EpaperISB_2020-07-04

CMYK

Saturday, 4 July, 2020 I 12 Dhū al-Qa‘dah, 1441 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XI No 6 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition

Judge Malik’s disMissal gives hoPe to PMl-n for nawaz’s aCquital g

LHC ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE DISMISSES JuDGE ARSHAD MALIK IN VIDEO LEAK CASE

g

SHEHBAZ AND MARyAM SAy COuRTS SHOuLD ANNuL Ex-PM’S CONVICTION IN AL-AZIZIA REFERENCE

LAHORE staff report

P

AKISTAN Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Friday demanded that the court should annul the punishment handed to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Al-Azizia reference after it was reported that former Islamabad accountability court judge Arshad Malik, who had convicted Nawaz in the case, had been dismissed from service in wake of the video scandal.

“Mian sb’s sentence ought to be declared null and void,” said Shehbaz of his brother’s seven-year sentence in the AlAzizia corruption reference.

Earlier in the day, the Lahore High Court (LHC) administrative committee, headed by LHC Chief Justice Mohammad Qasim Khan, reportedly approved the dismissal of judge Arshad Malik. However, no official notification has been issued in this regard as yet.

Last year in July, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had removed Malik from his post amid a controversy surrounding a leaked videotape showing his purported confession that he had been “pressurised and blackmailed” to convict Nawaz Sharif in the Al Azizia corruption reference.

The judge had denied the allegations, saying there was no pressure on him to convict Sharif and that the videos shown

by Maryam Nawaz of his alleged confession at a press conference were “fake and based on lies”.

In a statement on Friday, Shehbaz Sharif welcomed the reported decision of Malik’s dismissal and said that justice had finally been served. “This proves that his [Malik’s] decision was not just and [Nawaz] was punished unfairly.”

He added that in light of this, it was expected the verdict against Nawaz would be withdrawn. “The LHC administration committee’s decision is proof of his innocence.”

19 Sikh pilgrims, driver killed as train crashes into coaster near Sheikhupura g

PILGRIMS WERE RETuRNING TO PESHAWAR FROM NANKANA SAHIB WHEN THEIR VEHICLE CRASHED INTO TRAIN AT AN uNMANNED CROSSING LAHORE agencies

He appealed to party workers and the public to offer prayers of gratitude.

In a separate statement, Maryam Nawaz also hailed the media reports, calling it a victory. “The decision has washed away a stain on Nawaz and on the institution of justice.”

She added that in light of the decision, the “tainted” judge’s decision regarding Nawaz should be withdrawn.

“Justice is never incomplete. It dictates that [Malik’s] decision be declared void in the same way he was dismissed.”

She added that it was very easy to preach about the law and the Constitution. “you need Nawaz’s bravery to face the law, knowing that you are innocent and that your spouse is on their death bed,” she said, adding that her father’s perseverance had finally prevailed.

VIDEO SCANDAL: The seven-member administration committee, headed by the then LHC chief justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan, in its meeting on Aug 26 last year had approved an in-

Coronavirus in

Pakistan

quiry against District and Sessions Judge Arshad Malik. Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem of the LHC had been tasked with the inquiry. The PML-N had accused judge Malik of convicting former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Al-Azizia reference under duress. However, the judge had acquitted Nawaz of the charges in the Flagship Investments reference.

After Maryam had released alleged video/audio clips of judge Malik at a press conference in July, the IHC had summoned him and directed him to submit an affidavit explaining his position.

In his affidavit, the judge had denied the party’s claim, saying he had been blackmailed by PML-N supporters through an “immoral video”. He also admitted to meeting with Nawaz at Jati umra residence and his son Hussain in Saudi Arabia.

The controversy continued to make news as Maryam released two more video clips “in support” of the first one.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

At least 19 Sikh pilgrims and their driver were killed on Friday when the Shah Hussain Express train crashed into a coaster near Sheikhupura.

The Sikh pilgrims were travelling to Peshawar from Nankana Sahib.

Azhar Mashwani, the focal person on digital media to the Punjab chief minister, said that 30 people were travelling on the coaster, out of whom 13 males and seven females died in the accident. Ten people received minor injuries who were shifted to District Headquarters Hospital, Sheikhupura.

The accident occurred around 1:30pm as the Lahore-bound train, travelling from Karachi, crashed into the coaster at an unmanned level crossing between Farooqabad and Bahalekay, a press release issued by the Pakistan Railways (PR) said.

“The crossing was unmanned and the driver of the van took a hasty decision by driving onto the

Civil-military top brass vows to protect country’s sovereignty at all costs

CONFIRMED CASES:

223,779

tracks,” PR spokeswoman Quratul Ain said. Local police spokesman Wajid Abbas told AFP the deceased passengers were all from the same family. No train passengers were injured.

Rescue officials from both Railways and Rescue 1122 arrived at the scene and provided first aid to the injured. All divisional officials were also directed to reach the site of the crash, which led to the railway track being blocked for an hour and 15 minutes.

Following the accident, the divisional engineer was suspended by the railways’ management, the PR statement added.

Meanwhile, PR Chief Executive Officer Dost Ali Laghari has set up a committee comprising three senior officers to investigate the incident. It will present its initial report to the CEO by tomorrow “so that it can be determined which side was at fault”, according to the press release.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

more inside

Coronavirus situation improving across country except Sindh, says Umar STORY ON PAGE 03

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

NEW CASES:

78

4,551

RECOVERED:

DEATHS:

SINDH:

PUNJAB:

113,623 4,592 90,721

78,956

KP:

BALOCHISTAN:

AJK/GB:

ISLAMABAD:

27,506

Court orders NAB to file final LNG reference against exPM Abbasi till Aug 6

10,717

1,160/1,524 13,195

STORY ON PAGE 02

ISLAMABAD staff report

A high-level meeting held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday reviewed internal and external security situation and expressed the resolve that sovereignty of the country would be protected at all costs.

The meeting was attended by high-rank officials, including Minister for Defence Pervez Khattak, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff

Committee General (CJCSC) Nadeem Raza, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral (CNSA) Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief (CASAC) Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan and Director General InterServices Intelligence (DG ISI) Lt Gen Faiz Hamid.

The participants agreed that Pakistan believes in peaceful co-existence with its neighbours. However, the “will and capacity” to defend the

CMYK

people and territorial integrity were also expressed.

Voicing serious concern over the continued human rights violations by Indian forces in ccupied Kashmir, the meeting urged the international community to take notice.

The meeting also paid glowing tributes to the bravery and coordinated efforts of Law Enforcement Agencies that successfully thwarted the recent attack on Pakistan Stock Exchange.

Pakistan says India has no right to comment on GB elections STORY ON BACK PAGE

PTDC closes 36 motels in northern areas, sacks 450 employees STORY ON PAGE 02

02

Saturday, 4 July, 2020

NEWS

PTDC Closes 36 moTels in norThern areas, saCks 450 emPloyees Zulfi Bukhari denies shutting down PtdC motels, says govt restruCturing organisation ISLAMABAD

T

STAFF REPORT

HE Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) has closed 36 motels in the northern areas and terminated the services of up to 450 employees.

Last month, Imran had lifted restrictions on the tourism industry and allowed overseas Pakistanis to return home after the National Coordination Committee approved a quarantine policy for Covid-19 patients among them.

National Tourism Coordination Board (NTCB) Chairman Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari was quick to take to Twitter to assuage the growing concerns. Bukhari, who also holds portfolio of SAPM on overseas Pakistanis, rubbished the rumours regarding shutting down of the PTDC, saying that restructuring is underway to transform it into a vibrant organisation with better workforce and improved policy making.

“We’re making changes in the PTDC as a step towards its restructuring in accordance with global best practices and not

shutting it down,” he said in a series of tweets, while highlighting the misconduct of previous managements of the PTDC, which “ruined the corporation”.

“This was important to do because over time, due to mismanagement of resources and political appointments, it had become a stagnant organisation running in loss,” he tweeted. “It will continue to work as a federal implementation body under the NTCB, new structure is proposed in consultation with field experts,” he said, hinting at early overhauling of the PTDC. “For those causing hue and cry, there’s no need for it – PTDC is finally on its way to become a more efficient organisation with better workforce and improved policy making,” the chairman said. According to the PTDC, a notification has been issued for the closure of its operations in Northern areas and laying off of its employees.

The notification states that the decision to close operations and lay off employees was taken due to continuous financial losses and the coronavirus pandemic, while the employees, whose services have been terminated, were directed to collect their dues from

Vehicle used in PsX attack spotted in TV drama KARACHI INP

the relevant manager.

However, the employees are protesting against the PTDC’s decision, claiming that they were laid off without clearance of their dues. The employees said that 30 motels have been closed all over the country as well as Flashman’s Hotel and Pakistan Tours Ltd. “The PTDC has laid off 400 workers in one go. We were affiliated with the PTDC for the last 20 years.” They said that the court had already issued a stay order on termination of the PTDC employees. The PTDC employees in Gilgit-Baltistan confirmed that the corporation laid off all its employees in the region.

According to the notification issued by man-

ager (P&A), the corporation is running in loss due to the precarious situation of coronavirus in Pakistan and the financial situation is so bad that it is difficult to pay the salaries of the employees. It states that the federal government and the PTDC on June 17 in the light of Order 11(I) and 11-A of Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) Ordinance, 1968 took an “in-depth analysis of the present situation, and consideration of the facts and circumstances and in the best interest of the employees, company and shareholders for survival and future viability, the corporation was left with no other option but to take these painful decisions”.

Court orders naB to file final lng reference against ex-Pm abbasi till aug 6 ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Fia approaches aTC for seizing mQm founder's property ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday filed an application in an anti-terrorism court (ATC) here for the confiscation of the property of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Altaf Hussain and three others who were declared proclaimed offenders by the court in its last verdict regarding Dr Imran Farooq murder case. The application, naming Altaf Hussain, Iftikhar Hussain, Muhammad Anwar and Kashif Khan stated that since the accused were declared proclaimed offenders by the ATC, their properties must be confiscated. In response, the court accepted the application but no date for hearing is issued as yet. Last month, an ATC in Islamabad had sentenced three accused in the Imran Farooq murder case to life imprisonment.

The judgement was read by ATC Judge Shahrukh Arjumand as the accused appeared before the court through a video link to attend the hearing. “The prosecution has succeeded in proving the case against all three of you,” remarked the judge during the hearing. The accused, Khalid Shamim, Mohsin Ali Syed and Moazzam Ali had been in Adiala jail ever since they were arrested. Their sentences will run concurrently and their time already spent in jail will count towards their sentence, according to the detailed verdict issued. The court had ordered the sentenced individuals to pay Rs1 million each to the heirs of the murdered MQM leader. Moreover, the court in its detailed order, had stated that it had been proved that the “MQM founder gave the orders” to murder Farooq. “Two senior leaders of MQM-London conveyed the orders to Pakistan,“ said the court in its 39-page order. It added that Moazzam Ali selected the boys to carry out the murder from the then MQM headquarter, Nine-Zero.

“Mohsin Ali and Kashif Khan Kamran were selected for murdering Imran Farooq,” said the order, adding that both were taken to London and were provided support to carry out the crime. According to the judgement, the sole purpose of the murder ordered by the MQM founder was to remove the resistance being faced by him from within the party ranks. It adds that the statement provided by the convicts to the magistrate and the evidence presented had a clear link. “The aim of the murder was to ensure that no one raises their voice against the party founder,” said the order.

An accountability court here on Friday gave the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) till August 6 to file a final reference against former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) case.

Judge Azam Khan gave the deadline during the hearing in which Abbasi and the other accused in the case, Azimi Adil, were also present.

Abbasi’s lawyer Barrister Zafarullah told the court that NAAB has been asking various questions from his client for the past two years and despite keeping the former prime minister in jail for six and a half months, it was still unable to file a reference.

“Such a spectacle should not be staged and thus the hearing should be adjourned till the NAB files a reference,” the counsel added.

Presenting his arguments, NAB Prosecutor Usman Mirza said that it would take another three to four weeks to complete the final reference but, as far as the supplementary reference is concerned, the attendance of the accused has been completed.

“If the court wants to charge the accused, then NAB has no objection,” Mirza said. To this, the judge re-

marked that the accused would be indicted when the supplementary reference.

The accountability court gave NAB till August 6 to complete the investigation against Abbasi and file a final reference, saying it was the final deadline.

Speaking to the media outside the accountability court, former PM Abbasi said the investigation has been ongoing for a year, the questionnaires were answered and arrests were made to which no justification was given.

“NAB remanded me for 70 days and did not ask a single question,” Abbasi said. “The Islamabad High Court granted me bail under human rights. We still say that the demands

of justice are very clear, the chairman of NAB has been a judge of the Supreme Court, but arrests are made before cases are made.”

Abbasi added that NAB’s investigation and court’s proceedings should be done in-camera.

“It is very easy to make allegations,” he said. “There is no evidence, no case, NAB is being used to suppress. Raja Pervez Ashraf was acquitted after 12 years. Who is responsible for the disgrace of the past 12 years, does anyone have an answer?”

He added that the government and the country are not functioning properly due to NAB. “The government has failed, their every moment is cumbersome for the country,” he said.

British claims implicating Pakistan for virus spread absurd: Moeed ISLAMABAD TLTP

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Security Division and Strategic Policy, Dr Moeed Yusuf on Friday said that the government is trying its best to minimise risk of coronavirus patients travel abroad from the country.

Yusuf said that the implication by British media against Pakistan and calling it a major reason for the virus’ spread in the kingdom is an absolutely rubbish insinuation.

The SAPM said that the claim made by British media is absurd because 30 people tested positive for coronavirus in England after serving a seven-day quarantine after arriving in the country. Yusuf questioned how the British determined that the passengers were carriers and not infected after landing in England.

Yusuf said that Pakistan has been ensuring strict screening and testing of its passengers since the initial

cases were reported in the country whereas Britain followed no such protocols at the airports or in the country and was in turn devastated by the coronavirus.

Earlier on June 30, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Zulfi Bukhari said that the deadly coronavirus had surfaced in Pakistan after the pandemic hit Britain in the start of February.

“There was not even a single case of the virus in Pakistan, the pandemic hit the UK in the start of February, while it reached Pakistan by end of the same month,” said Bukhari while rejecting British media reports about origins of the virus outbreak in the United Kingdom.

The SAPM said the publications had done cheap and unprofessional reporting by linking the spread of coronavirus in the UK with Pakistan.

Citing the research study of Oxford University, Bukhari said that the UK had imported most of the coronavirus cases from other countries including France, Italy and Spain.

CMYK

While investigators are hard at work to make headway into the attack on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) this week, a car similar to the one used by the attackers to reach their target was spotted in a TV drama of late. According to sources, the car which the terrorists used to get to the PSX was seen in an episode of the TV drama aired on a private entertainment channel Wednesday last. The vehicle with registration number BAP-629 was used in the incident. They said the vehicle was seen parked in the background of a scene of the drama shot in the parking area of the port city’s Hill Park. The sources said while the episode was aired two days back, further investigation is underway to ascertain the date of the filming of the scene. Four terrorists who had attacked the stock exchange building on Monday were also killed. A police officer and two security guards also lost their lives while foiling the attack. The outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack. Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly (NA) on June 30, Prime Minister Imran Khan had said Pakistan has no qualms that Monday’s terrorist attack on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) was orchestrated in India. “We have no doubt that this [attack] was carried out by India.”

Pakistan believes in peaceful coexistence with neighbours: Pm ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that Pakistan believes in peaceful coexistence with its neighbours, but it has the will and capacity to defend its people and territorial integrity. This was expressed by the prime minister at a high-level meeting on Friday which was held to review the internal and external security situation. The meeting also resolved that sovereignty of Pakistan will be protected at all costs. The meeting expressed serious concern over the continued human rights violation by Indian forces in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) and urged the international community to take notice. The forum also paid glowing tributes to the bravery and coordinated efforts of law enforcement agencies for successfully thwarting the recent attack on Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). Separately, Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Dr Noorul Haq Qadri called on PM Imran on Friday, and both of them exchanged views on matters of mutual interest.

asif appears before naB in housing society scam LAHORE INP

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Asif on Friday has appeared before National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the housing society scandal. According to details, the PML-N leader has recorded his statement and also submitted required data. Asif has been accused of misusing his authority and illegally selling a piece of land in a housing society.

Saturday, 4 July, 2020

NEWS

CoronaVirUs siTUaTion imProVinG aCross CoUnTry eXCePT sinDh, says Umar minister says Cases Could Be less than 0.4m By end July if soPs are followed 78 PeoPle die of Covid-19, 4,551 new Cases emerge in 24 hours ISLAMABAD

m

STAFF REPORT

INISTER for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Friday said that while the country’s overall coronavirus situation was getting better, there was a significant lack of improvement in Sindh, particularly in the provincial capital Karachi.

Pakistan on Friday confirmed 78 deaths in a single day by coronavirus as the number of positive cases surged to

221,896, while the he nationwide tally of fatalities jumped to 4,551.

According to the latest figures by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), 4,087 persons tested positive for Covid-19 in 24 hours.

Sindh remains the worst-hit province by the pandemic in terms of cases followed by Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan.

