EpaperISB_21-05-31

Monday, 31 May, 2021 I 19 Shawwal, 1442 I Rs 40.00 I Vol XI No 330 I 48 Pages I Islamabad Edition

Imran rules out talks wIth IndIa untIl It rescInds august 5 move ISLAMABAD

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STAFF REPORT

RIME Minister Imran Khan has ruled out talks wit India until it rescinds August 5, 2019, move of revoking Kashmir’s autonomy. Interacting with the general public via telephone on Sunday, he said that Pakistan has come out of an economic crisis against expectations of the opposition and it will now move forward on the economic front.

PM Imran said that the economy has witnessed accelerated growth due to the policies of the government. nobody was anticipating 3.94 percent growth for the current year but there are estimates that it will go beyond four percent.

The prime minister said that an increase in the growth rate will also help address the issues of inflation and unemployment. He said there is that unprecedented activity in the construction sector besides the

record sale of tractors, cars and motorcycles.

He said that the opposition parties have got together not for the sake of the country but their vested interests. He also said that they wanted to get rid of the corruption cases through blackmailing. He, however, added that they would not succeed in their designs.

Responding to the question of a caller, the premier said that there has been record production of some major crops including wheat, rice and maize. He regretted that the agriculture sector was ignored in the past but now the government is paying attention to its development on modern lines.

He said that steps are being taken to provide farmers direct access to the markets. We are also establishing nine hundred new storage facilities, he added. He further said that more loans will be given in the agriculture sector which will benefit the farmers.

PM Imran said that “we have started work on ten dams which will be completed in ten years’

daily vaccinations hit new record after nearly 400,000 inoculated: Asad ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Minister for Planning and development and head of the national Command and Operation Centre Asad umar on Sunday said Pakistan set a new record of most daily vaccinations after inoculating about 400,000 people on Saturday.

In a tweet, Asad said that over 383,000 people received protective jabs in the last 24 hours, setting a new record.

“So far, seven million people have been vaccinated in the country,” he said while revealing that number of people getting registered for the vaccination is also increasing day by day.

He said that so far 11.6 million people have registered signed up for the drive.

An increase in the number of people receiving doses has been witnessed after the nCOC decided to allow walk-in vaccination of people

above 30 years of age from Saturday.

“In the nCOC meeting today it was decided to open up walk-in vaccination for 30 plus from tomorrow,” Asad tweeted.

“So if you are 30 or older and registered please go to any vaccination centre and get vaccinated,” he urged.

The government has also started registering people aged 19 and above for vaccination. People in the said age bracket can register themselves by sending their identity number to 1166.

The nCOC decided to open vaccine registration for all people having Computerised national Identity Cards.

NEW INFECTIONS REDUCING IN PUNJAB: Punjab Health Minister dr Yasmin Rashid, citing lower positivity rates and bed occupancy, announced the coronavirus situation in the province was improving.

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No increase in electricity tariff in near future, says finance minister g

TARIn SAYS REvEnuE COllECTIOn TO RISE uP TO RS5.8Tn In FY22

g

SAYS POlITICAl APPARATuS InvOlvEd In REFORMS AGEndA

ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said that the Rs4.8 trillion revenue collection this year would be the highest in the country’s history whereas the government is hopeful to collect around Rs5.8 trillion during the next fiscal year 2021-2022 (FY22).

He explained that the government will add Rs1 trillion revenue through innovate measures such as linking the Points of Sales (POS) to the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) system and ending harassment by tax officials.

“Only 80,000 POS’ have been linked with FBR; we have a plan to increase this to 500,000 in next years. The government would come up with a prize scheme for those who pay sales their taxes through POS. This would help increase the addition of GST to tax collection by a considerable amount,” he said.

Addressing a webinar titled, “Budget 2020: Balancing Stability and Growth” organised by Institute of Policy Reforms (IPR),

the minister while stressing the need to focus on economic growth said the government had already constituted Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to evolve development strategies with the help of experts to ensure sustainable growth of about 12 different sectors.

He said that since the government lacked resources to invest in the growth of all sectors, it had decided to focus on 12 major areas, which would put

the country on the road to “inclusive and sustainable growth” whereas the EAC has been directed to identify factors that hampered long-term economic growth in Pakistan.

“What we want is inclusive and sustainable growth over a long period of time,” he said, regretting that Pakistan had never seen a long period of sustainable growth except in the 60s.

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time”. He said that this will enhance our water storage capacity.

The premier said that telemetry system will be introduced to ensure fair distribution of water amongst the provinces.

He said that Rs4,143 billion have so far been collected in taxes by the FBR during the current fiscal year which is a record. He said that this has been achieved despite the challenge posed by Covid-19.

Expressing satisfaction over the way Pakistan handled the pandemic, the prime minister said that the system of Federal Board of Revenue is being automated which will help bring more people into the tax net and significantly enhance our revenue. This in turn will reduce the burden of loans besides the government will have sufficient resources to spend more on the people, he added.

