharif; Hamal; Munshi andAgha Sher Dil.

During the hearing on Saturday, the ATC VII directed the officials to make public the sketches of the suspected militants and also confiscate their moveable and immovable assets.

The counter-terrorism department (CTD) booked and detained Mohammad Aslam;Ahmed Hasnain;AliAhmed, alias Hashim; Nadir Khan, aliasArif Buledi and Abdul Latif — all said to be associated with the BLA— for allegedly helping the militants who attacked the consulate.

According to a police report, the attack, aimed at sabotaging the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and meant to create trouble between Islamabad and Beijing, was planned in Afghanistan and carried out with the assistance of Research andAnalysisWing (RAW), the premier Indian spy agency.

“They transported weapons in a boat engine from Quetta to Karachi through train service, ” it said, adding that the weapons and other material were dumped at a house in Baldia Town area of Karachi.

“The terrorists used fake computerised national identity cards, ” Karachi police chief DrAmirAhmed Shaikh revealed following a probe in January 2019. “We are writing to the Federal Investigation Agency and Pakistan Railways to upgrade their security mechanism so that the facilities of the railways and the National Dataabused by terrorists. ”

‘Window of hope’: Europe prepares to launch Covid-19 vaccinations

nations as it began vaccinating its people against Covid-19 on Saturday, a day ahead cluding France, Germany and Spain as the pandemic surges across the continent.

Mass vaccination across the European Union, home to almost 450 million people, jobs.

Hungary administered the vaccine, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, to frontBudapest after receiving its first shipment of enough doses to inoculate 4,875 people.

wasAdrienne Kertesz, a doctor at Del-Pest Central Hospital.

Hungary has reported 315,362 Covidcountry ’s care system.

“We are very happy that the vaccine is here, ” Zsuzsa and Antal Takacs, a couple tennis in a Budapest park.

base and Registration Authority are not month and we want to go see them. We do

not dare travel before we get the vaccine, ” Zsuzsa said.

The Hungarian rollout came a day before countries including France, Germany, Italy,Austria, Portugal and Spain are planning to begin mass vaccinations, starting with health workers.

The distribution of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, which was first rolled out in Britain earlier this month, presents tough challenges. The vaccine uses new mRNA genetic technology, which means it must be stored at ultra-low temperatures of around -80 degrees Celsius (-112°F). NEW VARIANT IN FRANCE, SPAIN: France, which received its first shipment of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Saturday, will start administering it on Sunday in the greater Paris area and in the Burgundy-Franche-Comte region. “We have 19,500 doses in total, which amounts to 3,900 vials. These doses will be stored in our freezer at minus 80 degrees (Celsius) and will be then distributed to different nursing homes and hospitals, ” said Franck Huet, head of pharmaceutical products for the Paris public hospital system.

The French government is hoping to get around one million people vaccinated in nursing homes during January and February, and then a further 14-15 million in the wider population between March and June.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was approved by the French medical regulator on Thursday. France reported more than 20,000 new Covid-19 infections on Friday for the second day running, something not seen since Nov. 20.The seven-day moving average of daily new cases, which evens out reporting irregularities, is at a onemonth high of 14,969.

France’s number of confirmed Covid19 cases now totals 2,547,771, the fifthhighest tally in the world, while its Covid-19 death toll stands at 62,427, the seventh-highest.

In a concerning development, the health ministry said on Friday that a man who recently arrived from London had tested positive for a new variant of the virus that has been spreading rapidly in southern England and is thought to be more infectious.

In Spain, Madrid health authorities said on Saturday they had confirmed four cases of the new variant of the virus, as the country received its first deliveries of the vaccine.

The boxes arrived by truck at a storage facility near Madrid as dawn broke. Employees at Spain’s medicines agency unpacked the vaccine, which is stored in dry ice, with gloved hands.

“Vaccination will start tomorrow in Spain, coordinated with the rest of Europe, ” Health Minister Salvador Illa wrote on Twitter. “This is the beginning of the end of the pandemic. ”

Doses will be taken by air to the Spanish islands and the NorthAfrican enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, and by road to other regions of the country, where a total of about 50,000 people have died from the disease. ‘WINDOW OF HOPE HAS OPENED’ Germany, meanwhile, said trucks were on their way to deliver the vaccine to care homes for the elderly, which are first in line to receive the vaccine on Sunday.