Till now 89,225 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 78,956 in Punjab, 27,170 in KP, 10,666 in Balochistan, 13,195 in Islamabad, 1,524 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and 1,160 in

rs644bn released by govt for PsDP during Fy20 ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) government released Rs644 billion against the allocated amount of Rs701 billion for Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) during FY20. Overall, the government could not release Rs56.30billion allocated amount for the FY20. According to sources, the Rs644 billion released also included a Rs123 billion foriegn component. Overall, the federal government released Rs572 billion from its own resources in FY20. Similarly, the government spent Rs297 billion against the allocation of Rs313 billion for federal ministries and Rs170 billion against the allocated amount of Rs155 billion for National Highway. The Finance Ministry released Rs22 billion against the allocation of Rs35 billion for National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) and Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO). Additionally, Rs27.28 billion was released for AJL development, Rs16.58 billion for Gilgit Baltistan, Rs3.71 billion for ERRA, Rs13.10 billion for temporary displaced people and Rs49 billion for security related work.

Moreover, the government also disbursed Rs2.35 billion against the allocation of Rs5 billion for skillful youth programme, Rs410 million for gas infrastructure development cess, Rs23 billion against the allocation of Rs48 billion for merged areas and Rs15.4 billion against the allocation of Rs24 billion for development work in KP. SHAHZAD PARACHA

oGDC announces commercial production of gas, condensate from Togh Well-i ISLAMABAD: The Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) has announced the commencement of commercial production of gas and condensate from Togh Well-I after injecting 24.25 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) gas and 300 barrel (bbl) oil from three fields in the transmission network during last few days. "The company has been getting 9mmcfd gas and 240bbl oil from the Togh Well-I, located in Kohat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, since June 30," said a statement issued by the company on Friday. "It is the fourth injection the company has made in the production gathering system during a period from June 26 to 30 for onward supply to consumers. The OGDC is the operator of the Togh Well-I with 55pc shares, while Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MPCL) and Saif Energy Limited (SEL) are joint venture partners with 33.33pc and 16.67pc shares, respectively. APP

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Furthermore, 1,819 individuals have lost their lives to the epidemic in Punjab, 1,437 in Sindh, 983 in KP, 122 in Balochistan, 129 in Islamabad, 28 in GB and 33 in AJK. Patients are under treatment at quarantine centers of 462 hospitals where 7,295 beds are available.

Pakistan has so far conducted 1,350,773 coronavirus tests and 22,941 in last 24 hours. 113,623 coronavirus patients have recovered in the country whereas 2,479 patients are in critical condition.

Addressing a press conference, the minister said that the number of deaths, patients admitted to hospitals and patients on ventilators had gone down.

Crediting this development to citizens following precautionary measures to curb the spread of the virus, Umar said if this continues, the country’s situation will continue to improve.

“However, there is only one area where we are not seeing that much improvement, which is in Sindh, especially Karachi,” he said.

He maintained that to address this, the NCOC team held a meeting with the provincial chief secretary and the provincial health minister and was working on a way to replicate the results from the rest of the country in Sindh.

He also urged citizens to remain mindful of the fact that an improvement was only being seen because they were following precautionary measures.

“Do not take this to mean that the pandemic is going away on its own and you can do whatever you want,” he cautioned, adding that a lapse in following preventive measures could cause the number of cases to rise again.

“I had earlier warned that our cases could reach 1.2 million by July end if we do not take action or follow preventive measures. But because people are following precautionary measures and the administration is also taking action […] this number may be less than 400,000,” he further said. He concluded his press conference by urging the public to follow doctors’ advice with seriousness.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi tests positive for coronavirus NEWS DESK Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Friday announced that he had tested positive for Covid-19, but was feeling “strong and energetic”.

In a tweet, Qureshi said that he had a slight fever earlier in the day and had immediately quarantined himself at home.

“I have now tested positive for Covid-19. By the grace of Allah, I feel strong and energetic. I will continue to carry on my duties from home.

Please keep me in your prayers.”

Several politicians have been diagnosed with the virus over the past few months as it continues to spread in Pakistan. More than 223,300 people have tested positive across the country since the first case emerged on February 26 while more than 4,500 deaths have been reported.

Prominent political leaders who have contracted the virus so far include National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, PPP leader Saeed Ghani and

Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid, all of whom have recovered.

In June, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif had also tested positive for the virus.

Former Balochistan governor Syed Fazal Agha, PTI Punjab MPA Shaheen Raza, Sindh Minister for Human Settlements Ghulam Murtaza Baloch, MNA Munir Khan Orakzai and PTI’s Mian Jamshedud Din Kakakhel are among politicians who passed away after contracting the virus.

MoST in hot waters over recruitment of PHA officials ISLAMABAD GHULAM ABBAS

The Ministry of Science & Technology (MoST) is currently in a fix over the appointment of officials at the Pakistan Halal Authority (PHA), as the ministry has re-advertised many posts of BS-17, BS-18 and BS-19 after completion of tests and interviews of the candidates who had applied against these posts in an earlier advertisement.

According to sources, the re-advertisements for the posts were published on May 31 and June 5 due to "objections raised by the Establishment Division", which found violations in the recruitment process.

The PHA recruitment process was initiated under an acting head of PHA, which was reportedly a violation of the set rules.

As per the Establishment Division, "Since the appointment(s)/promotion(s) do not fall in the category of day-to-day business of the organisation, hence head of an organization entrusted with look after charge 'cannot' chair the meeting of DPC/ DSC and make any recommendations as a chairman of DSC/DPC." Meanwhile, the cabinet on 9th July 2019 had also decided that the existing practice to entrust additional charge to officers be "discontinued" and the process to fill the vacant positions in the federal government be completed at the earliest.

Govt to pursue 'Make in Pakistan' policy to boost exports: Dawood ISLAMABAD APP

The Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood on Friday said that the government will diligently pursue the 'Make in Pakistan' policy and work towards rapid industrialization aimed at enhancing exports and substituting imports.

This adviser to the prime minister was addressing a meeting with a delegation of chambers of commerce and industry at the Ministry of Commerce (MoC), said a press release issued by the MoC. The meeting was attended by representatives of Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Gujrat, Multan and Mirpur chambers of commerce. While addressing the delegation Razak Dawood said that tariffs need to be rationalised in order

to achieve the objectives of 'Make in Pakistan' policy.

He added that in order to combat the Covid-19 pandemic some sectors have not been considered for tariff rationalisation while some important sectors have been given benefits. He further reiterated that the anomalies arising out of the budget have been addressed to a large extent while the remaining anomalies will be resolved in consultation with the stakeholders.

The adviser to the prime minister further said that the government is following a three year plan according to which it will gradually remove duties and tariffs, particularly on raw materials, for the benefit of the industry.

He added that the government will have a special focus towards the engineering sector in order to boost exports of power equipment sector, auto sector, home appliances, mobile phones, sanitary ceramics ware, utensils,

03

First doctor dies of coronavirus in aJk ISLAMABAD: Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) recorded the first death of a doctor in the coronavirus pandemic as Dr Ikhlaq breathed his last at PIMS, Islamabad on Friday. The deceased healthcare professional was working at the DHQ Hospital Kotli as a medical specialist. He was infected by the deadly virus two weeks ago and later shifted to the federal capital’s top hospital due to his worsening condition. According to family sources, Dr Ikhlaq is survived by a widow and four children. His final prayers would be offered in his native area of Kotli. In an earlier report published on Thursday, Gulf News said a total of 58 healthcare professionals had so far died in Pakistan. According to the newspaper, 42 doctors, 13 paramedics and support staff, two nurses and one medical student were among the casualties. The data shows Sindh reported most of these deaths where 22 healthcare providers had lost their lives. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) reported 11 deaths followed by 10 in Punjab, seven in Balochistan, five in Islamabad and three in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).

Official data shows the virus was found in at least 5,367 healthcare workers as of June 30. INP

Us donates 100 ventilators to support Pakistan’s Covid-19 response KARACHI: A shipment of 100 brand new ventilators donated by the United States government through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in cooperation with Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority, to support Pakistan in its fight against Covid-19, have arrived here. The ventilators would be deployed in hospitals across Pakistan, a press release here on Friday said.

“This donation delivers on American President Donald Trump’s generous offer of these critically needed supplies and supports Pakistan’s urgent response to the pandemic. The ventilators are valued at about $3 million and reflect the latest in cutting-edge medical design and technology. They are compact, easily deployable, and will enable Pakistan to more effectively treat patients suffering from Covid-19,” it added. US Ambassador in Pakistan Paul Jones, in his remarks, said “The United States stands with Pakistan in its fight against coronavirus. These American-made ventilators will help Pakistani patients in the most acute need of medical care.” APP

Trade deficit contracts 27pc to 23.2bn in Fy20: PBs ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s trade deficit narrowed by 27 per cent to $23.18 billion in the fiscal year 201920, as against the deficit of $31.8 billion in the preceding fiscal year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Friday. The country's import bill declined significantly by 18.61pc to $44.57 billion during July–June 2019-20, as compared to $54.76 billion in the same period of the preceding year. Exports from the country also fell by 6.84pc to $21.38 billion in the fiscal year 2019-20 as compared with $22.95 billion in the preceding fiscal year. The fall in import bill and export receipts may be attributed to Covid-19, which adversely affected international trade. Moreover, declining oil prices also played a key role in reducing the import bill. TLTP

cutlery, pumps and motors. Razak Dawood assured that the government has taken important policy decisions in this regard and exports of the engineering sector will improve in FY21. Discussing different opportunities for production of value-added products and their export, the adviser to the prime minister underlined the importance of investing in certifications and laboratories, particularly for exploiting potential in the food processing sector. The adviser also informed that the MoC is working to resolve issues of the exporters on priority with a particular focus on export of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

He reassured that exports of hand sanitisers, disposable gowns and gloves, face shields, biohazard bags, goggles and shoe covers, made from various classes of materials, including woven and non-woven chlorinated polyethylene, polypropylene, spun-bond and melt blown is allowed. However, export of N-95 masks, surgical masks and tyvek suits is still on hold.

Earlier on June 26, Abdul Razak Dawood had said that Pakistan will be rapidly diversifying its exports into high quality and globally competitive engineering and pharmaceutical products while reducing its dependence on five traditional export sectors.

04

Saturday, 4 July, 2020

NEWS

More areas put under ‘sMart lockdown’ in karachi as coronavirus spreads KARACHI

i

STAFF REPORT

N light of the recommendations made by the district health officer, certain areas in Karachi were placed under a 'smart lockdown' on Friday as coronavirus cases continue to spread across the province, including the capital.

As many as 1,496 new cases were emerged when 10,027 samples were tested raising the tally to 90,721 in Sindh while 22 more patients lost their lives lifting the death toll to 1,437.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, in a statement issued from the CM House on Friday, said that the government has so far tested 4, 81050 samples which detected 9,0721 cases all over Sindh, of them 50,908 have recovered, including 982 overnight. “The recovery rate of coronavirus patients in Sindh stands at 56 per cent,” CM Murad said.

1,496 NEW CASES EMERGE, 22 PEOPLE LOSE THEIR LIVES DUE TO COVID-19 IN SINDH He said that 22 more patients died lifting the death toll to 1,459, constituting a 1.6 per cent death rate.

The chief minister said that at present 38,354 patients were under treatment, of them 36,452 in home isolation, 298 at isolation centers and 1,604 at different hospitals.

He added that out of 1,604 hospitalised patients, 653 were in critical condition, 104 on ventilators while 847 stated to be stable.

The CM said that out of 1,496 new cases of coronavirus, Karachi has 750 cases, including East 217, South 182, Central 129, Malir 82, Korangi 79 and West 61.

He added that Sukkur has 44 new cases, Sanghar 44, Badin 41, Ghotki 40, Khairpur

Islamabad’s Covid-19 positivity rate goes down to 5pc ISLAMABAD INP

Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar on Friday said that only 113 cases of the novel coronavirus were recorded in Islamabad on Thursday as compared to more than 700 infections reported in mid-June.

The minister, who also heads the National Control and Operation Centre (NCOC), said in a tweet: “Positivity down to 5% yesterday and in single digits for last few days consistently.”

He lauded the civil administration, police and the health department for doing “very good” work. He also appreciated the role of citizens of Islamabad to help the authorities stem the virus spread by following the government-prescribed guidelines. 78 more people lost their lives in the country in the past 24 hours due to complications related to coronavirus, taking the death toll to 4,551.

According to the NCOC, 4,087 new infections were detected after 22,941 tests were conducted in the previous 24 hours, taking the national tally of cases to 221,896.

Covid-19 claims 35 more lives in Punjab LAHORE: Coronavirus has claimed 35 more lives in the province, while the number of coronavirus cases in the province reached 78,956 after registration of 1,216 new cases in the last 24 hours.

According to the spokesperson of the Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department on Friday morning, the total number of deaths has reached 1,819 in the province.

The health department confirmed that 878 new cases of Covid-19 were registered in Lahore, two in Nankana Sahib,

two in Kasur, 16 in Sheikhupura,97 in Rawalpindi,4 in Jehlum, 1 in Chakwal,12 in Gujranwala,7 in Narowal, 46 in Gujrat, four in Hafizabad, three in Mandi Bahauddin, 18 in Multan,10 in Vehari, 45 in Faisalabad, three in Toba Tek Singh, nine in Jhang, nine in Rahim Yar Khan, 12 in Sargodha, five in Mianwali, five in Bahawalpur, three in Lodharan, five in Dera Ghazi Khan, five in Layyah, 10 in Okara and three new case of Covid-19 were reported in Pakpatan district during 24 hours. APP

29, Thatta 26, Kambar 22, Shaheed Benazirabad 17, Jamshoro and Shikarpur 11 each, Kashmore seven , Larkana six, Dadu and Naushehroferoze five each, Jacobabad four, Umerkot three, Tando Allahyar two, Tando Mohammad Khan Khan and Mirpurkhas have one each.

The chief minister urged the people to stay safe by observing the standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the government in consultation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other experts.

Meanwhile, the deputy commissioner of Karachi's Malir district ordered a lockdown of five days, from July 3-7 in "the large(r) public interest and to prevent/slowdown the spread of deadly coronavirus".

Phases I and II of UC-06, Gulshan-iHadeed will be sealed and all commercial markets, shopping malls and superstores and markets in the main streets of the area will remain closed, a notification said.

The Karachi West district commissioner also imposed a lockdown in areas of six UCs for two weeks, from July 3-17. The following areas will be sealed: Gulshan-i-Maymar blocks X, Y and Z, UC-5 Songal, Gadap Docks & Majeed Colony, UC-3, Kemari Saedabad blocks 5G, 5J and A3, UC-5, Baldia UC-4 Metroville blocks 1-5, SITE UC-11 Data Nagar, Area A/B, Orangi UC-12 Mujahid Colony (Millatabad, Gulfamabad and Aligarh Colony), Orangi Similarly, the Karachi South district deputy commissioner also announced a complete lockdown in Civil Lines, Garden, Arambagh, Lyari and Saddar for two weeks, from July 3-17.

According to the notification, the following areas will be sealed: All commercial areas in Khayaban-iRahat, Civil Lines Block 4, Clifton, Civil Lines All localities in Bath Island Block 5, Clifton, Civil Lines (all the areas between Khayaban-e-Saadi and Khayaban-e-lqbal and between Bank Road and Neher-e-Khayyam, including all businesses) Khori Garden Market, Kharadar, Arambagh Machi Miyani Market, Kharadar, Arambagh All the commercial areas of Jeelani Masjid Road, Garden All the commercial areas of Hari Masjid Road, Nanakwara, Garden Doli Khata, Garden Shoe Market, Garden Madni Road, Lyari Mosa Lane, Lyari

PMD issues altern for urban flooding in Sindh as heavy rainfall expected from Monday ISLAMABAD INP

The Pakistan Meteorological Department on Friday issued a weather advisory for Sindh in which it said widespread rainfall and intermittent thundershowers were expected in several areas of the province for three days beginning Monday (July 6).

In a notification, the Met department said monsoon currents were expected to strengthen in Sindh, which would generate widespread rainfall in the province, particularly in

Karachi, Hyderabad, Thatta, Badin, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar, Umerkot, Jamshoro and Dadu from Sunday (night) to Tuesday.

"Heavy rainfall may also cause urban flooding in Karachi, Thatta, Badin and Hyderabad on Monday and Tuesday," it said, urging the concerned authorities to remain alert during this period. The department's director, Sardar Sarfaraz, said monsoon rains will begin in the province on June 6.

"Before the monsoon, there is also a possibility of dust storms and gusty winds blow-

Power outages continue as electricity shortfall reaches 3,350MW ISLAMABAD INP

Life has come to a standstill in parts of the country due to electricity load-shedding as the power shortfall has reached 3,350 megawatts. According to details, frequent power outages in cities including Islamabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Karachi and other have pushed millions of residents into a ‘dark age’. Citizens of different parts of Lahore, including Baghbanpura, Dharampura, Garhi Shahu, Abbott Road, Shahdara and Marghzar Colony, are suffering severely.

They said that Lahore Electric Supply

Company (LESCO) employees and officers do not answer the phone. On the other hand, the LESCO spokesperson claimed that there was no load-shedding anywhere in the city but electricity was being supplied in excess of the demand.

In the scorching heat, technical glitches are causing problems.