He said that no tax will be imposed on the poor people in the next budget.

PM Imran said that his main focus is to provide better health facilities to the disadvantaged segments of the society. He said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has already provided health insurance cards to all the households whilst the same will be done in Punjab by the end of this year.

He said that a network of hospitals will be established in the country. For this purpose, the land of Pakistan Railways and Auqaf will be utilised.

Responding to a query of another caller, the premier said that a committee has been established to categorise between legal and illegal housing societies. He said that this list will also be put on a website so that the people are not defrauded by the illegal housing societies.

He added that the land record will be computerised in Islamabad, Punjab and KP by August this year which will also help discourage the land mafia.

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Monday, 31 May, 2021

ISLAMABAD

NEWS

PPP, ANP mull SePArATe oPPoSITIoN AllIANCe wITh NATIoNAlIST PArTIeS IsLAMABAD

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Mian abRaR

ISENCHANTED with the leadership of the opposition alliance of Pakistan Democratic Movement, the Pakistan People’s Party’s and Awami National Party’s young leaders discussed the possibility of forming a new opposition alliance on Sunday.

The agreement was reached as PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari visited Wali Bagh in Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, along with Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to offer condolences over the death of ANP leader Begum Naseem Wali Khan.

Sources in the PPP have confided in Pakistan Today that Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari

and Aimal Wali Khan discussed the possibility of a new alliance and agreed to work in this direction and hold consultations with allies and like-minded parties.

The source said that the two parties noted that the nationalist parties of smaller provinces including Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were kept out of the PDM and they would eager to play their role in the national politics.

“The two leaders noted that the nationalist parties of the three provinces were left in lurch and they wanted to join forces with the PPP and ANP to play their role in national politics,” the source said, adding that the two parties would hold further talks after talking to like-minded parties in this regard.

The sources said that the two leaders expressed displeasure over the tilt of PDM chief towards the hawkish policy of the PML-

SC to take up sacked judge’s appeal against dismissal IsLAMABAD Staff RepoRt

The Supreme Court will take up on Monday the petition of sacked judge of Islamabad High Court Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui challenging the presidential notification of his dismissal from service. Siddiqui was dismissed in October 2018 on the recommendation of the Supreme Judicial Council following an investigation into his accusation of the spy agency interfering in judicial proceedings to influence the general election held in July that year. “The President of Pakistan has been pleased to remove Mr Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui [… ] from his office with immediate effect,” the Ministry of Law and Justice said in a notification. A five-member larger bench headed by Justice Umer Ata Bandial — and comprising Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah — will hear the request.

Siddiqui had filed an application in the apex court on April 28, requesting for fixing his case at the earliest, before his retirement on June 30. Siddiqui is also being investigated for alleged misconduct over the allocation and refurbishment of his official residence. He has denied the charges. In a separate 2018 ruling that human rights advocates called a blow for the minorities, Siddiqui said citizens who hid their religious affiliation were guilty of betraying the state and told government jobseekers to declare their faith.

PPP LEADER’S BAIL REQUEST FIXED FOR HEARING: Meanwhile, the Supreme Court announced to take up the bail request of Pakistan Peoples Party MP Syed Khursheed Shah on Wednesday. A three-member bench presided by Justice Mushir Alam and comprising Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Justice Aminud Din Khan would hear the requests filed by Shah and his son Syed Farrukh Shah. The court, while fixing the plea for hearing, sent notice to the National Accountability Bureau. NAB has accused Shah of being in possession of assets beyond his declared income and filed a Reference in the accountability court of Sukkur, his hometown.

ICT suspends circle registrar on overseas Pakistani complaint IsLAMABAD Shahzad paRacha

Islamabad Capital Territory Chief Commissioner Amir Ali Ahmad on the instruction of Prime Minister Office suspended the Cooperative Societies Circle Registrar Asghar Khan Niazi on the complaint of an overseas Pakistani pertaining to transfer of plot in Jinnah Garden, Islamabad. Documents state that Islamabad deputy commissioner, on the instructions of the PM portal, conducted an inquiry and conveyed that the ICT chief commissioner desired to initiate EAD proceedings against Asghar Niazi. The officer may be placed under suspension till completion of the proceedings. The complainant, residing in the UK, registered a complaint with Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit pertaining to possession of plot in Jinnah Garden, Phase One, Islamabad. “This is my 8th complaint and the previous one has not yet been resolved. I know the matter will not be solved unless the government takes action against the corrupt society but i will try my best,” the complaint read. ICT Administration Director Quratul Ain Malik informed the Interior secretary that based upon report received, it has been proposed a transfer of Cooperatives Societies deputy registrar with immediate effect.

Similarly, it has also been proposed to suspend the then Cooperatives Societies circle registrar, the dismissal of the the inspector, and the removal of concerned clerk. A show-cause notice to the management committee of the Jinnah Garden had also been proposed.

N’s Maryam Nawaz and decided that they would be happy to work with Shehbaz Sharif who carried a pragmatist attitude towards the national politics.