The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country rose by 14,455 to 1,627,103, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Saturday. More than 29,000 people have died, in total.

The federal government is planning to distribute more than 1.3 million vaccine doses to local health authorities by the end of this year and about 700,000 per week from January.

“There may be a few hiccups at one point or another in the beginning, but that is quite normal when such a logistically complex process begins, ” said Health Minister Jensen Spahn.

In Portugal, a truck escorted by police dropped off the first batch of Covid-19 jabs at a warehouse in the country ’s central region. From there, the nearly 10,000 shots will be delivered to five big hospitals.

“It is a historic milestone for all of us, an important day after such a difficult year, ” Health Minister Marta Temido told reporters outside the warehouse.

“A window of hope has now opened, without forgetting that there is a very difficult fight ahead. ”

Two killed in series of blasts in Kabul

KABUL AGENCIES

Aseries of explosions hit theAfghan capital on Saturday morning, killing at least two police officers and wounding another two and a civilian. The officers died and a civilian was hurt when a magnetic bomb attached to a police vehicle detonated in western Kabul, police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz said. Two other policemen were wounded when a bomb attached to their car exploded earlier on Saturday in southern Kabul, Faramarz said.Athird magnetic bomb detonated in eastern Kabul but caused no casualties, he said. There were reports of at least two other blasts elsewhere in the city, but police had no immediate details. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings, which came as journalists, politicians and rights activists have increasingly come under attack.Afghanistan is experiencing a surge in violence despite the government and Taliban insurgents holding talks in Qatar to hammer out a peace deal that could put an end to decades of war. The talks in Doha have been suspended until early January and there is speculation they could be further delayed. The ISIS group has claimed responsibility for several attacks in the capital in recent months, including on educational institutions that killed 50 people.At the same time, Taliban militants have waged bitter battles against ISIS fighters, particularly in easternAfghanistan, while continuing their insurgency against government forces and keeping their promise not to attack US and NorthAtlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops. ISIS claimed responsibility for last week’s rocket attacks targeting the main US base inAfghanistan. However, there were no casualties.

Pakistan rejects Modi's claims about democracy in IOK

ISLAMABAD

Pakistan has rejected the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's preposterous and fallacious claims about democracy in the Indian-occupied Kashmir (IOK) following the election of district development councils. In a press release on Saturday, Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said the RSS-BJP brand of democracy only means the muzzling of the Kashmiri voice and will under the bayonets of Indian army guns. He said the new chapter that the RSS-BJP regime is writing in the IOK has been one marked by brutal military siege since August 5, 2019, violations of human rights in the occupied territory and untold sufferings for the Kashmiri people. The spokesperson said that false Indian narratives can neither deceive the Kashmiri people nor mislead the international community.

China to leapfrog US as world's biggest economy by 2028: report

China will overtake the United States to become the world’s biggest economy in 2028, five years earlier than previously estimated due to the contrasting recoveries of the two think tank said.

of global economics has been the economic and soft power struggle between the United States and China, ” the Centre for Economics and Business Research said in an annual report published on Saturday.

“The Covid-19 pandemic and corresponding economic fallout have certainly tipped this rivalry in China’s favour. ”

economic performance had improved.

China looked set for average economic growth of 5.7 per cent a year from 2021-25 2026-30.

2021, its growth would slow to 1.9 per cent a year between 2022 and 2024, and then to 1.6 per cent after that.

The United Kingdom, currently the fifthwould slip to sixth place from 2024.

However, despite a hit in 2021 from its exit from the European Union’s single marbe 23 per cent higher than France’s by 2035, helped by Britain’s lead in the increasingly important digital economy.

It also said the pandemic’s impact on the higher inflation, not slower growth.

interest rates in the mid-2020s, ” it said, posing a challenge for governments which have to the Covid-19 crisis.

TLTP and more tech-based world as we move into the 2030s. ”