A LESCO spokesman said technical glitches or replacement of the transformer took time and the feeder had to be shut down. Meanwhile, people living in Karachi are also facing severe difficulties due to power outages in Gulshan Iqbal, Gulistan-e-Johar, Pehlwan Goth and Safoora.

ing at a speed of between 20-30 nautical miles. The rainfall is likely to continue in intervals until the early hours of the morning on June 8."

He added that the temperature was expected to rise before the rainfall as a result of the sea breeze being cut off. "It can go up to 48 or 49 degrees Celsius." The official advised citizens that were out of their homes during the dust storm to seek shelter. "Don't stand underneath billboards or trees during the dust storm," he said, adding that there was also a risk of urban flooding in low-lying areas.

Flour prices fixed by punjab cabinet not being followed LAHORE: Flour prices fixed by the Punjab cabinet are not being followed across the province as people are still forced to buy it at old rates. 20-kilogram flour bag is available in market at Rs1,035 to Rs1,100. Flour millers have expressed reservations over new rates fixed by the provincial regime and complained that wheat has still not been released.

Earlier on Thursday, the Punjab government had approved a two-month interim policy to provide wheat at Rs1,475 per maund to flour mills across the province. Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar chaired the cabinet meeting and said that by reducing the prices of flour, relief will be provided to the public. The meeting decided to stabilize the prices of flour and the rate of 20 kg bag of flour was fixed at Rs850 instead of existing price of Rs1,050, in the market. The Punjab cabinet also approved the early release of wheat to the flour mills and fixed the price of government wheat at the rate of Rs1,475 per maund. INP

TDCP plans to establish resort and food streets near Hiran Minar LAHORE SHAHAB OMER

The Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab (TDCP) has planned to establish a state-of-the-art resort in the vicinity of the historical monument Hiran Minar near Sheikhupura along with art and craft markets, food streets and camping sites.

The site work of the project has been completed and national and international food chains will also be invited to set up their stalls in food streets.

TDCP officials believe that work on the project would begin soon under public-private partnership. The development work would cost millions of rupees and provide direct employment to thousands of people.

TDCP General Manager Asim Raza told Pakistan Today that Hiran Minar was located in the middle of 104 acres of TDCP’s land. “If we look at the practical usage of such a large piece of land, it is not properly used for the

tourism purposes. But now we are planning to make full use of it and are going to establish a camping site for about 100 to 150 children.

We are also establishing three to four food streets here in which all the traditional food stalls will be set up. All the facilities related to adventure tourism including art and craft bazaar, children's play area will be provided to the people. We are also planning to establish a mini zoo here.” “People in many cities will benefit from this project, and especially people from Lahore, Gujranwala, Shahkot, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, Okara and Multan will come here. We are going to make a kind of mini Lahore here. The entire project will be under public-private partnership. The land will be ours but all development on it will be done by private parties. The entire project will cost around Rs100 million,” he added.

When asked about the sensitivity of historical monument and construction, he said, “Since this is an area close to a historical monument, we will not set up anything here on a

permanent basis. No permanent structure of any kind will be established here. The bazaar or food street that will be built will also be in the form of beautiful wooden huts. Contracts will be allotted to private parties that come through the tender and meet the rules. We will try to prefer serious people. Contracts should not be awarded to people who do not have experience in this field. We need success stories here. We would like international and local food chains to make their huts here.”

Regarding the provision of employment opportunities to the people, Asim said that he has estimated that this project would directly provide employment to thousands of people.

He added that the site plan of the project has been completed while the secretary tourism and adviser to chief minister on tourism have also visited the site.

Asim said that tourism activities will start in full swing as soon as the coronavirus outbreak ends as Pakistan has a lot of potential for tourism.

Saturday, 4 July, 2020

PAkiStAn, ChinA All-weAther StrAtegiC CooPerAtive PArtnerS: QureShi iSLAMABAd

F

SAYS ISLAMABAD FIRMLY SUPPORTS BEIJING ON ONE-CHINA POLICY, CORE INTERESTS

tLtP

OREIGN Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan and China are all-weather strategic cooperative partners and they preserve the fine tradition of expressing solidarity, mutual assistance and mutual support to each other in the face of common challenges.

Foreign Minister Qureshi said this during a telephone conversation with Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Bilateral, regional, and international issues were discussed during the conversation.

Qureshi reiterated that Pakistan remains committed to ‘One-China policy’ and firmly supports China on its core interests including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang.

Qureshi underscored that regional security situation is deteriorating and underlined that India’s belligerent posture and expansionist policies are imperilling peace in the region. Apart from committing egregious violations of human rights in IOJ&K, India is seeking to change the demographic structure

of the occupied territory.

The foreign minister also briefed about the repeated violations committed by India across the LOC as well as targeted killing of the civilians. In the face of Indian provocations, Pakistan is exercising restraint, the foreign minister added.

Qureshi underscored that disputes in the region should be resolved through peaceful means and agreed mechanisms rather than resorting to unilateral, illegal and coercive measures reflected in India’s decision of 5 August 2019. He emphasised that the recent attack at Pakistan Stock Exchange in Karachi was supported by anti-Pakistan elements seeking to undermine Pakistan’s economic development and stability.

State Councillor Wang Yi briefed Foreign Minister Qureshi about the regional situation. He lauded Pakistan’s sincere and relentless efforts to promote peace and sta-

bility in the region and thanked Pakistan for the support it has extended to China during difficult and challenging times.

Both sides also reaffirmed their resolve to support each other at the multilateral institutions and hoped that those institutions would foster a spirit of objectivity and coherence in advancing their goals.

The two foreign ministers expressed determination to promote peace and development in Afghanistan. It was hoped that the next meeting of China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers Dialogue will take place at the earliest to facilitate peace and reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan.

Both sides reaffirmed the resolve to take measures aimed at the earliest possible economic recovery in the aftermath of Covid19. Foreign Minister Qureshi underlined that BRI and CPEC would become the hub of trade and economic activity, sustainable de-

velopment and greater people-to-people exchanges. Pakistan and China are taking relevant measures which will help timely completion of CPEC projects.

Wang Yi underscored that CPEC is a flagship project of BRI and that the second phase of CPEC will complement Pakistan’s efforts aimed at job creation, enhancing agricultural productivity, reducing poverty, and massive economic recovery. He emphasized that, in the aftermath of Covid-19, Beijing is taking swift, practical, and demonstrable measures to promote economic recovery in the region.

He thanked Pakistan for supporting Beijing’s idea of ‘Health Silk Road’ which, he believed, would play a major role in addressing the region’s social and economic needs.

Both sides resolved to implement consensus reached by the leadership of the two countries to deepen strategic consultation and coordination at all levels so as to collectively promote shared goals of peace and stability. They decided to have face-to-face meeting soon to discuss challenges confronted by the region.

‘Govt utilising available resources, enhancing institutional capacity to fight locusts’ iSLAMABAd APP

Augustine briefs CM on peace campaign LAHoRE stAff rePort

Ijaz Alam Augustine, Punjab minister of human rights, minority affairs and interfaith harmony has expressed that their campaign to curb hate mongering and stigmatizing different groups for allegedly spreading COVID 19 in the country has been appreciated at a large scale. The said media campaign was launched by the ministry with the support of Youth Development Foundation (YDF) - an organisation working on peace of faith and harmony - and comprised messages of peace from religious scholars from different sects and religions. The campaign executed by YDF and the ministry covered Lahore, Okara, Multan, DG Khan and Bahawalpur. The minister said that he had presented spotlight report of this campaign titled "A Campaign to Counter Hate and Discrimination during Covid 19" to the Honourable Chief Minister of Punjab, Sardar Usman Buzdar. He said the CM appreciated the campaign and said that he had himself seen billboards, banners and streamers carrying the messages that discouraged blame game regarding spread of COVID 19 in the campaign. The CM also ensured his full support to the YDF and the human rights ministry in its upcoming work for this noble cause. The YDF team collaborated with the ministry and recorded messages of religious leaders from different sects and religions and other notables. These messages were aired on TV channels, Radio channels, Cable Television networks, says Shahid Rehmat, Executive Director, YDF. Those interviewed for messages include Allama Raghib Naeemi, Allama Tahir Ashrafi, Allama Muhammad Akbar Hussain, Allama Abdul Khabir Azad, Bishop Sebastian Shaw, Ali Akbar Natiq and others.

Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam on Friday said that the government is utilising all available resources and enhancing capacity of local institutions to handle locusts attacks across the country.

The minister said that about 966 joint teams comprising 5,082 people and 648 vehicles are currently taking part in anti-locusts operations in 32 affected districts across the country.

The minister for national food security and research informed that till date 95,300,000 acres of land had been surveyed while locusts control operation had been completed over 2.292 million

acres of land.

He said that the locusts’ are expected to enter the country again from the Rajasthan area in India during the upcoming monsoon season adding that appropriate steps would be taken to curb the locusts threat.

He said that the government is acquiring technical support from other international organisations besides enhancing domestic cooperation to fight locusts attacks.

Fakhar Imam informed that currently five aircrafts belonging to Pakistan Army are conducting aerial spray operations across locusts affected areas of the country. He further informed that five additional aircrafts are expected to be leased while National Disaster Man-

agement Authority (NDMA) has ordered 11 more aircrafts which will further increase the effectiveness of the campaign.

The food minister further said that micron spray is being used in anti-locusts operation and that a local company has ensured the provision of the spray at a controlled price.

He further said that locusts attacks were also registered in 10 states of the neighboring countries including Iran (Sistan) and that aerial spray has been carried out in Balochistan.

The minister also appreciated the coordinated efforts of all the concerned departments including Ministry of National Food Security and Research, NDMA and APDM against locusts and pests attacks in the country.

Judge Malik’s dismissal gives hope to PML-N for Nawaz’s acquital coNtiNuEd oN pAGE 01 Finally, the IHC on Aug 22 had suspended and repatriated the judge to the LHC, his parent department, for further disciplinary proceedings.

A notification issued by the IHC registrar had said: “The disclosure and admission made by Mr Muhammad

Arshad Malik, district & sessions judge/former judge accountability courtII Islamabad in a press release dated July 7, 2019 and the affidavit dated July 11, 2019, prima facie, constitute acts of misconduct and violation of the code of conduct, which warrant initiation of disciplinary proceedings against him.”

The LHC on Sept 14 made the judge

an officer on special duty from the date of his suspension and posted him to the sessions court.

The Federal Investigation Agency also launched an inquiry into the video scandal and initially arrested three persons on charges of pressurising and blackmailing judge Malik. They were later exonerated by a judicial magistrate.

Pakistan draws world’s attention to Kashmiri children's plight under Indian occupation GENEVA APP

Pakistan has told the UN Human Rights Council that the plight of children in Indian occupied Kashmir, which is under a tight lockdown for the last 10 months, has further deteriorated, and called on India to end its atrocities against them.

"Militarily cooped up in their homes

under the suffocating ‘double’ lockdown, over 1.5 million Kashmiri children have endured the worst form of violence which the contemporary world has yet to witness," Ambassador Khalil Hashmi said.

He was participating in an interactive dialogue with the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on Violence Against Children, Maalla M’jid, in the 47member council in Geneva on Thursday.

Recalling that in August last year, the renowned medical magazine “Lancet” alerted the world community that in wake of India’s heavy militarization of the occupied territory, the mental health crisis there will only worsen, disproportionately affecting women and children, the Pakistani envoy said, "Nearly a year later, the situation seems even grimmer."

KP businesswomen continue to struggle despite ease in lockdown restrictions pESHAWAR AZIZ BUNerI

Despite the end of coronavirus lockdown in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, women have not been able to restart their businesses, which has increased the unemployment rate for women in the province.

Talking to Profit, Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (WCCI)-Peshawar President Rukhsana Nadir noted that the number of businesswomen was already very low in KP due to terrorism-related issues and social hurdles.

"Despite the federal government's announcement of relief on electricity and other utility bills for closed businesses, women entrepreneurs are being made to pay exorbitant electricity, telephone and other bills," she

WCCI PRESIDENT DEMANDS PROVISION OF LOW-INTEREST LOANS OF UP TO RS2 MILLION THROUGH EASY PAPERWORK complained. "The lack of interest and negligence on part of the government and other agencies has put the jobs of thousands of female employees across the province at stake."

She further noted that the State Bank of Pakistan had recently announced the provision of loans to the small industry at low-interest rates. "But businesswomen in KP are facing difficulties in fulfilling the conditions for the loan facility."

Therefore, she said, the women of KP call on the federal and provincial governments to announce low-interest loans of up to Rs2 million on easy terms so that busi-

nesses affected by the Covid-19 could recover without further delay.

Rukhsana said that at present, the women's chamber has more than 450 registered members, adding that WCCI has also started working on an online system to market the goods and handicrafts made by its members.

"We demand an immediate announcement of a comprehensive financial package for all businesswomen in KP," she asserted, adding that most women in the province were associated with beauty parlours, boutique, handicrafts, gyms, construction activities, and handicrafts.

Meanwhile, talking to this scribe, a businesswoman from Peshawar stated that women have played an important role in many sectors of the economy over the years and were being encouraged by the government as well as civil society to uplift their work.

She said that many women in KP were looking towards WCCI for opportunities.

“But if the same discrimination against women continues in the business world, it will deprive thousands of families of their right to earn a respectful living."

As most small and large industries felt the tremors caused by coronavirus lockdown, KP women entrepreneurs were no different. Most of their businesses were on the verge of collapse during the lockdown, with some businesswomen even selling their jewellery to pay rents and salaries.

NEWS

05

19 Sikh pilgrims, driver killed as train crashes into coaster near Sheikhupura coNtiNuEd oN pAGE 01 “Action will be taken in accordance with the law against whomever is held responsible for this accident,” the PR statement said. It added that in the case of an unmanned level crossing, “it is the responsibility of the road user to carefully see the railway track and then cross”. “Pakistan Railways installs warning boards at such unmanned level crossings but people crossing [often] do not look at them due to which similar tragedies have occurred in the past as well,” the press release stated, noting that such incidents besides causing losses of life and property also “bring a bad name to the Railways”.

Sheikhupura DPO Mohammad Ghazi Salahuddin, while talking to reporters, said that women and children were among the 20 people who were killed in the collision. According to the DPO, there were two more coaches carrying Sikh pilgrims that took a different route and are safely on their way. As opposed to the initial reports that suggested that the crossing was unmanned, the DPO said that the gate was closed. He said that it seemed like the driver had tried to take a shortcut instead of waiting at the crossing, which resulted in the crash. He added that facts will only be clear after an investigation. Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid has ordered authorities to take immediate action against those responsible for the accident. In a tweet, Prime Minister Imran said he was “deeply saddened” by the train accident and that he had directed officials to ensure that proper medical care is provided to the injured.

“My condolences and prayers go to the families of the deceased. [I] have directed relevant authorities to ensure facilitation and care for all the families,” he said. The premier announced that the Railways’ “operational safety SOPs will be reviewed immediately”. Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar expressed sorrow at the loss of lives in the train accident and conveyed condolences to the families of the deceased. According to a statement, the chief minister directed the health department to provide all facilities possible to the injured. PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif said the news of the Sikh pilgrims’ death in the accident was “saddening”. “I extend my most sincere sympathies to the bereaved families on their irreparable loss,” a tweet by his office quoted Sharif as saying. In a tweet, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “pained by the tragic demise of Sikh pilgrims in Pakistan”.

“My thoughts are with their families and friends in this hour of grief. I pray that those pilgrims injured recover at the earliest,” he added. The Sikh family that was killed in the train accident belonged to Peshawar’s Mohalla Jogan Shah. The area’s residents and relatives of the deceased gathered at the Gurdwara Bhai Joga Singh to grieve the deaths. They appealed to the government to soon shift the bodies to Peshawar. Meanwhile, at a press conference in Karachi, Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab expressed concern over what he called “daily train accidents” in the country. While condoling with the families of the victims, Wahab said “the mysterious silence of those who had demanded the resignation of the concerned minister over a train accident in the past [is] beyond comprehension”.

“Why have the so-called PTI leaders turned a blind eye to the deaths of so many innocent passengers?” he asked.

The spokesperson alleged that Railways Minister Rashid has “completely failed” at his job and demanded his immediate resignation.