Later speaking to media, Bilawal said that the parties of the PDM seem to be in a state of confusion. He said that the idea of forming the PDM was put forward by the PPP, however, neither the PPP nor the ANP attended the meeting of the PDM a day ago.

“It seemed like the parties of the PDM are confused,” said Bilawal. “Opposition parties should at least not get confused in the parliament.”

He added that all those political parties which are clear about their political stance are in a better position to give a tough time to the PTI-led government.

There did not seem to be a clear-cut strategy in the PDM’s meeting yesterday,

said Bilawal. Bilawal said that earlier, all the 10 parties of the PDM were supportive of an action plan set forth for the alliance, however, the action plan could not be implemented because there was no consensus among the parties.

“Unless and until the action plan is brought back, there is no point rejoining the PDM, said Bilawal.

He said that if all opposition parties collectively target PM Imran Khan’s government, it would be better for all.

“All opposition parties have the consensus that the people of Pakistan are suffering because of the incompetent government,” said Bilawal. “We are facing historic poverty because of the economic policies of the government which are based on lies.” Speaking about the relationship of the PPP with ANP, he said that the two

Nawaz Sharif to discuss election strategy today with ‘realignment with military on table’ IsLAMABAD Mian abRaR

Divided and bruised on many fronts, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz would be reviewing its strategy today at a meeting for the upcoming general elections with the option of holding direct dialogue with the military establishment on the table.

Sources within the PML-N have confirmed to this newspaper that the top leadership of the party, especially the group vocal for holding direct talks with the military establishment headed by the party’s chief Shehbaz Sharif, has urged Nawaz to discuss the matter and devise a strategy. “It’s a pity that Shehbaz Sharif is just a puppet and all decisions are taken by Mian Sahib,” said a source.

“We have urged Mian Sahib to take a decision and revert the anti-establishment policy of the party as things are improving and Sharif family is reaping the benefits now.”

“We have asked Mian Sahib to bring an end to the anti-establishment rhetoric as we have suffered a lot due to this policy,” a PML-N leader told Pakistan Today, requesting not being identified due to sensitivity of the situation. The source said that PML-N supremo Nawaz will attend an online meeting where the top leaders of the party would discuss a proposal for holding a dialogue with all stakeholders.

The source added that the party’s pro-establishment group leader Shehbaz and other senior leaders will present suggestions to Nawaz.

“This is a unanimous decision of the party’s senior lot and majority of the PML-N lawmakers have categorically advised Shehbaz Sharif that they cannot sit in the opposition after the next election and they cannot win without the blessings of the establishment,” the source said.

The source said that the next elections are around the corner and if their fight against the establishment continues, Imran Khan will be the ultimate beneficiary in the next polls too.

It merits mention here that Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz in a TV interview last week had floated the idea of a grand dialogue among all the stakeholders for working together for the progress of the country.

Shehbaz had said that he believed that his brother would be willing to play his part in the country’s progress “if there is a free, fair and transparent election, every institution operates within its respective domain, there is rule of law in the country and a roadmap is devised with the input of all stakeholders”.

When contacted, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb denied that any such meeting was being held.

Shehbaz convenes meeting to ‘expose’ govt’s economic performance News Desk Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President and National Assembly Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif has directed the party’s Economic Advisory Council to expose the government’s dismal and disastrous economic performance.

The EAC should review strategies to prevent the passage of “anti-people budget” by Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf, he said. He told them to highlight the serious crisis faced by the people of Pakistan due to the skyrocketing inflation, record unemployment and economic destruction

of the country because of PTI’s disastrous policies.

Shehbaz asked them to also highlight the realities of the constant intentional increase in prices of electricity, gas, medicine, treatment, education and essential commodities.

The PMLN president said this government may change the statistics by lying but that would not change the ground realities of the economy clearly visible to everyone. PML-N will not allow the demands of the IMF to be imposed on the people in the name of budget, he pledged.

parties hold both political and ideological connection.

“We want a peaceful and progressive Pakistan,” Bilawal said, adding that PPP’s role in working towards the rights and selfdetermination of provinces will become part of history. “We will stand before this ineligible, selected government like a wall and fight against it,” he said. “Together with the ANP, we will work both inside and outside of the parliament. We want everyone to raise a voice against the government’s upcoming budget.”

Bilawal said that had the opposition worked on the no-confidence motion, neither Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar nor PM Imran Khan would be in their offices.

Speaking on the occasion, ANP Central Senior Vice-President Ameer Haider Khan Hoti thanked the PPP leadership for consoling him in his hour of grief.

He said that the PPP and ANP had both been rivals and allies in politics, adding that whenever it came to the Constitution, the two parties worked together.

“Even under the current political scenario, both PPP and ANP have an important role to play, which they will continue while occupying the benches of the opposition,” Hoti said.