Saturday, 4 July, 2020

06 COMMENT

The energy saga

Baying for blood BJP government gone amok

P

AKistAN cannot afford to ignore the ongoing military buildup in Galwan valley caused by india’s hegemonic policies. the BJP government recently built the strategic all-weather DsDBO road that connects Ladakh’s capital Leh to Daulat Beg Oldie, virtually at the base of the Karakoram Pass that separates china’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region from Ladakh. the DsDBO highway provides india military access to the crucial tibet-Xinjaing highway that passes through Aksai chin. to the west of Daulat Beg Oldie is the region where china abuts Pakistan in the Gilgit-Baltistan area and where china is constructing the cPec, defying indian protests. As if this was not enough provocation, while addressing the Rajya sabha last month india’s hawkish interior Minister Amit shah expressed willingness to shed his blood to annex china’s Aksai chin and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. While the claim drew acclaim from the BJP’s admirers, it set alarm bells ringing in Beijing and islamabad. india lost 20 soldiers while over 70 were injured in the face off with the chinese army in the Galwan valley on June 15. On Friday indian PM Narendra Modi visited a forward location in Ladakh. it is difficult for Mr Modi, who has projected himself as a tough guy, to digest the humiliation. Also for the BJP whose ideology rests on the reunification of what it considers its territories lost to china and Pakistan. unrealistic expectations roused among its supporters are likely to lead the BJP government to initiate a war with china. sections of the pro-Modi indian media are spreading lies about concentration of Pakistani troops along Gilgit-Baltistan’s border with india and chinese using the skardu airbase. india is meanwhile setting new records of state sponsored terrorism in the Kashmir Valley. On Wednesday, indian forces dragged out an old man from his car, shot him dead, put his toddler grandson on the dead body and took snaps eliciting widespread protests in indian Occupied Kashmir and condemnations from abroad. two years back, then indian cOAs Gen Bipin Rawat said the indian Army was prepared for a two-and-a-half front war, that is, simultaneously with china, Pakistan and the Kashmiris in the Valley. taking note of the statement Pakistan should make full preparations for its defence. it should meanwhile avoid ranting and swaggering and creating mass hysteria like the indian civil and military leadership.

The pandemic will not change things as much as expected

kAMil AhMed

G

LOBAL energy demand has risen in the past century which led to the improvement in standard of living, increase in life expectancy, coupled with decrease in poverty levels globally. this is just one side of the story: fossil fuel consumption drove the growth but with-it carbon emissions also rose. From 1998-2018, cO2 emissions rose 48 percent and to achieve climate goals carbon emissions have to decrease at the same rate for next 20 years.

However, in the times we are living in, electricity demand has dropped six percent and global carbon emissions have dropped around six percent, with a highest 17 percent drop year-on-year in April, all because of the covid-19 pandemic. But globally this reduction in emissions will not be sustained as lockdowns associated with covid-19 are eased.

What should we expect in future? Fossil fuel demand (excluding natural gas) is expected to decrease in the West in all future scenarios from 2018-2040. this makes sense as advanced economies can afford to make the shift from conventional to renewable energy sources.

On the contrary, fossil fuel consumption in the east is expected to increase in the majority of scenarios in next 20 years. the rise in the renewables which was estimated before corona and fossil fuel decline it triggered, would still be valid with slight variation. Which is to say, for instance, solar power which supplied less than 0.01 percent of electricity in 2018, increased to 2 percent in 2018, and is expected to provide 20 percent of electricity globally. the game-changing green revolution that is believed to be the outcome of the hit that the fossil fuel industry received in contemporary times is not

Keeping the world safe The government cannot wiggle out of its responsibility

N

AtiONAL security sAPM Moeed Yusuf has strongly denied that Pakistan has been ‘exporting’ the coronavirus, but he cannot deny that 30 passengers from Pakistan tested positive for the coronavirus at Heathrow Airport, London. Addressing a press conference in islamabad on thursday, he called on intending travellers to follow airline guidelines in order to avoid embarrassing the country. He has also claimed, rather grandly, that Pakistan has done remarkably in ensuring that departing travellers do so safely. it seems Dr Yusuf has failed to grasp that his statements will impress no one. Departing travellers will need some sort of certification of a negative test, carried out by a laboratory with official approval. Leaving intending travellers to get the test done themselves is for the government to attempt to wriggle out of responsibility.

Before the pressure comes from countries of destination, asking Pakistan to ensure that people departing from its shores are coronavirus-free, the government must take appropriate measures. A logical first step would be to ask the airlines what steps would meet their requirements. this would ensure that not only destination requirements are met, but also those of transit countries. it should be noted that the present problem includes Pakistani passengers being banned from the transit point of Dubai. it seems that government’s concentration on re-opening air travel is going to be stopped in its tracks, because the rest of the world does not share the government’s free-enterprise attitude towards public health.

Pakistan is used to dealing with such issues. it has only recently faced a requirement that departing travellers had been vaccinated against polio, which it had successfully met. Before that, it had administered requirements for yellow fever. However, files need to be dusted off, and plans to be taken out of the drawer into which they have been stuffed. these are tasks which can only be carried out by the government. there must be no more attempts to duck responsibility. is there more disgrace to the country brought by private citizens using improper labs, or by its government being forced by other countries to follow safety norms?

Invisible Justice Has justice been seen to be done?

AskAri rAzA MAlik

J

ustice is the jugular vein of a society. it must exist with all its sinews and be made visible with all its transparency. if justice delayed is justice denied, justice invisible is justice wasted, faded away into oblivion. Nebulous concepts like ‘justice at your doorsteps’ clutter the rhetoric. Across-the-board justice remains a dream unfulfilled. unfortunately, the present system of justice in Pakistan has largely failed to deliver. the caliph enters the supreme court along with the petitioner. the chief Justice rises from his seat to pay respect to the most powerful ruler of his time. th caliph sacks the judge. A judge who makes distinction between a caliph and an ordinary citizen is incapable of delivering justice. the same caliph when challenged by an old woman in the famous ‘Chadder and shirt episode’, he on the spot provided evidence to clarify his position. the history proudly recorded the message for the posterity. the caliph is as accountable as his subjects. Another true caliph loses his case against a Jew citizen because his son’s evidence is not admissible in the law. He does not em-

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

Umar Aziz

Asher John

Joint Editor

Executive Editor

Deputy Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965

stay like that for 15-20 years when price crossover is expected.the Main reason for this is that a lot of investment is required in thar which takes a lot of time and without it, cost of production will be high. the main problem with the present government is its indecision. You need to shut down old power plants, for instance, Jamshoro and Muzaffargarh, but i am not sure if government can do that keeping in view their grounded in reality and seems mere wishful thinking. inability to make a decision, and vested interests” He also discussed the viability of renewable covid-19 may however speed up the rise in the renewables in the advanced economies (reasons for power in Pakistan. He said, “the problem with renewable power is it doesn’t have a base load and it is which are discussed later). there will be two kinds of impediments that re- only feasible in Pakistan when the total cost of gennewables will have along the way. For advanced eration of renewable energy is less than the fuel cost economies low capital turnover and capital stocks of your cheapest fuel generation.

“Now coming to the problem of circular debt, it is will still be a problem as technology which is to be used in future in the energy industry is produced ear- not because of expensive electricity, as one Minister belier. there is a lot of investment at stake and with-it lieves it to be. secondly, circular debt is a misnomer. it is pure loss and i suggested we should either privatize politics comes into play as well.

As far as the developing countries are concerned, them or hand them over to the provinces to deal with they have received a huge financial hit because of the the aforementioned problem,” said Mr. Abbasi while pandemic and despite the decline in fossil fuel industry discussing the everlasting problem of circular debt.

Pakistan’s energy mix now stands with natural gas they will continue to find the shift to renewables, eveb at 34.6 percent, oil at 31.2 if they are expensive, and percent, hydro at 27 perwould seek an aucent, nuclear at 2.7 pertonomous increase in encent and renewables at ergy efficiency. this 1.1 percent. As far as the opportunity in the develBe it the circular debt conundrum menace of circular debt is oping economies will be lost to the lack of the fiscal or the overall governance problems concerned, it stands at Rs 1.8 trillion., the governspace which is necessary of Pakistan, administrative and ment instead of decentralto make the energy shift. izing distribution and to understand the enfiscal decentralization is the only handing it over to ergy landscape of Pakprovinces (so it can be istan, i got in touch with viable solution. Anyone arguing managed efficiently), has former Prime Minister moved a law to pass cirotherwise doesn’t understand the shahid Khaqan Abbasi. cular debt to consumers. the former PM said, “As problem, doesn’t want to resolve it this was expected of far as the primary energy a government which exmix is concerned, Pakor is protecting certain vested hibits a severe dislike for istan is in a much healthy condition. Reliance on interests (political/financial). In this the eighteenth Amendment and wishes to roll it gas has gone up and furgovernment’s case it appears to be back. the consequences nace oil consumption has of the aforementioned reduced. commitments a mix of all three law, which enables govon nuclear energy have ernment to pass circular been made and it will bedebt to consumers in the come available too.” form of a surcharge in He further said, “4000 MW coal-powered plants (installed in the the bill, will be dire as people are already struggling PML(N)’s tenure) and 1300 MW which is being in- to meet their expenses owing to poor economic constalled in this government’s tenure will provide the ditions and rise in unemployment.

Be it the circular debt conundrum or the overall cheapest electricity. We added 13000 MW in the national grid in just four years which is unprecedented. governance problems of Pakistan, administrative and Along with the coal-powered plants, we have installed fiscal decentralization is the only viable solution.

5000 MW in LNG-based power plants. A 1000 MW Anyone arguing otherwise doesn’t understand the plant running on diesel for 12-13 years around Lahore problem, doesn’t want to resolve it or is protecting (installed during Musharraf’s time) was shifted to certain vested interests (political/financial). in this LNG, reducing its cost to one-third. Rousch and government’s case it appears to be a mix of all three.

Nandipur plants which have a capacity of around 1000 Kamil Ahmed is a political activist and a research MW were also shifted to LNG. Rousch was shut down and Nandipur had technical issues when we came in.” analyst based in Lahore. He can be contacted at talking about thar coal, the former Premier said, beingkamil@yahoo.com. His Twitter handle is: “thar coal is an expensive source of fuel and it will @beingkamil

I

Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

I

ploy his goons to attack the supreme court to prove that the chief executive was always right. that was the state of Madina we aspire for.

An official servant is required to declare his property along with that of his wife and children. this is repeated time and again during his service. it is to ensure that all changes in the family’s wealth status are regularly accounted for. As the head of the family, he is answerable for the riches accumulated by him or any other member of his family. it appears that the rule does not apply to the honourable judiciary. if so, the anomaly needs to be removed immediately like the irksome extension of the military chiefs. in the past the rulers applied a simple yardstick to judge the conduct of the government servants. if over a period of time an official had accumulated more wealth than his means justified, he was punished for corruption. in Pakistan, this criterion, though often talked about, seems to have little value. Here the children of a three-time prime minister become billionaires without having earned a penny of their own. the father, instead of being grilled to furnish the moneytrail, is facilitated by law to abscond abroad. in the promotion board when a member’s relative comes up for consideration, he leaves the room. it is not just a matter of protocol. it is intended to establish the credibility and transparency of the board. When the going gets tough, merit becomes a sine qua non. injustice does not hurt an individual. God compensates him.

But every act of injustice, small or big, creates a corresponding hole in the ship of the nation. the Prophet (PBuH) had warned that nations stronger and richer than us were destroyed because they were not just. in Pakistan the son of a serving chief justice is repeatedly accused of a number of irregularities from outof-turn promotions to outright corruption until the case becomes too obvious to ignore. the chief justice, who ‘portrayed himself as an ‘honest broker’ in a corruption-ridden Pakistan, despite being cautioned to the contrary, chooses to chair the bench appointed to decide his son’s case. the son is proved innocent. the conscience of the father also remains clear. Happy ending.

A provincial high court assembles on the weekend to grant bail to PML(N) President shehbaz sharif. it was not the first time that a court was held on a holiday, the court contended. it must be normal

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

I

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

I

for the courts to work on the weekends to attend to similar compelling urgencies. His elder brother was allowed by the court to instantly proceed abroad for treatment that has yet to commence. Who will get him back? the court had done its part of the job. the ball is now in the government’s court.

On social media a picture gone recently viral shows the images of those fortunate Pakistanis who had justice delivered practically on their doorstep. this includes the royals of the sharif dynasty, PML(N) stalwarts like Rana sanaullah and many holy figures from sindh. Good luck to them. the barbaric drama staged in Model town Lahore can wait.

No chief Justice has ever taken a suo motu notice of this brutality. it has been perhaps left for God to punish the culprits. the handling of the latest case of Mr Justice Qazi Faez isa by the supreme court did not do much to boost their confidence in the judicial system which they have known to be full of faults. the presidential reference was quashed, which according to the defender was based on mala fide. this contention of the defender was never discussed, proved or rejected.

However, the refence was set aside as the defender had wished. At the same time the show cause notice issued by the supreme Judicial council (sJc) to Mr Justice Faiz isa was also quashed. According to senior legal analysts, the court exceeded its limit by interfering in the functioning of the sJc. it was a prerogative of the sJc to admit or dismiss the reference. A justice was as much accountable as an ordinary citizen, we were told, but not exactly. He was not responsible for the wealth accumulated by his family. He had the right to make a thrilling entry into the courtroom and seek to defend his family. the court had the patience to stop the government lawyer in his tracks to accommodate the intruding justice. the poor mortals can hardly hide their shock. the courts should be and are completely free. the constitution must, however, clearly define interinstitutional functional boundaries. Without this balance we will live in perpetual confusion. the supreme court, in keeping with its best traditions, must have also done justice in all the episodes alluded to above. unfortunately, the justice has remained invisible.

Askari Raza Malik has served Pakistan Army as Major General. He is author of book “Pakistan in Search of a Messiah”. He can be reached at ask7121@gmail.com

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Saturday, 4 July, 2020

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

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

Impact of terrorism on economic development in Pakistan iN the recent history, Pakistan is facing the menace of terrorism.

Besides facing the consequences of Afghan War, Pakistan is also affected by various ethnic, religious and linguistic conflicts which have increased terrorists’ activities. these conflicts have severely affected the socio-economic structure of Pakistan. to gauge the impact of terrorism on Pakistan’s economic growth solow economic growth model has been used. using data on terrorism from Global terrorism Database, co-integration analysis for the period 1981-2012 has been applied. the analysis suggests that terrorism has negatively affected the economic growth in Pakistan.

Among the various variables that were used the terrorism is most significant and major contributor in reducing the economic growth.

However, study finds that foreign assistance that is provided to Pakistan in the aftermath of the participations in Afghan war and the war against terrorism; in the shape of aid, grants and debt rescheduling etc. has a positive impact on the economic growth.

Fatimah Khan Wah Cantt

Respectfully offering water immediate respite is chilled water and cool tion to society, no matter how modest. the act shade. it can be life-saving. so for the love of of giving is a great source of strength and solGod the fortunate amongst us who have both, ace, and more so when the state appears to do courtesy airconditioned automobiles, please nothing but fail in providing for the most vulcarry extra water bottles to offer fellow citi- nerable amongst its citizenry. in times like these, small acts of kindness zens trudging along the road. in these times of the deadly coronavirus will help restore people’s faith in humankind. it will make them outbreak, wearing feel counted– seen protective face and heard. Not masks has become abandoned. a necessity and the During the month of Ramadan in All religions scorching, unbearteach humaneness– able heat outside Pakistan, as in other Islamic kindness and commakes it even more passion to fellow dehydrating. Hence countries, there is tremendous beings. the need for water it is so imporshow of generosity– in cash and is felt even more. tant that when we Offering water to kind. People give in abundance set out in our rethe less privileged spective cars we do pedestrians is the food, drinks and rations. Lavish not get sucked in way to go. But in doing so, it is spreads for iftar for the faithful are by our cell phones but keep our eyes equally important offered in almost every other wide open to the that we do it graceoutside– befully, keeping in QUdssiA AkhlAQUe locality. It is equally important that world yond the comforts mind the dignity of the receiver or perthis spirit extends beyond the holy of our airconditioned vehicles. son at the other month. Kindness and generosity O all those who read this column i end– with respect slowing down at humbly appeal for a small but a very and humility. Not times to simply should not be a seasonal affair! doable act of kindness. A practice that as a favour but a offer water to the can go a long way – here and in the duty, as considerate elderly, children Hereafter! and young folks caring citizens. it the quest is for drinking water. Not any con- entails very little compelled to brave tribution for construction of mega waterways or but would take us a long way as individuals. the heat for a living. We need to sensitize our dams that would take years upon years, and a consider this gesture as a token of thanksgiv- children to such acts as well and do it in their functional government, to build. ing to God for all His countless blessings that presence. children grow up doing what they Given that in the long-term we are all dead, we so often take for granted. in these torment- see their parents do. Lectures and sermons the plea is for something more immediate and ing times healing will come largely through have little impact on them as do the real gesgratifying. tures of kindness and generosity that they witempathy and compassion.

Having won votes on promises of 10 milHelping quench somebody’s thirst is one of ness. lion jobs, five million houses, education and the finest acts of human kindness and it takes During the month of Ramadan in Pakistan, healthcare of the kind only those derisively so little. its importance can never be underesti- as in other islamic countries, there is tremenbranded as the ‘elite’ could afford, the current mated. At times it can make all the difference dous show of generosity– in cash and kind. Peodispensation in isbetween life and ple give in abundance food, drinks and rations. lamabad has done death. Acute dehy- Lavish spreads for iftar for the faithful are oflittle during the 22 dration in many fered in almost every other locality. it is equally months of its miscases can lead to important that this spirit extends beyond the rule except promote death, especially in holy month. Kindness and generosity should not True generosity is helping despair. children and eld- be a seasonal affair! so let us abanthe giving spirit of Ramadan must prevail erly. We have been deserving people without their don high-sounding reminded repeat- throughout the year even if not in the same asking. And it is this act of giving edly in the Divine measure and scale. it keeps us connected to hurhetoric and promises of revolutions scriptures that sav- manity, our soul and more importantly brings on the quiet, without any pomp and just do what oring one life out the best in us. dinary men and true generosity is helping deserving people amounts to saving and show, that is most blessed. women of this the entire humanity. without their asking. And it is this act of giving The spirit of unconditional human country do best– be those who can on the quiet, without any pomp and show, that kind. to tide over an afford it, and surely is most blessed. the spirit of unconditional compassion will always triumph era of utter ineptimany can even in human compassion will always triumph over the tude and mendacity! these cash-strapped fleeting gains of this worldly life. the ultimate over the fleeting gains of this in this sweltertimes, should may healing is in acts of kindness, not in expediency. worldly life. The ultimate healing ing summer heat be go a step further empathy must translate into concrete action. and suffocating huGiving away bottles of clean filtered drinkand also distribute is in acts of kindness, not in midity, what can be caps, umbrellas and ing water would certainly be a good beginning. more welcomed portions of dry expediency. Empathy must than drinking Qudssia Akhlaque is a senior journalist snacks like biscuits, water? When the translate into concrete action. bread or fruit for in- based in Islamabad. She has been a diplomatic sun beats us down stant energy. As in- correspondent for leading dailies. She can be mercilessly the one dividuals we must reached at qudssia@hotmail.com thing that gives us make our contribuTwitter@qudssiaakhlaque

It can go a long way….

T

Fighting religious discrimination WHiLe the cOViD-19 calls for the world to reboot itself and transform the social, business, and economic models, what remains unaddressed is the need to collectively fight the religious discrimination that exists in different societies across the world. the religious discrimination in Pakistan continues even during a pandemic situation. some of the major instances include addressing the cOViD19 as the ‘shia virus’, asking the christians to recite kalima for receiving the ration bags, and refusing the ration bags to the Hindu community in Lyari after seeing their National identity cards.

Witnessing such bigotry against the religious minorities during a crisis is both shocking and saddening, to say the least. in March a video that went viral on social media, showed a man informing the reporter how the christian community in his neighbour were denied the food bags in the Korangi area of Karachi. the same incident was reported in sandha village in the Kasur district of Punjab where about 100 christian families were denied the aid because of their religious identity. A Muslim man later distributed food among the christian community.

Besides, the Hazara community which constituted a small part of the returnees from iran were continuously blamed for the spread of the virus, while such stigma was not attached to the business community who has also returned from iran in February. Also, the Hazaras living in Hazara town and Marriabad were asked to stay in their homes as per the official notification issued by the Water and sanitation Authority. such discrimination based on religion and ethnicity tends to have a severe psychological impact on the entire community. there is a dire need to promote pluralism, and fight the in-built prejudice that has been ingrained in the masses, or else the religious discrimination will continue to plague our society. nayab iqbal KaraChi

K-Electric’s games K-eLectRics is a company based in karachi, sindh. Which provides electricity to consumers. Nowadays this company has been playing with citizens’ feelings and money. this company is provided whatever their need is, like oil and gas. Also citizens of Karachi pay taxes on time and also they are paid for supplying power on time.

Load shedding of K-electrics has reached approximately to 15 hours in various regions of Karachi which has distributed families, shopkeepers and other businesses. citizens are cursing them, instead of generating electricity, ecc has approved to increase prices up to 2.89 rupees. citizens and businessmen are terrifyingly passing through mental stress. electricity is the basic need of the nation and in this modern world, there should be no problem for the public to face this trouble and by examining situations it seems like we live in a country which is still in 1800s during 2020.

K-electrics must see through to the necessitation of citizens and solve their issues. Public is raising their voices to make them realise how middle class person’s work is dependent on electricity especially in the city named city of lights.

Suhail SaEEd tunio larKana

PIA’s woes A wave of mixed emotions and reactions phased across the entire nation when suspension news of PiA operation in europe made headlines. there was a time when PiA used to be an elite class of airline, famous because of its reliability and service. it is very disappointing to witness its downfall like this but alot. of questions wonder in mind while observing this catastrophe. Was it really departmental fault? Or another Government failure? in the light of observations, the entropy that has taken place in PiA is not less than a self-destruction mode which is totally created by powerful mafias of our country. More or less it is considered as an alarming situation for government because the chain of disorder impelled in PiA will not just stop there. this will continue to dig each and every working department of Pakistan until treated with great attention and powerful law and order. mian aizaz ahmEd ShadaKot

Saturday, 4 July, 2020

08 WORLD VIEW

Recognising the state of Palestine is the only aPPRoPRiate ResPonse to isRaeli annexation RECOGNITION WOULD ALSO BE AN APPROPRIATE COUNTERMEASURE TO ISRAELI UNILATERALISM THAT PUTS A TWO-STATE OUTCOME AT SEVERE RISK

washingTon PosT

t

ilaN GoldeNberG

HE Israeli government may begin taking steps toward unilaterally annexing portions of the West Bank soon. This move would present a grave threat to any possibility of a future two-state outcome that allows Israelis and Palestinians to live in freedom and security, each in a state of their own. It would also shatter the paradigm that has governed resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades. Israeli annexation would herald a new era of unilateralism, the consequences of which would be a policy shift on the Palestinian side of the equation as well.

Annexation is far from a foregone conclusion. Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz, Arab leaders, former Vice President Joe Biden and nearly every Democrat in Congress have voiced concern or outright opposition. The Trump administration’s position is unclear, as it envisioned annexation in the context of a larger peace plan that the Israeli

government seems more reluctant to endorse.

If annexation does occur, however, and it is recognized by the Trump administration, the two-state solution will stand on the precipice of irrelevance. In such a world, it will be critical to take steps to bolster its renewal and establish a new set of facts on the ground that shape a two-state environment.

The most effective and meaningful response

by U.S. supporters of a two-state solution — especially in Congress — is to advocate formal recognition of the state of Palestine.

Annexation would be an unmistakable sign that Israelis are moving away from two states. But no less significant would be the impact on Palestinians, who would no longer believe that a state of their own is achievable. Polling in the Palestinian territories already shows support for two states at its lowest point since Israelis and Palestinians began negotiating in 1993 with the signing of the Oslo Accords. The opposition is based not on the substance of an agreement, but in the lack of belief that it is possible in the face of 25-plus years of failure and the growth of Israeli settlements on land supposedly designated for a Palestinian state.

Unilateral Israeli annexation, designed to demonstrate to Palestinians that Israel will not be held hostage to a Palestinian veto over its borders and territory, would have a far more expansive effect. It would hasten the

The price of gold continues to tell story that many ignore THE COLLAPSE OF BRETTON WOODS BURST ON THE WORLD SCENE WITH THE SO-CALLED NIXON SHOCK ediTorial New York SuN

The piece on the current crisis that catches our eye runs on the Times oped page under the headline “The Neoliberal Looting of America.” It’s by a law professor on the Coast, Mehrsa Baradaran. It’s about how, as she puts it, “the health of the finance industry and stock market are completely disconnected from the actual financial health of the American people.” By our lights, it’s a fabulous issue.

Professor Baradaran lays the problem to what she calls an “ideological coup” that has “quietly transformed our society over the last 50 years, raising the fortunes of the financial economy — and its agents like private equity firms — at the expense of the real economy experienced by most Americans.” The roots of the “intellectual takeover,” she reckons, lie in a “backlash against socialism in Cold War Europe.”

Our purpose here is not to dispute with Ms. Baradaran over the problem. It is merely to point out that an intellectual backlash against socialism is not the only thing that occurred in the last 50 years. For there was another ideological coup, and precisely 50 years ago. That would be the abandonment of the Bretton Woods monetary system that was set up in the closing days of World War II and undergirded the post-war recovery.

The collapse of Bretton Woods burst on the world scene with the so-called Nixon Shock. That was American’s decision to close the window at the Treasury Department. That “window” was where, under the Bretton Woods Agreement, foreign governments were supposed to be able to cash in their dollars for a 35th of an ounce of gold. Nixon closed it in August 1971. Within a few years, Congress formally launched the age of fiat money.

Talk about an ideological coup. This was the real thing. Fiat money meant there was no fixed value to the dollar, neither in gold nor silver. If one were to present a piece of Federal Reserve scrip — a sawbuck, say — at the Treasury, one could exchange it for neither gold nor silver but for merely more scrip,

maybe ten singles, or slugs that, owing to the Coinage Act of 1965, are made of base metal dolled up to look like silver or copper.

What followed was just that about which Ms. Baradaran complains. And not just she. Also, say, Senator Elizabeth Warren. Or the economist Thomas Pickety. Or every Democratic politician worried about jobs. The unemployment rate, which between 1947 and 1971 — roughly the years of Bretton Woods — had averaged something like 4.6%, suddenly started soaring. It averaged some 6.4% in the next two generations.

What about Senator Warren’s favored indicator, the personal bankruptcy rate? For the first half of the century, bankruptcy filings were fewer than one per a thousand Americans. Suddenly, in the early- to mid-1970s the rate started soaring, to above five per thousand in the early part of this century. Then there is the inequality rate about which Professor Baradaran worries.

That worries Thomas Piketty. His chart shows a sudden and staggering take off in the inequality rate, first in America, then in Europe. Yet it wasn’t the rejection of socialism that swept the world at that juncture. Socialism was rejected after World War II. What happened in the 1970s was the advent of fiat money — money with no legal attachment to any standard of value.

Is this all but a coincidence? In our view, it’s a tragedy that this question isn’t developed, or even acknowledged, by the left intelligentsia. Paul Krugman likes to say his favorite period was the 1950s, but avoids mention of the gold exchange standard. America was uniquely unscathed in World War II, but Bretton Woods monetarily made the era what it was.

What will force this debate into the open? In the Wall Street Journal, James Grant has just likened the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, to Dr. Feelgood. In the latest number of Mr. Grant’s newsletter, the leading article points out that, following the expansion of our central bank’s balance sheet in the current crisis, the ratio of the Fed’s assets to capital is now a staggering 182 to one. When are the left-of-center sages going to catch up with this issue?

process of deterioration of Palestinian institutions toward further dysfunction and authoritarianism, as they would be increasingly be seen by Palestinians as tools for Israeli occupation, not preparation for statehood.

Eventually, this lack of legitimacy would cause the Palestinian Authority to collapse.

Recognition of a Palestinian state would be a huge political boost to Palestinian supporters of two states by providing symbolic achievement of a long-desired national aspiration. It would boost the Palestinian Authority’s legitimacy and forestall its collapse.

U.S. recognition should make clear that while the final borders of Israel and Palestine

must be negotiated between the parties, they should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed on land swaps, grounding U.S. policy in 50 years of precedent.

U.S. recognition would almost certainly cause most partners in Europe, who have thus far refrained from recognizing a Palestinian state, to follow. But even if a U.S. administration chose not to recognize Palestine, simply signaling to European countries that the United States would not oppose them taking this action could trigger a wave of international recognition that would boost Palestinians at a moment of despondency.

Recognition would also be an appropriate countermeasure to Israeli unilateralism that puts a two-state outcome at severe risk.

Just as Israeli annexation is an attempt to skip negotiations and jump to the endpoint of recognition of Israeli territorial claims in the West Bank, recognition of a Palestinian state would be a similar leap to the endpoint of Palestinian goals in any negotiating process.

While recognition of Palestine may appear extreme at first glance, it actually constitutes the middle ground inside the Democratic Party in the wake of annexation.

More conservative voices will argue that convincing Israel not to take annexation any further than it has, or even withdrawing President Trump’s recognition of what has taken place, would be sufficient. But this will merely give lip service without taking concrete action to save the two-state solution.

Progressives will argue that instead the United States should start putting conditions on the $3.8 billion it provides in security assistance to Israel every year, but that step would unnecessarily harm U.S. and Israeli security interests in the Middle East, wouldn’t really resonate inside Palestinian society and wouldn’t move either side closer to two states.

Ultimately, let’s hope that Israel makes the right decision and chooses not to unilaterally annex West Bank territory. But if it does, supporters of the two-state solution in Congress, as well as the many advocacy organizations, and Jewish and Arab community leaders who engage on this issue with the United States, should call for U.S. recognition of the state of Palestine as the best way to preserve any hope for a twostate solution in a new era of Israeli-Palestinian unilateralism.

Ilan Goldenberg is the director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security; he served on the State Department negotiating team on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The ‘Talibangate’ claims about Russian bounties still don’t add up

Moscow TiMes Mark Galeotti

What to make of the current claims that Russia paid the Taliban bounties to kill U.S. and allied soldiers in Afghanistan? Both Moscow and the Taliban deny it, while claims of new evidence surface. It is still hard to understand any reason for the Kremlin to take such a dangerous step, though — and a possible alternative explanation for what evidence has been presented.

The original claim was that early in 2019, the Kremlin began offering the Taliban and possibly other insurgent groups bounties to target allied forces. It came, though, from unnamed “U.S. intelligence sources” speaking to The New York Times. Since then there have been further claims about money found in Taliban headquarters and the role of a shadowy Afghan hawala-broker — an informal money-mover — in the alleged transfers, as well as the involvement of Unit 29155 of the GRU (military intelligence). However, as of this writing, there has been no formal confirmation of the story.

The story was quickly mobilized to attack Donald Trump for his alleged indifference to the deaths of American soldiers. After all, in current U.S. political circles it often seems that talking about “Russia” is really shorthand for talking about the current White House. This has just been the latest in a string of leaked stories eagerly — and often uncritically — run by U.S. media outlets which make no secret of their distaste for the current president.

AN EXTRAORDINARY TALE: It is very hard to know what to make of this allegation. The Kremlin is not averse to playing geopolitics hard.

New evidence has emerged recently linking the FSB to murders in Germany and Turkey, and the GRU has been connected to “wet work” in the U.K., Ukraine and beyond.

Yet their targets tend to be “traitors,” from Chechen rebels to defectors, rather that outsiders.

Indeed, they appear well aware of the risks in killing others, especially Americans. In Syria, for example, they sat back and meekly allowed U.S. forces to kill hundreds of Russians from the Wag-

ner Group mercenary force.

To target Americans would seem to be a major escalation, inviting retaliation — and despite the claims that Trump is “Putin’s puppet,” U.S. policy towards Russia is already tougher than at any point since 1991, largely because it is in the hands of Congress. Were Moscow to take this step — and it is worth noting that the recent allegations about a Russian plot to assassinate Czech politicians, another seeming escalation of Kremlin “active measures,” turned out to be a hoax – this would presumably only be for the best of reasons. And those reasons would be?

That’s rather trickier to say, except for the ultrahawks who believe, evidence notwithstanding, that hurting Americans is an end in itself for Putin and his circle, or that everything is a provocation intended to make Washington look weak because it cannot stop them.

Admittedly, the USA did much the same to the Soviets during their ten-year occupation of Afghanistan 1979-88, but there is no reason to believe that war has any particular relevance to Putin — he has scarcely mentioned it, and in 2004 called it a “hopeless war” — let alone that it could trigger such a murderous adventure.

Today, Afghanistan matters to Moscow especially as a source of potential instability. The irony is that some have suggested that killing more American soldiers was intended to accelerate their withdrawal from the country — and some that it would make it harder for them to strike a deal with the Taliban, and thus keep them there longer. Either way, it is hard to see how a few more deaths, however tragic, would alter policy. A similarly implausible suggestion is that it is revenge for the deaths of those Wagner mercenaries in 2018. Yet the Russian military command cell in Damascus had done nothing to prevent the U.S. forces from destroying them, nor even warned them. Nor was there any real sign of serious dismay back in Moscow.

AN ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATION: The Kremlin or the GRU can hardly have put their faith in the discretion of a random collection of Afghan militants, drug barons and warlords for the operational security of such a mission: it would have taken epic over-confidence to think that news of bounties on Americans’ heads would not have leaked, and leaked soon.

Moscow had greeted the U.S.-Taliban agreement paving the way for a withdrawal of American forces with satisfaction. They were happy to see Washington draw down its commitments across the Middle East, not least as it gives the Russians a chance to play a more substantial role on the cheap.

The Russians need to limit and monitor the Afghan heroin trade (Russia has the highest percapita consumption in the world). They are also

desperate to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a source of transnational jihadism spreading into Central Asia and thence Russia.

To this end, they have identified Islamic State, and specifically its resurgent local branch, Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), as the main threat. They maintain relationships with the Taliban especially because they see them as a useful counter to IS-K, and seek to develop networks of other allies across the country for both military and intelligence-gathering reasons.

These hard-nosed Afghan warlords do not cooperate with Moscow out of altruism or goodneighborliness. In today’s Afghanistan — just as the British and the Russians found during the “Great Game” of the nineteenth century — alliances are bought with blood, arms, and cash.

Certainly, the U.S. has not shied away from such pragmatic behavior.

The Russians are already supplying the Taliban weapons. Let’s suppose they have a wider program to establish networks of contacts and proxies in-country, one that involves direct payments as well as the involvement of a hawalabroker. If sending a suitcase of dollars to a warlord in the hills around Kandahar, for example, they will want to make sure it gets to its destination. This sounds like a job for the tough throat-slitters of Unit 29155.

(Besides, the Taliban’s involvement in the opium trade means it is, to quote The New York Times, “awash with cash” — finding large sums in one of their headquarters is hardly a surprise.)