Nawaz refused military secretary’s advice to flea during 2014 protests, says aide IsLAMABAD Staff RepoRt

A senior military official tried to convince former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to flee from Prime Minister House on a helicopter in August 2014 when rioters led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehrik leader Tahir-ul-Qadri laid a siege of the official residence, revealed Senator Irfan Siddiqui, who is a former adviser and a close aide of the Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz supreme leader. “Prime minister Sharif, however, refused to listen to the military official and asked him to sit beside him in the office of prime minister and enjoy a cup of tea,” said Irfan Siddiqui in a recently published column in Daily Duniya News. Siddiqui said that Nawaz was sitting in his office of Prime Minister House along with him and another PML-N leader and then-minister Lt General (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch. The rioters have laid siege to the prime minister’s residence. They had full control over the front and the back gates of the residence. Suddenly the military secretary to the prime minister, Brigadier Akmal (who later on retired as a major general), barged into the office and announced they were surrounded on all sides by the rioters and there was no escape apart from the path that leads to the helipad. “The military secretary announced that the riots are in a rage and they might be in possession of weapons, they would enter the Prime Minister House at any time. They are in control of all exits and entrances. Only one route is open and that leads to the helipad. He said that he had summoned helicopters and we should make good our escape” Irfan Siddiqui wrote in his column. Lt General (r) Baloch, who was sitting beside the former premier, was angry and started murmuring in anger. But Nawaz directed him to remain quiet. “What should we do?” the prime minister asked the military secretary. The military secretary repeated his early assertions that there was no time to waste and they should escape the situation by flying out of the Prime Minister in a helicopter” said Irfan Siddiqui.

Parents demand mock tests to prepare students for board assessments IsLAMABAD app

Parents have demanded the concerned authorities to conduct pre-board examinations to prepare the students for the final board assessments.

The parents, worried about the future of their children whose admissions in medical and engineering institutes depend on their marks in intermediate and ALevels, are calling on the authorities to hold pre-board tests which serve chiefly as practice for the final assessments conducted by the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education.

The parents are concerned about how their college-going children will perform in the intended board exams while they have not gone through proper testing and

assessment as such in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Who will help them understand the nature of questions and the way to respond to those questions,” the parents asked, while terming it important that the students should go through at least one week of practice exams in their colleges.

All the stakeholders especially parents are wonderstruck over the question of examinations without any prior preparation.

The students have suffered an unprecedented academic loss due to the uncertain situation amid the pandemic.

It is also questionable how the students will come up to the expectations of the examining bodies i.e. school boards. Students will be able to assess their performance in the pre-board exams

and will build new strategies and put more efforts to bring good grades, a student told Associated Press of Pakistan.

Hence pre-board exams provide students with a very true picture of how they are doing in their classes, she said.

An associate professor said: “Entering the examination hall, finding roll number on the exam desk and taking a seat with an answering script and facing an unfamiliar question paper is a nerveracking experience for many students.

She pointed out that rigorous training is required before the students sit in the exams. Multiple exams are required though yet at least one pre-board exam is direly needed at the earliest.

If students are not made to go through this process, the entire board exam shall remain detrimental to the aims of

education, she added.

Having parent-teacher contact is almost impossible in the given circumstances. The only answer to the question of exams is a pre-board exam with a greater focus on familiarising students with the paper pattern and expectations of examiners in the board exams, said a parent.

She went on to say that science education is not theory but practical knowledge. I earnestly request the concerned authorities to arrange a preboard exam before any board exams.

When contacted, a senior official of the Federal Directorate of Education said since the educational institutions are reopening, the directorate is making a strategy to conduct pre-board exams of the students.

Monday, 31 May, 2021

ISLAMABAD

PakiStan maintainS bELOw 5PC POSitivitY ratiO fOr SixtH daY LAHORe

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STAff RePoRT

AKISTAN reported 2,697 fresh cases of the Covid-19 over the last 24 hours, according to the National Command and Operation Centre, wherein the statistics highlight a positivity ratio below 5 percent for the sixth consecutive day.

The NCOC also reported that the death toll climbed to 20,736 after 56 more people succumbed to the deadly virus during the same period.

A total of 55,965 samples were tested, out of which 2,697 were declared positive, the NCOC said. The positivity ratio of infections was recorded at 4,81 per cent, it added. 2,620 more people recovered, taking the tally of patients recovering from the disease to 839,322. There are a total of 4,017

critical cases in the country at present, the NCOC said.

Pakistan’s current coronavirus positivity ratio was recorded at 4.81 percent, which has encouraged factions of the populace to look forward to a return to normalcy.

It bears mentioning that the NCOC has decided to establish separate vaccination centres for the teachers and non-teaching staff. The decision has been made to expedite the vaccination process for the teachers and the non-teaching staff amid the third wave of the pandemic.

New centres would be established countrywide at the tehsil level, while separate counters would be reserved for the teachers at the already functional vaccination centres countrywide, it emerged.