Is this actually what was happening? I have no idea. The point is, rather, that a narrative that seems to stretch probability to breaking point, and which may have emerged from very tainted sources, is being accepted as proven, when there are all kinds of alternative possibilities.

This story appears to have originated from Kabul, likely from interrogations carried out by the Afghan security forces. They have been implicated in systematic abuses — and under torture anyone will say anything. With the U.S. National Security Agency having said that it had no evidence supporting the bounty story, we still have no corroboration yet that this is a story based on more than conjecture and coercion.

Of course, it could be absolutely true, and the hard evidence and on-the-record confirmation may be just around the corner. At present, though, it is worth being cautious about assuming the absolute worse and that Moscow has dramatically changed its rules of engagement.

Prof. Mark Galeotti is a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and a Honorary Professor at the UCL School of Slavonic & East European Studies. He is the author of “We Need To Talk About Putin.”

Saturday, 4 July, 2020

BUSINESS 09

SCCI expresses concern over load shedding for industrial, commercial consumers PESHAWAR: The Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) on Friday expressed concerns over unannounced and prolonged electricity load shedding and low voltage issues and has urged the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) to ensure uninterrupted power supply to industrial units and commercial markets. The SCCI President Engineer Maqsood Anwar Pervaiz said that despite sufficient supply of electricity from the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) to PESCO, industrial and commercial consumers in Peshawar have been experiencing hours-long power outages. He mentioned that frequent power outages and voltage fluctuations are becoming a cause of damage to machinery and other appliances owned by industrial and commercial users. The SCCI chief further urged PESCO to improve and upgrade its power distribution and supply system to overcome the increasing incidents of tripping and low voltage. He further said that the SCCI had earlier taken up issues of power cuts, tripping and low voltage with the concerned authorities but no action has yet been taken to resolve the issues adding that the delay is adding to the difficulties faced by businesses. Maqsood Anwar Pervaiz informed that industrial estates are exempted from electricity load shedding but PESCO has still been carrying out hours-long power outages in industrial zones. He urged the Federal Minsiter for Water and Power Omar Ayub Khan and PESCO Chief Executive Muhammad Jabbar Khan to issue directives to ensure smooth and uninterrupted electricity supply to all industrial estates and businesses. STAFF REPORT

Rising fuel prices push weekly inflation up 2.29pc ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on July 2, for the combined consumption group, witnessed an increase of 2.29 per cent compared to the previous week, mainly due to the increase in fuel prices in the country. The SPI inflation for the week under review for the combined consumption group was recorded at 132.32 points compared to 129.36 points registered in the previous week, according to the latest data issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI inflation for the combined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 9.77 per cent. The weekly SPI with base year 2015-16 covers 17 urban centers and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups. The SPI for the lowest consumption group up to Rs17,732 witnessed a 0.89 per cent increase and went up from 137.02 points in the last week to 138.24 points during the week under review. Meanwhile, SPI for the consumption groups from Rs17,732 to Rs22,888, Rs22,889 to Rs29,517, Rs29,518 to Rs44,175 and above Rs44,175 per month also increased by 1.24 per cent, 1.47 per cent; 1.87 per cent and 2.90 per cent respectively. During the week, prices of seven items decreased, prices of 18 items increased while prices of 26 items remained constant. The items which recorded a decrease in their average price include moong pulse, masoor pulse, gram pulse, garlic, bananas, mustard oil and potatoes. The commodities which recorded an increase in their average price include petrol, hi-speed diesel, tomatoes, chillies, LPG cylinders, onions, chicken, eggs, gur, cigarettes, mash pulse, cooked daal, wheat flour, cooked beef, sugar, basmati broken rice, mutton and beef. Similarly, prices of the commodities that observed no change during the week under review include Irri6/9 rice, bread, fresh milk fresh, curd, powdered milk, loose cooking oil, vegetable ghee, salt, tea, long cloth, shirtings, lawn, georgette, gents sandals, gents sponges, ladies sandals, electricity charges, gas charges,telephone charges, firewood, washing soap, match box and toilet soap. Earlier on June 26, the federal government had increased the price of petrol by Rs25.58 per litre for the month of July in line with the hike in global crude oil prices. According to a notification issued by the Finance Division, the price of petrol was increased from Rs74.52 to Rs100.10 per litre. Similarly, the price of diesel had gone up to Rs101.46 from Rs80.15 with an increase of Rs21.31 per litre. Diesel is used in agriculture and transport sectors hence an increase in its price causes a rise in inflation.

ECC appRovES RS29.7bn CaSh tRanSfERS foR 3.72m applICantS undER EhSaS IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN BUFFER STOCK OF FERTILISERS, ECC APPROVES OGRA ASKED TO REVIEW RS73.84BN RLNG GAS SUPPLY TO AGRITECH AND FATIMA FERTILISER AT SUBSIDISED RATES REVENUE SHORTFALL WORKED OUT BY SNGPL ISLAMABAD

t

STAFF REPORT

HE Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Friday approved Rs29.72 billion for the provision of cash assistance of Rs12,000 per beneficiary to 3.725 million applicants, irrespective of provincial, regional and district quota, under the Ehsas Emergency Cash Programme.

The ECC meeting, which was chaired by Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdu Hafeez Shaikh, allowed the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) to spend Rs29.72 billion, from its allocated budget of Rs200 billion for 2020-21, on cash transfers to 3.72 million applicants, instructing that any additional requirement for regular operations of BISP would be also provided during 2020-21.

The decision came after the Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division informed the ECC that although 3.151 million applicants, who had applied for assistance through SMS, were found eligible under the approved criteria, they could not be provided assistance on account of provincial/district quotas.

The ECC was told that the Punjab government had already agreed to provide assistance to 700,000 of the applicants identified through SMS, leaving 2.451 million eligible applicants who could be provided cash assistance at Rs12,000 (Rs 3000 for four months) at a total cost of Rs29.72 billion.

Meanwhile, the ECC also took up a proposal for policy guidelines with respect to the sale price of RLNG. The committee was informed that given the ring-fenced nature of RLNG and indigenous gas pricing, the sale of RLNG to domestic gas consumers at weighted average domestic tariff/gas

sale price on SNGPL network had resulted into accumulative tariff differential/RLNG revenue shortfall of Rs73.84 billion from July 2018 till April 2020.

It was told that this revenue shortfall had occurred after adjustment of RLNG impact on a cost-neutral basis, whereby the SNGPL sold indigenous gas as RLNG to its consumers and recovered some of the revenue shortfalls whenever the surplus system gas became available.

The ECC was also briefed that the issue of RLNG revenue shortfall had arisen mainly because of the price differential in domestic gas, as 91pc of the domestic gas consumers had been paying an average monthly bill of Rs121, which was many times less than the price of imported RLNG supplied to domestic consumers in the winter months.

The committee considered the proposal and asked the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority to review it, especially the RLNG revenue shortfall as worked out

by the SNGPL, and report back to ECC. It also decided to further discuss the issue in a small group in order to develop a consensus-based policy decision at the government level so that the creation of a circular debt situation in the RLNG sector could be avoided.

Moreover, the ECC took up and approved a proposal by the Ministry of Information Technology for National Technology Council's budget for the FY21 (estimate revenue Rs4.59 billion, operating cost Rs4.38 billion and ADP Rs1.23 billion) and NTC budget for FY20 (revised estimates revenue Rs3.95 billion, operating cost Rs3.93 billion and ADP Rs1.08 billion).

The committee also took up a proposal by the Ministry of Industries and Production which submitted that as per the data furnished by National Fertilizer Development Centre (NFDC), the national inventory for urea fertilizer would be below the buffer stock level of 200,000 metric tonnes in the months

of December 2020 to February 2021.

The ECC decided that in order to cover this gap and maintain the buffer stocks at the required level, gas at rate of Rs756 MMBTU be provided to two shutdown plants at SNGPL networks, namely Agritech and Fatima Fertilizer, for three months w.e.f. July-September.

This would involve the GoP's share at Rs959 million, much less than the revenue spent previously on using these plants to produce the urea fertilizer to cover up the shortage.

The ECC also discussed the issue of quarterly adjustments of K-Electric Limited for the period from July 2016 to March 2019 and affirmed its previous decision of 26th March 2020, whereby recommendations of a committee constituted by ECC in its meeting on 4th March 2020 to settle the issue of quarterly adjustments of the of K-Electric were approved with the instruction that the same would be effective after three months.

Rupee gains 67 paisas against dollar in interbank market KARACHI ARIBA SHAHID

The exchange rate of Pakistani rupee strengthened by 67 paisas against the United States (US) dollar in the interbank market on Friday to close at Rs166.21 compared to its last closing of Rs166.88 on Thursday.

However, according to the Forex Association of Pakistan, the buying and selling rates of the US dollar in the open market were recorded at Rs166.5 and Rs167.5 respectively on Friday.

Despite analysts' concerns regarding the weakening of Pakistani rupee over the past week, the strengthening of the rupee is attributed to the supply of dollars.

Liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) increased by 7.42 per cent on a Week on Week (WoW) basis from $16,730 million to $17,971 million.

Net Reserves with SBP also increased

by Rs1.27 billion.

“There have been several positive developments recently and stabilisation of the rupee was expected,” says Capital Stake Director Research Maha Jafer Butt.

“With the financial year-end close effect over now, the rupee has responded well to the surge in foreign reserves, contraction in the trade deficit and expectation of higher remittances ahead of eid.”

Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company Assistant Vice President Research Adnan Sheikh says: “After inflows of $3 billion in the last two weeks, the supply of dollars has improved in the market and hence the pressure on the rupee has been alleviated for the time being”.

This upward trend in the rupee, however, is momentary and may not be long-lived. “Going forward, resumption of economic activities and imports and lowering of interest rates along with higher crude oil prices will put pressure on Pakistan’s deficit and in turn the rupee,” he adds.

According to SBP, the interbank price of Euro depreciated by Rs1.91 to close at Rs 186.63 on Friday, against the last day's close at Rs 188.54.

The Japanese Yen lost one paisa to close at Rs1.54, whereas a decrease of Rs2 was witnessed in the exchange rate

of British pound which was traded at Rs206.99 compared to its last closing of Rs208.99.

The exchange rates of Saudi riyal and UAE dirham decreased by 18 paisas each to close at Rs44.31 and Rs 45.25 respectively.

Stocks land in green after lacklustre session KARACHI ARIBA SHAHID

Indices of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) moved within a narrow range on Friday, with the KSE-100 Index tilting both ways before closing the session in the green.

The benchmark index started the day on a positive note but remained volatile thereon, registering its intraday high at 35,105.16 after accumulating 126.98 points, and intraday low at 34,918.52 after shedding 59.66 points. The index finally settled higher by 73.20 points at 35,051.38.

Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index gained 23.35 points to close at 56,459.32,

while the KSE All Share Index gathered 39.39 points, ending at 25,087.02. Of the total traded shares, 137 advanced and 151 declined.

The overall market volumes declined from 383 million shares in the previous session to 175.8mn shares (-54pc). Average traded value also declined by 46pc, from $74.9 million to $40.6 million. TRG Pakistan Limited (TRG +6.68pc), Jahangir Siddiqui & Company Limited (JSCL -0.08pc) and Hum Network Limited (HUMNL 3.28pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 23.31 million, 12.75 million and 9.12 million shares, respectively.

Sectors that kept the index in green included pharmaceutical (+34.09 points), bank-

ing (+31.86 points) and fertilizer (+27.49 points). Among the companies, Fauji Fertilizer Company (FFC +24.18 points), The Searle Company (SEARL +22.78 points) and TRG Pakistan (TRG +19.99 points) remained the top contributors.

Adding 2.23pc to its cumulative market capitalization, the pharmaceutical sector turned out to be the top gainer of the day, with The Searle Company (SEARL +5.26pc), GlaxoSmithKline (GLAXO +2.68pc), Ferozsons Laboratories (FEROZ +7.50pc) and Macter International Limited (MACTER +5.00pc) posting decent gains.

Meanwhile, in a first for the fiscal year 2020-21, the PSX conducted the initial pub-

lic offering (IPO) of The Organic Meat Company (TOMC). Through the IPO, the company is looking to raise Rs720 million.

WEEKLY ANALYSIS: The KSE-100 Index closed the first week of FY21 (29th June-3rd July) on a positive note, adding 3.28pc WoW with almost all sectors closing in green and vindicating strong investor confidence. The average volumes for the week stood at 250.8 million shares vs. 176.8 million in the previous week.

As per AKD Research, "The attack on PSX in early trading hours on Monday turned out to be a non-event for the market.

The successful passage of Finance Bill 2020 with additional incentives for businesses

(particularly cement sector, +6.5pc WoW) and debarring of institutional investments in National Saving Schemes (NSS) expected to direct flows to equity market helped in sustaining the upward rally."

Among other important development during the week, the World Bank approved $500 million loan for budgetary support; SBP received $1.3 billion from Chinese banks; inflation for the month of June edged up slightly to 8.59pc YoY, and OGDCL started commercial production of gas from its exploratory wells Thal East-1 and Bhambhra-1, located in district Sukkur (Sindh).

Saturday, 4 July, 2020

10 FOREIGN NEWS

US UNder Siege AS pANdemic AccelerAteS; BritAiN eASeS qUArANtiNe MIAMI

t

AGENCIES

HE United States posted a record 53,000 new coronavirus cases as the deadly pandemic accelerated across the Americas, but its slowdown in Europe led Britain to announce Friday the first exemptions to its quarantine rules.

With Europe looking to turn the page on the biggest public health crisis in modern history, travelers arriving into Britain from Germany, France, Spain and Italy will no longer be required to self-isolate starting July 10.

Touching almost every country on Earth, COVID-19 -- the disease brought on by the virus -- has hit at least 10.7 million people and killed 516,000 globally, shattering previously buoyant economies and bringing public life to a standstill.

Yet while much of the planet pursued a return to some semblance of normality, the United States soared past 50,000 new in-

New Zealand mosque shooter to be sentenced in August WELLINGTON AGENCIES

An Australian white supremacist who murdered 51 Muslim worshippers in last year's New Zealand mosque shootings will be sentenced next month after delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, court documents revealed Friday. Far-right extremist Brenton Tarrant was convicted in March of 51 murder charges, 40 of attempted murder and one of terrorism, after dropping his previous not guilty plea. At the time, New Zealand was in COVID-19 lockdown, meaning surviving victims and families of the slain could not attend court to see him sentenced. The South Pacific nation has since contained the virus, allowing social distancing rules to be suspended, which High Court judge Cameron Mander said cleared the way for Tarrant to be sentenced on August 24. "Now, in the absence of community transmission of the COVID-19 virus in New Zealand, our courts have returned to normal operations," Mander said in a judicial minute released Friday. "The public and, importantly, victims and their families living in New Zealand can attend court sittings." He said three days had been set aside for the sentencing but added "the hearing will take as long as is necessary".

New Zealand does not have the death penalty but Tarrant, a former gym instructor from the Australian country town of Grafton, faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars. The terror and murder charges all carry life sentences, setting a minimum non-parole period of 17 years but giving the judge power to imprison without the possibility of release.

Mander acknowledged that some victims and support people based overseas wanted sentencing delayed so they could attend in person, but pointed out that borders were likely to remain closed for a long period. "In the meantime the proceeding will continue to drift. That is an unsatisfactory situation," he said. The judge said livestream links could be set up for those based overseas to give victim impact statements. He said many other victims were finding the lengthy court case "exhausting and frustrating" and wanted it to come to an end. "They wish sentencing to happen as soon as realistically possible," he said. "Finality and closure is considered by some as the best means of bringing relief to the Muslim community."

fections Thursday for the second time in two days, casting a grim pall over its upcoming Independence Day celebrations.

Now the epicenter of the pandemic, the country has recorded nearly 129,000 deaths out of more than 2.7 million cases. It's expected to record its three millionth infection next week.

Florida, which now has more than

169,000 cases, is a key focus of public health experts who worry about a surge in southern and western US states.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis blamed the rise on "social interactions" among young people gathering at parties, beaches, bars, swimming pools and elsewhere, as well as a more "robust" testing program.

In Texas, where more than 2,500 people

AS US STRUGGLES WITH VIRUS, TRUMP HEADS TO RUSHMORE FOR FIREWORKS WASHINGTON: Under fire for his silence in the face of America's spiralling coronavirus caseload, President Donald Trump heads to Mount Rushmore on Friday for a night of fireworks that he hopes will soothe a nation he has struggled to unite.

On the eve of the country's Independence Day, the Republican leader will speak in the shadow of four of his notable predecessors: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, whose heads are carved into the granite in South Dakota. The billionaire real estate mogul-turned-president, who has seemingly turned a blind eye to the shocking increase in the number of virus cases in many US states, has been openly exuberant about the Rushmore event. AGENCIES

have died, Governor Greg Abbott ordered people in counties with 20 or more cases to wear masks and banned gatherings of more than 10. The move came after Texas reported nearly 8,000 new cases on Thursday, amid a record spike in infections that led to the governor largely halting the reopening program that started in early May. States that reopened their economies the earliest and fastest after the pandemic struck -- and against the advice of federal health authorities -- are now experiencing the highest caseloads.

'ROARING BACK': Florida and other socalled "Sun Belt" states have been forced to re-shut restaurants, bars and beaches as the nation braces for the July 4 weekend.