The NCOC observed that the pressure is mounting at the vaccination centres, after the opening of walk-in service for them and the

EigHt kiLLEd aftEr van faLLS intO YarkHun rivEr Of CHitraL NewS DeSk At least eight passengers were killed when a passenger van plunged into Yarkhun River of Chitral on Sunday. Rescue 1122 officials said the accident occurred when the driver lost control over the vehicle while crossing a bridge. More than10 passengers were boarded on the van among which two were rescued by locals. Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan has expressed grief over the falling of a passenger van in a river in Upper Chitral. He directed the district administration and Rescue department to expedite relief activities to recover the drowned people in the incident.

HEC offers Sri Lanka scholarships for top universities ISLAMABAD APP

The Higher Education Commission has offered Sri Lankan students to receive education in Pakistan’s best universities under a scholarship programme for the country. For this purpose, the commission has reserved 250 scholarships under Allama Iqbal Scholarship Programme for Sri Lankan Students in line with the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan, an official told APP. The HEC announced June 15 as the last date for submission of applications under this initiative, the official added. Sharing further details, the official said that spread over the course of the next five years, the scholarships provide an opportunity for 1,000 students to visit Pakistan and pursue undergraduate, postgraduate and postdoctoral degree programmes. The scholarships aim to promote an effective exchange of knowledge and a better understanding of cultures and traditions between Lankan and Pakistan students, the official added. Selected candidates will study in topranked universities, learn about Pakistan’s society and values, acquire leadership skills, and help educate fellow Pakistani students and community groups about their country and culture. The project is part of the commission’s internationalisation initiative to encourage international students to study in Pakistan.

separate centres to ensure rapidly vaccination of the teachers.

The body has directed to complete vaccination of the teachers by June 5, said sources. It may be noted that the walk-in vaccination service was opened on May 29.

On May 20, Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood had announced that teachers will be inoculated against Covid-19 on a priority basis. Taking to his official Twitter account, the federal education minister said that the government has decided to give priority to teachers in vaccination. To this effect, the Punjab Higher Education Department has issued a notification for reopening of all private and government colleges across the province from May 31 (Monday) with strict implementation of Covid-19 SOPs. HED Secretary Nadeem Mehboob said in a statement on Saturday that all private

and public colleges will be re-opened across the province except in Khanewal and Rahim Yar Khan as both districts have a high coronavirus positivity ratio.

The colleges in both the districts will remain closed till further orders, according to the notification. The authorities have also directed all teachers and other staff members to get coronavirus vaccine by June 5.

Separately, Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said on Sunday that Punjab has reported 696 cases in the last 24 hours and 22 people lost their lives, adding that the coronavirus situation in the province was improving, citing lower positivity rates and bed occupancy. Speaking at a press conference at the Chief Minister Secretariat, the health minister said that so far 339,073 positive cases have been reported in the province and 9,982 people lost their lives in the province.

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Over 7m vaccinated against Covid-19: official ISLAMABAD: Parliamentary Secretary for National Health Services Dr Nausheen Hamid Sunday said more than 7 million people have been administered Covid-19 vaccine doses in the country and the drive is showing progress. Speaking with a private news channel, she encouraged the public to get themselves registered for vaccination at the earliest. She said that the government was giving full coverage to various groups of the population for the vaccination drive. “Government remains confident that we will meet our plan of large-scale immunisation over the coming months this year, adding, walk-in vaccination against coronavirus for citizens aged 30 and above and teachers older than 18 years started,” she added. “It is also really important to give common people information about the vaccine, how safe it is and effective it is,” she further said.

“People have uncertainty about all the different types of vaccine being developed right now around the world, but citizens should have to trust and get vaccine on time as it is safe and secure for the protection of human health,” the official said. APP

FM, Iraqi minister review different aspects of defence cooperation BAGHDAD APP

Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Minister of Defence of Iraq Jumaa Inad Saadoun Khattab on Sunday reviewed the progress made on various aspects of defence collaboration between the two countries.

Qureshi is on a three-day visit to Iraq where he held talks with both the Iraqi President and the Prime minister, an official handout issued by the Foreign Office said. The discussions focused on how to deepen bilateral cooperation in different fields.

During a meeting at the Ministry of Defence, the two ministers noted with contentment the steady growth in bilateral defence relations, the FO spokesperson said in a press release.

Furthermore, it was learned that the foreign minister conveyed warm wishes to President Dr Barham Salih from Pakistan’s leadership. He affirmed Pakistan’s support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq.

In order to institutionalise the bilateral cooperation, Foreign Minister Qureshi, the statement said, “proposed that the two countries should develop an overarching framework of political consultations and bilateral cooperation at

the foreign ministers level to provide impetus to deepening and strengthening mutually beneficial partnership”.

Foreign Minister Qureshi, during the meeting, reiterated Pakistan’s resolve to further deepen and diversify bilateral cooperation in the fields of defence and defence production.

Acknowledging the unyielding efforts and sacrifices of Iraq, and its people, in the fight against terrorism, the foreign minister wished peace, progress and prosperity for the brotherly people of Iraq. The two ministers agreed to continue exchanging senior level delegations to sustain the positive momentum in the growing defence relationship between the two countries.

The foreign minister rejoiced the opportunity of meeting the Iraqi Defence Minister twice within three months.

Recalling the visit of Pakistan’s minister for defence production to Iraq in January this year, he expressed satisfaction at frequent interactions at the ministerial level, which augured well for future bilateral defence ties both the countries.

Foreign Minister Qureshi said that this was reflected aptly by the participation of Iraqi Special Forces Paratroopers in the Pakistan National Day Parade on March 23.

Fawad questions timing of PDM protest call ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said the country had to face economic hardships due to bad economic policies of previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan People’s Party stints and when the economy is stabilising, the opposition’s protest call is preposterous. In a tweet posted Sunday, Fawad said that due to detrimental policies of past governments, the country had to suffer economic hardships. He said that after a long time, the PTI government’s sagacious policies have started bearing fruit. He said for the first time in Pakistan’s history, more than Rs4,000 billion was collected in tax revenue. He eulogised the efforts of Pakistan nationals abroad who actively contributed to the efforts to put Pakistan to its two feet. He said the they sent Rs1,000 billion in remittances. Fawad further said that wheat, sugarcane and maize witnessed bumper production contributing to Rs1,100 billion to the agricultural economy which enhanced the purchasing power of farmers remarkably. He shared the sale of tractors rose by 64 percent and added that there was an increase in the use of fertilizers and insecticide medicines. APP

NIH issues details of first Indian Covid-19 variant patient ISLAMABAD TLTP

The National Institute of Health has issued details of the first case of Indian coronavirus strain diagnosed in Pakistan, saying the passenger with the Indian Covid-19 variant reached Pakistan on May 8.

According to details shared by the NIH on Sunday, the variant was detected in a 39-year-old, asymptomatic Pakistani individual, who was a resident of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and was returning home from a Gulf country. The case was detected through the screening system put in place for international arrivals as he landed on May 8 and showed a positive rapid test conducted at the airport.

As per the government’s mandated standard operating procedures, the infected individual was quarantined at a government facility where additional testing confirmed the presence of an Indian variant of coronavirus. The individual, however, only showed mild symptoms during the quarantine period and was allowed to go home. He has completely recovered from the virus and has completed the mandatory isolation with further advice per medical protocols.

Pursuant to the confirmation of the B.1.617.2 (Indian) variant, the investigation team traced his family and close contacts in the district of residence obtaining samples, all of which tested negative for Covid19. The NIH team is further tracing back his potential contacts during the air travel to rule out the possibilities of infections.

Appreciating the efficient screening and isolation system put in place for international travellers, the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination has stressed airlines strictly enforce the SOPs for travellers, including presenting a mandatory test report from an authentic lab in the country of origin. While stringent screening on arrival continues to identify any further cases of the variant, who may arrive inadvertently, confirmatory testing and quarantine are being implemented.

The Ministry has further urged the general public to strictly observe the advised precautionary measures to protect themselves from the risks around them. Viruses mutate all the time, producing different versions or variants of themselves. Most of these mutations are insignificant – and some may even make the virus less dangerous – but others can make it more contagious and harder to vaccinate against. This variant – officially known as B.1.617 – was first detected in India in October.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi pays his respects at the holy shrine of Imam Ali (AS).

The defence minister fondly recalled his visit to Islamabad in February and appreciated the professionalism of Pakistan’s Armed Forces and the technical advancements made by the country in defence production.

President Salih – who also met with the FM – warmly welcomed the foreign minister and reciprocated the feelings expressed on behalf of the Pakistani leadership. He thanked the foreign minister for Pakistan’s understanding and support. Qureshi briefed the president on Pakistan’s transformed vision centred around economic security, shifting focus from geo-politics to geo-economics. He

outlined Pakistan’s desire to offer itself as an economic hub through peace, development partnerships and connectivity.

The foreign minister and the president also discussed regional and global issues of mutual interest. Qureshi briefed the president on the situation in South Asia, in particular Pakistan’s approach towards the issues and disputes with India, Pakistan’s consistent support for the Afghan peace process, and Pakistan’s steadfast diplomatic support for the just cause of Palestine. He also highlighted Pakistan’s efforts to promote solidarity among the Muslim Ummah.

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Monday, 31 May, 2021

ISLAMABAD

NEWS

Buzdar for deployinG independent oBServerS at Sindh, punjaB BarraGeS LAHORE

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STAFF EPORT

UNJAB Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on Sunday called for the deployment of independent observers at Sindh and Punjab barrages in order to obtain accurate data on water release after a row between provinces over water theft.

In a policy statement, the chief minister Punjab said that the deployment of independent observers would help in ensuring just distribution of water among provinces.

“It will also help in addressing misunderstandings over water distribution,” he said.

The chief minister also invited the parliamentarians of the Sindh province to visit barrages in Punjab. “Parliamentarians from

across the country especially from Sindh should visit barrages in the province,” Buzdar said, adding that parliamentarians could witness the water distribution and reporting system of release data.