These include California, which has seen a 56 percent increase in hospitalizations over two weeks, Governor Gavin Newsom said. But President Donald Trump, under fire for his handling of the crisis, highlighted positive jobs data that showed 4.8 million people were back to work in June.

France gets a new prime minister as Macron charts 'new course' PARIS AGENCIES

French President Emmanuel Macron Friday named a senior bureaucrat to replace Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, whose government resigned after a poor local election showing for the ruling party.

The new premier, Jean Castex, officially a member of the right-wing opposition but in charge of overseeing the country's progressive emergence from coronavirus lockdown, is taking over as Philippe leaves the post after three years, the Elysee Palace announced.

Macron has said he will set a "new course" for the government as the country grapples with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

A wider cabinet reshuffle could now come later in the day.

Speculation that Philippe was on the way out mounted this week after Macron's centrist party was routed in municipal elections last Sunday and Greens took control of several major cities.

Philippe, a right-wing politician who never joined Macron's Republic on the Move party, easily won his bid to become

mayor of Le Havre.

Yet while Macron was widely expected to seek to boost his socialist credentials with a leftist premier, Castex is from the rightist Republicans party.

While Philippe's approval ratings have surged over his handling of the coronavirus crisis, those of Macron, who has pursued ambitious economic reforms since coming to office in 2017, have fallen.

In an interview with regional newspapers published late Thursday, Macron said France must prepare for a "very difficult" economic crisis, "so we have to chart a new course."

"I see this based on an economic, social, environmental and cultural reconstruction," he said. "Behind this, there will be a new team."

Serving Macron from the start of his presidency, Philippe has pushing through a series of controversial overhauls that sparked massive strikes as well as the fierce "yellow vest" anti-government revolt.

At a meeting Thursday, Macron and Philippe "agreed on the need for a new government to embody a new phase for this term," an official in the Elysee Palace said Friday.

"A new phase is opening, with new talents and new methods for governing," the source said.

HEAVY TURNOVER: Press reports had suggested that possible replacements could have included defence minister Florence Parly or foreign minister JeanYves Le Drian, both Socialists before joining Macron's team.

But analysts say Macron had a thin bench of potential replacements, not least because his young party has failed to produce any standouts from its parliamentary ranks -- meaning he could tap someone relatively unknown to the public.

Other top ministers could also be on the way out in a cabinet reshuffle that may be completed by the end of the day.

Under particular pressure is interior minister Christophe Castaner, who has been assailed by critics over the failure to contain the rioting and looting that marred the "yellow vest" protests of 2018-2019.

More recently, Castaner has drawn the ire of police who say he has failed to support them against renewed claims of violence and racism in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Former Panama presidents charged with money laundering PANAMA CITY AGENCIES

Panama's last two presidents, Ricardo Martinelli and Juan Carlos Varela, were charged Thursday with money laundering, as two separate scandals tarnished the political legacy of the former allies turned enemies.

Martinelli was charged with money laundering over the so-called "New Business" case in which a publishing group was allegedly purchased with government funds during his 2009-14 term.

Martinelli, 68, was in a combative mood as he departed the public prosecutor's office in Panama City.

"I'm going to be frank with you, this pisses me off, this political persecution

that has no end... they want to involve me (in the case) in order to do away with me," he said, after refusing to testify.

Martinelli was held in pre-trial detention for two years after he was extradited from the United States to face trial for spying on his political foes. He was acquitted on those charges in 2019.

Varela meanwhile "was charged with money laundering in the Odebrecht case," the public prosecutor's office told AFP. The 56-year-old former president is being investigated for allegedly accepting illegal donations to his political campaigns from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

Varela, who left office last year, said afterward that he would "come as many times as necessary to prove my inno-

cence, clarify any questions that the public prosecutor has and comply with the country and strengthen the rule of law."

The appearance of the two former presidents "could mean, if there is any optimism, that... no one is above the law," Carlos Barsallo, head of the Panamanian office of Transparency International, told AFP. But "being realistic and prudent and based on previous experiences, we have to wait and see real and definitive results because in Panama, the perception of impunity has prevailed," he said. Martinelli won the 2009 election with Varela as his running mate, but their alliance broke down in 2011 when Varela was sacked as foreign minister.

Since then, the two former political allies have become enemies.

two killed as soldiers block mourners from ethiopian singer's funeral ADDIS ABABA AGENCIES

Two people were shot dead and seven others injured Thursday when soldiers opened fire on mourners seeking to attend the funeral of a popular Ethiopian singer, whose assassination has sparked violence that has left around 100 dead. Hachalu Hundessa, a member of the Oromo ethnic group, Ethiopia's largest, was shot dead by unknown attackers in the capital Addis Ababa on Monday night, fuelling ethnic tensions threatening the country's democratic transition. His music gave voice to Oromos' widespread sense of economic and political marginalisation during years of antigovernment protests that swept Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to power in 2018. The funeral, broadcast live on the Oromia Broadcasting Network, took place in Hachalu's hometown Ambo, west of the capital. Despite the shockwave provoked by his death, only a few hundred attended the short but emotional service in a football stadium. A medical official in the town and an opposition member said that security forces had blocked roads leading to the funeral, and fired at crowds trying to make their way there. "There has been an operation today related to the funeral. Nine people have been shot and two of them have died in our hospital," said the official at the Ambo referral hospital on condition of anonymity.

Filenbar Uma, a member of the opposition Oromo Liberation Front in Ambo, described security forces shooting as "people were kept from going" to the funeral.

more bodies found at myanmar jade mine disaster HPAKANT AGENCIES

Rescuers Friday pulled several bodies from the scene of a landslide which killed over 160 jade miners in northern Myanmar, many of them migrant workers seeking their fortune in treacherous open-cast mines near the China border. The disaster -- the worst in memory to strike Myanmar's notoriously dangerous jade mines -- ocurred on Thursday when a hillside collapsed in heavy monsoon rains. A deluge of mud smothered workers scouring the land for the precious stone -- a moment of horror captured on cameraphone footage. A woman cried over the body of her son who lay in the grim line-up of bloodied corpses retrieved from the mud, his clothes ripped off by the force of the landslide. "The search and rescue missions continued today and we now have 166 bodies," the Myanmar Fire Services Department said in a Facebook post, raising the overnight toll by four. The area is close to the Chinese border in Kachin state, where billions of dollars of jade is believed to be scoured each year from bare hillsides by poor migrant workers seeking to strike it rich. As photos of the dead circulated on social media Facebook users began to identify workers hundreds of miles from home, leaving moving tributes to friends and family members. "Please bring my father back," said Hnin Wati. "A daughter's heart is breaking." Another, from a former miner, affectionately remembered one of the dead for his "kind-heart" and generosity with his food during tough shared times on the mountainside. Myanmar is one of the world's biggest sources of jadeite and the industry is supercharged by demand for the green gem from neighbouring China. Some jade brokers suspended online auctions on Thursday, and promised to donate money to their friends who were killed.

Going viral: Why Canadian sparrows have changed their tune WASHINGTON AGENCIES

Members of a Canadian sparrow species famous for their jaunty signature song are changing their tune, a curious example of a "viral phenomenon" in the animal kingdom, a study showed Thursday.

Bird enthusiasts first recorded the whitethroated sparrow's original song, with its distinctive triplet hook, in the 1950s.

Canadians even invented lyrics to accompany the ditty: "Oh my sweet, Ca-na-da, Ca-na-da, Ca-na-da."

But starting from the late 20th century, biologists began noticing that members of the species in western Canada were innovating.

Instead of a triplet, the new song ended in a doublet and a new syncopation pattern.

The new ending sounded like "Ca-na, Cana, Ca-na."

Over the course of the next two decades, this new cadence became a big hit, moving eastward and conquering Alberta, then Ontario. It began entering Quebec last year.

It's now the dominant version across more than 2,000 miles (3,000 kilometers) of territory, in an extremely rare example of the total

replacement of historic bird dialect by another.

Scientist Ken Otter at the University of Northern British Columbia, and his colleague Scott Ramsay from Wilfrid Laurier University, described the dizzying pace of this transformation in the journal Current Biology.

"What we're seeing is like somebody moving from Quebec to Paris, and all the people around them saying, 'Wow, that's a cool accent' and start adopting a Quebec accent," Otter told AFP. Their work was based on 1,785 recordings between 2000 and 2019, the majority made by them but with contributions from

CMYK

citizen-scientists, who posted the files on specialist sites like xeno-canto.org.

In the western province of Alberta, about half of the recorded songs ended with the triplet in 2004; ten years later, all the males had adopted the doublet.

In 2015, half of western Canada had converted to the doublet version, and by last year, the new song had been well established on the western tip of eastern Quebec province.

At this rate, the historic triplet version may soon exist only in tape recordings.

BIRD INFLUENCERS: The males of the species sing to mark their territory, and

their songs all share a common structure.

Usually, if a variation appears, it remains regional and doesn't make headway in neighboring territories.

The study represents the first time scientists have been able to show this kind spread at huge geographic scale, said Otter.

So how did it happen?

Probably in the same way that children return from summer camp humming new tunes: songbirds from different parts of Canada winter in the same parts of the United States, then return to their own homes in spring.

Saturday, 4 July, 2020

PReMieR LeAgue BAttLe FoR ChAMPioNS LeAgue PLACeS heAtS uP LONDON

P

AGENCIES

REMIER League champions Liverpool are the only club certain of their place in next season’s Champions League as the teams below them jostle for position and Manchester City await a court ruling.

Pep Guardiola’s City, who humbled Liverpool 4-0 on Thursday, should still comfortably finish in the top four, with a 14-point lead over fifth place and just six

games to play.

But the outcome of their appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, set to be announced in mid-July, will decide whether a two-season ban from European competitions is upheld.

Should City’s appeal fail, fifth place would be good enough for the riches of Champions League football next season, and results since the Premier League’s restart have tightened the race for a topfive finish.

AFP Sport looks at the contrasting for-

Boxing legend Duran leaves hospital after Covid-19 scare PANAMA CITY: Panamanian Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran was released from hospital Thursday after being treated for coronavirus, the six-time boxing world champion announced via social media. “Today, with the blessing of God, I returned home after battling the COVID-19 virus. It was a World Championship fight,” Duran wrote on his Instagram account. The message included a video showing him leaving the hospital in a wheelchair and wearing a face mask, as medical personnel around him wave small Panamanian flags. Duran thanked the doctors and nurses who “day after day give the best of themselves, regardless of the risk they take. I may be an ex-World Champion, but you are the true CHAMPIONS OF LIFE,” he said.

Duran, 69, checked into a private hospital in Panama City on June 25 after showing symptoms of a bad cold that turned out to be the coronavirus. Duran boxed 119 fights between the ages of 16 and 50 — with 103 wins and 16 losses. He was knocked out four times, but did the same to his opponents 70 times, earning him the “Hands of Stone” nickname. AGENCIES

Virus forces Aussie Rules teams out of Melbourne

tunes of four of the contenders.

Leicester - 55 points Leicester have spent most of the campaign in third and were even Liverpool’s closest challengers for two months earlier in the season as they strung together an eight-game winning run between October and December.

However, that good work has come undone during a run of two wins in 11 league games, including just two points from a possible nine since the restart against Watford, Brighton and Everton.

Klopp targets strong finish after Man City thumping LONDON

only looking for results but we want to win football games — that is the reason we work on the training ground, go to away games and play home games.”

One motivating factor could be the challenge of beating City’s record of 100 points from two seasons ago.

Liverpool, who have dropped points in just four games this season, currently have 86 ahead of Sunday’s home clash with Aston Villa. “To get there we have to win football games and we didn’t do that here,” he said.

“So now we make sure we are ready for Aston Villa and the points tally at the end of the season is the result of the results we collect until then.”

Liverpool started brightly against City, with Mohamed Salah testing Ederson and then hitting the post, but the

AGENCIES

Jurgen Klopp was adamant results remain important to him in Liverpool’s closing games after the newly crowned Premier League champions were humbled 4-0 by Manchester City.

The Reds came down to earth with a bump at the Etihad on Thursday in their first match since securing the title last week. Klopp’s side still have a 20point lead over Pep Guardiola’s secondplaced team but with six games remaining but the German boss still wants to finish strongly.

“If someone said the result didn’t matter for my team, I cannot help them,” Klopp said.

“Yes, results matter a lot. I am not

hosts took charge after Kevin De Bruyne opened the scoring from the penalty spot on 25 minutes.

Further goals came from Raheem Sterling and Phil Foden before Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain put a Sterling shot into his own net.

Despite the big points gap, City remain a potent force and could end the season with Champions League glory.

“It’s a reminder how good Man City are,” Klopp said. “I didn’t need that, I knew it before. The surprise that it’s still possible, nice, that in a league where City are playing, someone else can be champions. That’s not very likely with the quality they have.

“We will see next season but it’s a while until then. Next season we will think about next season.”

Mourinho questions Tottenham’s mental strength LONDON AGENCIES

MELBOURNE: Stadiums in sports-mad Melbourne will be devoid of action for the foreseeable future after a flare-up of coronavirus Friday forced all 10 of its Australian Rules teams to temporarily relocate elsewhere. Australia’s second-biggest city — a key hub for the country’s most popular spectator sport — appeared to have dodged the worst of the pandemic and eased most restrictions. But hundreds of new cases recently emerged and several suburbs have been put back into lockdown, forcing a hasty rethink by Australian Football League bosses.

Some of the Melbourne-based teams were already out of Victoria state and AFL chief Gillon McLachlan said the rest would leave

by Monday after their weekend fixtures, again throwing the 18-side competition into chaos.

“I have said on a number of occasions that this would be a season of challenges,” he said.

“The Victorian clubs now temporarily moving interstate are playing their part in ensuring our season endures in a year that will continue to challenge us all.” Australian Rules resumed its season on June 11 after a lengthy coronavirusenforced shutdown and has already had to call off a handful of games. The teams will be based in either New South Wales, Queensland or Western Australia, which have all successfully contained the epidemic, leaving Melbourne without matches for weeks, if not months. AGENCIES

Goals have dried up for Brendan Rodgers’s men, with Jamie Vardy finding the net just twice in 2020.

Leicester face a tough end to the campaign, with Arsenal, Tottenham and a finalday clash with Manchester United to come.

They also have uncertainty hanging over their heads, with a local lockdown in place in Leicester due to a coronavirus spike.

Saturday’s visit of Crystal Palace is still due to go ahead as scheduled but shifting matches away from the King Power Stadium would be a headache.

Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho has questioned his team’s mental strength after their dismal 3-1 loss at Sheffield United delivered a potentially fatal blow to their chances of qualifying for the Champions League.

Harry Kane had an equaliser disallowed by VAR after Lucas Moura was adjudged to have handled the ball in the build-up to the goal, in what proved to be a pivotal moment in Thursday’s match. The Portuguese boss said he had learned a lot about his players by their poor reaction to the decision.

“You have to be ready to cope with negative moments and go until the last minute,” he said. “In spite of my efforts in the dressing room, now I feel I know more about the profile of my players. “I felt that in the second half we

wouldn’t be strong enough to cope with a team that when they’re winning just defends and counter-attacks. So congratulations to them.” Mourinho has also called on his side to show their motivation in the remaining six games to finish as high as they can.

The Champions League spots, even if they go down to fifth, look to have gone and a place in the Europa League is not in the bag.

Mourinho said when a professional player needed external motivation “he is in trouble”.

“The motivation should be self-motivation, directly related to your professionalism, directly related with respect for your job, your club, the fans,” he said. “That is the most important thing.

“The manager can just help but the nature of the player as a professional is the most important.

SPORTS 11

Franchises want PSL-V completion in November

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchises have stated November as their preferred option to complete the abandoned fifth edition of PSL. “The franchisees and the PCB reiterated their most preferred option remained the staging of the remaining four matches of the Pakistan Super League 2020 in November,” a private TV channel reported while quoting a statement by the management of PSL. “Having expressed that optimism, they acknowledged there were a number of moving pieces due to the Covid19 pandemic and agreed to continue to review and monitor the situation internally before making recommendations to the governing council.” The fifth edition for the 20-over competition was brought to a halt following the completion of the round-robin stage following the eruption of coronavirus pandemic. The PCB and the PSL teams have agreed to a framework for collaboration to ensure long-term growth of the tournament and to create financial sustainability. The tournament’s governing council lauded PCB for constituting an independent PSL department, which will be headed by its project executive Shoaib Naveed. “The franchises and PCB agreed to a framework of regular contact between the teams and the PSL Department, aiming to increase consultative dialogue on various operational and strategic matters relating to the league.” APP

Leroy Sane targets Champions League glory after signing for Bayern Munich BERLIN: Leroy Sane has targeted Champions League glory with Bayern Munich after joining the Bundesliga giants from Manchester City for a fee of around 50 million euros ($56 million) on Friday. The Germany winger has returned to his home country on a five-year contract after receiving the blessing of City coach Pep Guardiola. “Bayern is a very big club and has big goals — these goals suit me as well,” said the 24-year-old Sane. “I want to win as many titles as possible with Bayern, and the Champions League is at the top.” The Bundesliga champions did not give the transfer fee, but Sky Sports and the BBC have reported that Bayern and City agreed a fee of £54.8 million (60.8m euros, $68.2m).