He said that the Sindh province should also invite Punjab lawmakers to their barrages. The chief minister further assured that he would address the water-related issues faced by the farmers in Punjab. “I will personally visit farmers and listen to their grievances,” he said.

Earlier on Saturday, the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) has said that outflow of water from major water reservoirs has been less than inflow. A spokesperson of the WAPDA, amid reports of water shortage, said that inflow at Tarbela water reservoir has been recorded at 63,300

Woman killed, 22 injured in Sheikhupura road miShapS

cusecs, while the outflow from the dam remained 60,000 cusecs.

He said that the inflow of water at Mangla Dam was recorded at 50,700 cusecs, while the outflow from the reservoir remained 50,000 cusecs. The inflow of water at Chashma Lake recorded 92,600 cusecs, while the outflow from the reservoir remained 90,000 cusecs, according to the spokesperson. Moreover, the water inflow in Chenab River at Marala headworks was recorded 24,600 cusecs, while the outflow remained 5,000 cusecs, the spokesperson stated.

The water inflow in Kabul River at Nowshera was recorded at 32,700 cusecs, and the outflow also remained 32,700 cusecs.

The water reservoir at Tarbela recorded 71,000 acres of feet and 4,75,000 acres of

feet at Mangla Dam, according to the spokesperson.

The water at Chashma Lake reservoir has been recorded at 128,000 acres of feet.

Overall water at Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma reservoirs has been 674,000 acres of feet, the spokesperson added.

The Indus River System Authority has stated that the water shortages for Sindh and Punjab went up to 32 percent on Friday as river flows continued to drop and reservoirs at both Mangla and Tarbela dams neared dead level. The IRSA said it reviewed the overall water situation and decided to apply 32 percent shortages to the two larger provinces instead of 23 percent shortage at present.

The water regulator said the positive development was that temperature in Indus

catchments had started to go up and was reported at 26.1 degree Celsius from 23.9pc a day earlier. The Pakistan Meteorological Department informed the authority that temperatures were anticipated to increase and the river flows were expected to improve in the next 48-72 hours owing to snow melting.

Separately, Buzdar has taken notice of a murder of a minor girl after rape in the precinct of police station Qila Kalarwala, Pasroor, and sought a report from RPO Gujranwala.

The chief minister directed to apprehend the accused at the earliest and initiate legal action against them. He also directed to ensure justice to the affected family. Buzdar assured the affected family for speedy justice and extended heartfelt sympathies and condolences with them.

Role of technology vital to prevent Covid-19 spread: Masood KOTLI

SHEIKHUPURA INP

STAFF REPORT

A woman was killed and 22 others injured in various road accidents in different localities of Sheikhupura on Sunday. The first accident took place on main GT Road near Muridke where a reckless driven truck knocked down a motorcycle carrying four people resultantly a woman was killed and three others injured. Eight people were injured in collision between two over speeding rickshaws collided at Lahore Road near Khanpur Stop. An over speeding passenger bus hit a hiace in Kot Ranjit at Gujranwala Road due to which 11 passengers were injured. The body and injured of all accidents were shifted to different hospitals of respective areas and police after registering separate cases at concerned police stations have started investigations.

Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan has said that the importance of new technologies in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic cannot be overlooked as these technologies have a huge potential for detection, timely diagnosis, effective treatment, and future prevention of the Covid-19.

Addressing a webinar on "Coronavirus and the role of technologies," organised by the Computing and Engineering Department of the University of Kotli, he said that though vaccines and medicines are being used to treat Covid- 19, major reliance has been on prevention, surveillance, and containment of the pandemic.

Govt decides to double parliamentarians’ development budget ISLAMABAD SHAHZAD PARACHA

Enumerating the technologies being used to curb the viral spread of coronavirus, the State President said that geospatial technology, artificial intelligence, big data, telemedicine, blockchain, 5G technology, smart applications, Internet of Medical Things, robotics, and additive manufacturing are substantially important for Covid-19 detection, monitoring, diagnosing, screening, surveillance, mapping, tracking, and creating awareness about the pandemic.

"These technologies have been used on a large scale in the developed world, but unfortunately the developing nations are behind the curve in inducting, absorbing, and mainstreaming these technologies," he added.

Khan maintained that the technology cannot prevent the outbreak of pan-

Kuwait restores family, business, technical visas for Pakistanis ISLAMABAD

The federal government has decided to increase the development budget of parliamentarians in next fiscal year 2021-22. Sources said that the government will increase the development budget of parliamentarians from Rs28 billion to Rs58 billion apparently to give more funds for the upcoming general election. The successive governments keep the development budget of parliamentarians under the name of sustainable development goals. Sources said that the Finance Division, on the recommendation of Cabinet Division, has disbursed Rs26 billion out of allocated Rs28 billion during the current fiscal year mainly to the constituencies of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf parliamentarians. PTI member Sindh Assembly Khurram Sher Zaman in a talk show revealed that the federal government has disbursed Rs12 billion alone under SDGs for different constituencies of Karachi. The successive governments used to disburse funds to their party members for development work especially the electrification as well as gas schemes.

demics; but it can help prevent the spread, inform, warn, and enable people to respond better and mitigate the impact.