German daily Bild claim the fee is around 50 million euros. Sane said he is looking forward to linking up again with Bayern head coach Hansi Flick, who has just steered the club to an eighth straight league title in his first season in charge. “I know Hansi Flick from the under-21 national team. We had a very good relationship there,” added Sane. AGENCIES

Guardiola hails Foden as ‘incredible talent’ LONDON AGENCIES

Pep Guardiola has told England boss Gareth Southgate he has an “incredible” talent on his hands in Phil Foden after the 20-yearold scored his fourth Premier League goal in three games for Manchester City.

The midfielder produced another impressive performance as City humbled newly crowned champions Liverpool 4-0 on Thursday. Foden, long tipped for stardom but eased into action gradually in recent years by City boss Guardiola, has struck four times since the Premier League resumed fol-

lowing the coronavirus shutdown.

Guardiola has no doubt Foden is now ready to fill the void the imminent departure of David Silva will create and has also tipped him to shine in Southgate’s England side. “All the managers around the world love to work with good players,” said Guardiola, who coached Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi at Barcelona.

“The success we’ve had as managers is because we’re training incredible talented players and Phil is one of them.”

The City boss added: “We can count on him as a midfield player, a winger, even as a striker because he has an incredible

sense of goal and a vision.

He said Southgate, who has yet to give Foden his debut, had an “incredible talent for the national team on his hands”.

Foden formed a formidable triumvirate with Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling as Liverpool, a week after celebrating their first title in 30 years, were swept aside at the Etihad.

The England Under-21 international teed up the second for Sterling before finishing off a slick move to score the third when he took a flicked return pass from De Bruyne in his stride.

After surrendering the title to Liver-

pool, City appeared to have a point to prove, although Guardiola did not see it like that, preferring to focus on upcoming FA Cup and Champions League games.

“When one team wins eight of 10 (domestic) titles they played for, it’s not necessary for one game against Liverpool to show me they are hungry,” he said.

“It’s three more points to help us to finish second in the Premier League and qualify for the Champions League. We need four more points to do this mathematically and it is good for us for the game against Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-finals and especially Real Madrid second leg.”

Babar seems to reach 10,000-run-benchmark after Younis: Rashid Latif ISLAMABAD APP

Former Pakistani gloveman Rashid Latif has predicted that the limited-overs skipper Babar Azam seems like the player to reach the 10,000-run-benchmark after the 2009 World Twenty20 winning captain Younis Khan.

“We can predict the future that after Younis, Babar is looking like the player to score 10,000 runs. Because Asad Shafiq and Azhar Ali don’t have enough time to play and reach

the 10,000 run-mark,” he said in a video while talking to Dr Nauman Niaz on YouTube channel Caught Behind. Younis became the first Pakistani and 13th ever batsmen to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket on April 23, 2017, whereas Babar currently stands at 1,850 runs in 26 Tests.

On Babar’s statement that he would feel proud if people compared him with Pakistani greats like Javed Miandad, Inzamam-ul-Haq and others, instead of Virat Kohli, Latif said comparison was always done with current players like Steve Smith, Kane Williamson,

Joe Root, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli etc.

“Noboby compared Babar with Indian Sunil Gavaskar or Sachin Tendulkar as everyone does comparison with current players. You (Babar) are the No 1 or No 2 kind of player in the world whether it’s Twenty20, ODI or Test. Once you reach the Miandad, Zaheer Abbas, Inzamam and Younis, benchmark you will be compared with them,” Rashid, who served as captain in 2003, leading the country in six tests and 25 ODIs, said.

Rashid Latif, who played for Pakistan in Tests and ODIs, between 1992 and 2003 as

CMYK

a wicket-keeper right-handed batsman, said it felt like as if Babar was told to take the names of former Pakistani greats as to create diversion. “It is good you took the name of our greats. But during the current situation when you will play England the press will ask you the same question on comparison with Kohli,” he said. To a question, Rashid said Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad were wrongly compared with Kohli. “Babar is a deserving player and has the same class to be compared with Kohli. Umar is a good player but he can’t be compared to the Indian

Skipper. Babar has performed everywhere in the world while Younis has also performed throughout,” he said.

To a question, he said Zaheer Abbas was a wristy-player and he scored two double centuries against England on the tour.

Abbas made his Test match debut in 1969 and in his second Test he scored 274 against England, still the sixth-ever highest score by a Pakistani batsman. This was the first of his four Test double-centuries, only two men from Pakistan (Younis Khan and Javed Miandad) have scored more.

Saturday, 4 July, 2020

PrAyEr TImINGS

NEWS

IMraN vows to CoMPLEtE CPEC CoME what May PM SAYS PROJECT GUARANTEES PAKISTAN’S BRIGHT FUTURE, WILL BE COMPLETED IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ISLAMABAD

P

AGENCIES

RIME Minister Imran Khan on Friday said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project would be completed in any circumstances as the project was a guarantee for the bright future of Pakistan.

Imran, while reviewing the progress of projects under CPEC, remarked that “CPEC is an excellent project in terms of socio-economic development of Pakistan.”

Appreciating the performance of the CPEC Authority, Imran directed that all necessary steps be taken to make the performance and capacity of the body more efficient. “The CPEC project will be com-

pleted in any circumstances and its fruits will be delivered to all Pakistanis,” he said.

The meeting was attended by federal ministers Asad Umar, Khusro Bakhtiar, Umar Ayub, Trade Adviser Razak Dawood, Chairman CPEC Authority Lt Gen (r) Asim Saleem Bajwa and senior officials of the ministries concerned.

The prime minister had decided to start work on the CPEC projects in the first week of April, while heading a meeting of the National Coordination Committee. He had said that employment of the labourers in the construction industry and “working class is the top priority of the government.”

Meanwhile, in a separate meeting, Imran was given a detailed briefing on the progress made so far in adapting and restructuring the master plans of the Islam-

Emirates resumes flights to Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad NEWS DESK Emirates airline has resumed services to Pakistan’s three main cities — Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad — after a temporary suspension. Passengers, however, will be required to carry a negative Covid-19 report from an approved laboratory issued within 96 hours of the journey. “Following the receipt of relevant government approvals, Emirates has resumed passenger services to Pakistan. Customers can travel to and from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad if they meet the requirements of their destination,” an Emirates spokesperson was quoted as saying by Khaleej Times.

Passengers travelling from Pakistan to Dubai and beyond on Emirates must present a negative Covid-19 PCR test result certificate at the time of check-in, according to the airline’s website. “The PCR test must be taken up to four days prior to the travel date (96 hrs maximum) and must be conducted at the Emirates authorised Health Centre — Chughtai Labs — at the passenger’s expense.” Children under 12 years old are exempt from the test if they are travelling with their parents who have tested negative and are fit to travel, according to the website. Emirates from June 24 had temporarily suspended passenger services from Pakistan until July 3 after about 30 Pakistanis who arrived in Hong Kong on board an Emirates flight tested positive for Covid-19. Of the 30 male and female passengers, some had symptoms of fever, cough and sore throat while others were asymptomatic.

No party should escalate situation: China objects on PM Modi's Ladakh visit BEIJING

abad Capital Territory (ICT) and major cities of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as per the present-day requirements.

The meeting was attended by PM’s Adviser on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam, Member National Assembly and Town Planning Specialist Khayal Zaman, Naya Pakistan Housing Authority (NPHA) chairman, housing secretary and senior officials. Officials of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including the Punjab chief secretary, also attended the meeting via video link. Addressing the meeting, Imran said that unplanned construction in major cities in the last few years had not only posed serious threats to the environment but also caused complex problems in provision of civic amenities in cities.

The limited green areas and adjacent agricultural lands were being affected, he said, adding that the situation could pose a serious threat to food security in the future. Imran said that the process of amendments and upgradation in the master plan should be taken forward keeping

in view the ground realities and socioeconomic activities of each city.

While reorganising the master plan, he said, special attention should be given to ensure that the urban areas served as the engine of growth for the country’s economy and create better jobs and economic opportunities for the youth.

“Incentives provided by the government to the construction sector are also aimed at promoting the sector as well as creating job opportunities for the youth,” Imran said, while directing the provincial authorities to make use of modern technology in restructuring the cities’ master plans so that the work could be completed at the earliest.

He also directed that the roadmap for finalising the master plans and the report containing the interim strategy should be completed and submitted within the next one week.

In March 2019, Imran while sharing his vision for Pakistan’s future cities had said that he wanted to allow buildings to rise vertically so that there was space for green areas.

In his tweet, he had stated: “My vision for our future cities: to allow buildings to rise vertically and allow for more green spaces as Pak is one of the most environmentally-threatened countries. Avoiding large sprawling built-up areas will also allow easier provision of amenities to our urban dwellers.”

Malaysia suspends Pakistani pilots, Etihad auditing licences issued by CAA KUALA LUMPUR AGENCIES

With the matter of pilots’ credentials snowballing, Malaysia’s aviation regulator said it has temporarily suspended pilots employed by domestic airlines who hold Pakistani licences.

Meanwhile, Etihad Airways said it was auditing pilots with Pakistan-issued licences.

Following disclosure by federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan in parliament that 150 pilots of the Pakistan International Airline had ‘dubious’ licences, aviation authorities of different countries have sought verification of credentials of Pakistani pilots and engineers working there. The Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) said in a statement on Thursday that the decision came after an evaluation of all foreign pilots in Malaysia. The regulator told Reuters that there are less than 20 Pakistani pilots in the country.

National carrier Malaysia Airlines, Malindo Air — the Malaysian arm of Indonesia’s Lion Air, and AirAsia said they don’t not have any Pakistani pilot. CAAM said the pilots were employed with local operators, such as flying schools, flying clubs and training organisations.

CAAM said it is making efforts with its Pakistani counterpart to verify the authenticity of the licence holders. It sought full name of the pilot, passport number, Pakistani pilot licence number, CAAM validation number (if available) and Malaysia Licence conversion – PPL/CPL/ATPL Number.

“Currently all operators are required to temporarily

suspend their pilot who is issued with Pakistan pilot licence from operating flights until their licences can be verified by Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA).

Once verification has been carried out, the CAAM will inform operators for their reinstatement immediately,” the letter emailed to the Pakistan aviation authority said.

ETIHAD REVIEWING RECORDS: Separately, Etihad Airways said it was working closely with the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) to verify the qualifications and licences of the Pakistani pilots employed by the airline, a spokesperson told Reuters on Thursday. “While we can confirm the authenticity of these pilots, we are however carrying out further precautionary due diligence with an additional audit.”

The GCAA in a statement released earlier on Thursday said it was reviewing its records to ensure no “suspicious licences issued by the PCAA” had entered its system. The GCAA said it was in contact with Pakistani authorities but did not indicate whether it had taken any preliminary action against pilots with licences issued in the country.

Earlier, the GCAA had written a letter to the director general of Civil Aviation Authority Hassan Nasir Jamy and sought verification of credentials of aircraft maintenance engineers and flight operations officers who originally possessed licence issued by the CAA. The development comes as the federal government tried to assuage concerns about Pakistani pilots, stating that an inquiry into the issuance of ‘illegal’ licences issued to 236 pilots between 2012 and 2018 was in progress.

FAJR SUNRISE

ZUHR

ASR MAGHRIB ISHA

3:20

12:12

5:12

5:02

7:22

9:05

Pakistan says India has no right to comment on GB elections ISLAMABAD STAFF rEPOrT

The Foreign Office (FO) on Friday rejected remarks made by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson regarding elections in Gilgit-Baltistan. “The Indian government, which has been holding fraudulent ‘elections’ in occupied Jammu and Kashmir under the barrel of Indian occupation forces and has turned the region into the world’s largest open prison, has no locus standi to comment on elections in GB,” FO Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said in a statement. “Pakistan reiterates that India remains in illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir,” the statement read, adding that the issue — the longest outstanding item on the UN Security Council’s agenda — stemmed from Delhi’s forcible and illegal occupation of the region in 1947. On Thursday, Indian Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that the decision to hold elections was “an attempt to camouflage Islamabad’s illegal occupation of Indian territories”, according to The Hindu. “We call upon Pakistan to vacate all Indian territories that are under their illegal occupation,” he said, while replying to a question during an online media briefing. In the statement issued, the FO spokesperson reiterated that the only resolution to the Kashmir issue was the “faithful implementation of the relevant UNSC resolutions that recognise the inalienable right” of the Kashmiris “through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices”. “Baseless Indian contentions about elections in GB cannot cover up the egregious human rights violations committed by Indian security forces in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. “Only the other day, heartless Indian occupation forces in Sopore killed an unarmed civilian in front of [his] three-year old grandson,” she said, referring to the killing of an elderly man by Indian troops in front of his minor grandson during a gun battle with Kashmiri fighters two days ago. “The impunity enjoyed by Indian occupation forces under the draconian laws in place […] is another dimension of state terrorism being perpetrated by India against unarmed Kashmiris.” Farooqui called upon the Indian government to vacate all occupied territories, reverse all illegal actions taken in the valley, revoke all draconian laws, and allow neutral observers, and international human rights groups to visit the region to ascertain the Kashmiris’ well-being as well as allow them to exercise their right to self-determination. On April 30, the top court had allowed the Centre to conduct elections in GB under the Election Act 2017 and amend the relevant law to install a caretaker government for conducting polls. On June 28, President Dr Arif Alvi approved the election schedule for the GB Legislative Assembly. The assembly was dissolved on the completion of its term on June 24 and, as per the law, elections have to be held within 60 days to elect new members.

According to the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, polls will be held on August 18 this year.

APP

While reacting to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surprise visit to a military base at Nimoo in Ladakh in the northern frontier region, a Chinese Foreign Ministry's Spokesperson said on Friday that both sides should not take any actions that could further complicate the situation. "Now, India and China are in communication and negotiation on lowering the temperature through military and diplomatic channels. So, no party should engage in any action that may escalate the tension at this point," Zhao Lijian said during his regular briefing in response to a question regarding Indian PM Modia's visit to border area. The Indian prime minister made an unannounced visit Friday to a military base in remote Ladakh region bordering China where the soldiers of the two countries have been facing off for nearly two months. Modi's visit comes in the backdrop of massive Indian army build-up in Ladakh region following hand-to-hand combat between Indian and Chinese soldiers on June 15 that left 20 Indian soldiers dead and dozens injured, the worst military confrontation in over four decades between the Asian neighbours. Responding to a question about Indian Transport Minister's statement regarding a ban on the Chinese companies building road in India, he said that certain politicians in India had been issuing remarks that were detrimental to bilateral relations between the two countries recently. "Our bilateral relations need to be held with the concerted efforts, Indian side should work with us towards the same goal, to uphold the general picture of our common interests in bilateral relations," he added.

Current dominant strain of Covid-19 more infectious than original, study suggests WASHINGTON AGENCIES

The genetic variation of the novel coronavirus that dominates the world today infects human cells more readily than the original that emerged in China, according to a new study published in the journal Cell on Thursday.

The lab-based research suggests this current mutation is more transmissible between people in the real world compared to the previous iteration, but this hasn't yet been proven.

"I think the data is showing that there is a single mutation that actually makes the virus be able to replicate better, and maybe have high viral loads," Anthony Fauci, the United States's top infectious disease specialist, who wasn't involved in the research, commented to Journal of the American Medical Association.

"We don't have a connection to whether an individual does worse with

this or not. It just seems that the virus replicates better and may be more transmissible, but this is still at the stage of trying to confirm that," he added.

Researchers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Duke University in North Carolina partnered with the University of Sheffield's Covid-19 Genomics UK research group to analyze genome samples published on GISAID, an international resource for sharing genome sequences.

They found that the current variant, called "D614G," makes a small but potent change in the "spike" protein that protrudes from the surface of the virus, which it uses to invade and infect human cells. The scientists first posted their paper to the medical preprint site bioRxiv in April, where it received 200,000 hits, a record. But it was initially criticized because the scientists had not proved that the mutation itself was responsible for its domination; it could

have benefitted from other factors or from chance.

The team therefore carried out additional experiments, many at the behest of the editors of Cell.

They analyzed the data of 999 British patients hospitalized with Covid19 and observed that those with the variant had more viral particles in them, but without this changing the severity of their disease. Laboratory experiments meanwhile showed that the variant is three to six times more capable of infecting human cells.

"It seems likely that it's a fitter virus," said Erica Ollmann Saphire, who carried out one of the experiments at La Jolla Institute for Immunology.

'THIS VARIANT IS THE PANDEMIC': But everything at this stage can only be said to be "probable": in vitro experiments often do not replicate the dynamics of a pandemic.

As far as we know, although the vari-

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

ant circulating right now is more "infectious," it may or may not be more "transmissible" between people.

At any rate, said Nathan Grubaugh, a virologist at the Yale School of Public Health who was not part of the research: The expansion of the variant "whether through natural selection or chance, means that this variant now is the pandemic." Writing in a commentary piece, Grubaugh added that, for the general public, these results don't change much.

"While there are still important studies needed to determine if this will influence drug or vaccine development in any meaningful way, we don't expect that D614G will alter our control measures or make individual infections worse," he said.

"It's more of a live look into science unfolding: an interesting discovery was made that potentially touches millions of people, but we don't yet know the full scope or impact."