The AJK president said that areas where technologies can help most are contact tracing by data sharing, digital facial recognition, threat assessment, and disease forecasts by using Artificial Intelligence, robots and drones for goods delivery, automatic temperature monitoring, remote working to ensure social distancing, and software to detect Covid through the chest scans.

He said that digital technologies are being harnessed to support the publichealth response to Covid-19 worldwide, including population surveillance, case identification, contact tracing, and evaluation of interventions on the basis of mobility data and communication with

STAFF REPORT

Kuwait has restored family, business and technical visas for Pakistani citizens after 10 years.

This was announced by Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah while talking to Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad in Kuwait on Sunday. The interior minister handed over a special letter written by Prime Minister Imran Khan to Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid AlSabah .The meeting also decided to issue technical visas for Pakistani workers in the medical and oil field. Pakistani citizens living in Gulf countries can also get an online Kuwaiti visa.

Thanking the Kuwaiti prime minister on restoration of visas for Pakistani citizens, the interior minister said that after this decision, huge job opportunities will be available for Pakistanis in Kuwait.

He said that by lifting the ban on business visas, the trade will also increase between the two countries.

Earlier, Rasheed reached Kuwait on Sunday morning to negotiate the resumption of visas for Pakistani nationals after a gap of 10 years.

In a tweet before his departure, the interior minister said he would negotiate with Kuwaiti authorities the resumption of work, family and business visas. “I am going on a one-day visit to Kuwait to reach an agreement on the issuance of family visas,” he said.

“I will try to make an agreement for workers too.”

Kuwait had suspended visas for nationals of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2011 over, what it said, difficult security conditions in the five countries.

Earlier in March, Rasheed announced that talks were underway for Kuwaiti visas to be issued again for Pakistanis.

Rashid’s visit to Kuwait follows Foreign Minister Qureshi’s meeting with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah on the sidelines of the Special Meeting of the General Assembly on Palestine in New York last week.

the public.

“These rapid responses leverage billions of mobile phones, large online datasets, connected devices, relatively low-cost computing resources, and advances in machine learning and natural language processing,” he said.

He went on to say that after the outbreak of coronavirus, the AJK government with the help of technologies had established PCR labs and diagnostic centers, upgraded monitoring, and care system in the hospitals, supply of vaccine introduced tele-medicines, and chest scanning.

Similarly, after the closure of educational institutions because of lockdown, a revolution was brought about in the distance education and examination systems with the help of technology.

Govt fails to stop illegal logging in kp forests PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Forest Department has reported 5,142 cases of illegal logging during the last two years.

Officials said that cases have been registered against those involved but just Rs50.32 million has been collected in terms of fine from those involved in crimes against forests. According to documents submitted to the provincial assembly, the highest number of illegal tree felling took place in Swat, the home district of the Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, where 2,214 cases were registered in the last two years and only Rs10.5 million fine was collected in Malakand Division. The value of the trees is being stated in billions of rupees. The Forest Department sources said that on one hand the provincial government has spent billions of rupees on Billion Tree project to counter the climate change impacts on the province, on the other hand in connivance of senior officials of the ruling party, deforestation of trees in the scenic valley continued unabated. According to sources, the department has collected fines of just Rs50.32 million in action against those involved in deforestation worth billions of rupees, which is less than two per cent of the value of deforestation. On the other hand, the public exchequer also suffered a loss of billions of rupees. The documents show that 274 cases have been registered in Lower Dir, 1,113 in Upper Dir, 213 in Dir Kohistan, 440 in Chitral, 407 in Alpuri and 283 in Buner during the last two years. AZIZ BUNERI

The norms of merit in Naya Pakistan: A saga of foreign mission postings ISLAMABAD SHAHZAD PARACHA

The Ministry of Overseas Pakistan and Human Resource Division has sought cabinet approval to decide the stations of selected Community Welfare Attaches.

Sources said that the Ministry of OP&HUD has asked the federal cabinet to relax the amended policy guidelines with regard to deciding the posting stations of the selected candidates in foreign missions abroad.

The ministry claimed that the federal cabinet on July 27, 2019, amended policy guidelines pertaining to this selection process as well as for future selection

processes However, the Establishment Division observed that the cabinet had given a one-time exemption despite no mentioning of it in the decision, sources added.

This is the third time when the Ministry of OP&HUD asked the cabinet for relaxation of the merit cum choice recruitment policy and wants to allocate stations as per its pure discretion which is a blatant violation of rules at this stage, sources said.

The ministry had completed this posting process based on the revised policy which the Prime Minister Office approved.

Earlier, the ministry had conducted the CWAs exam in 2019 as per the prevailing recruitment policy of 2016 for Pakistan Mis-

sions Abroad.

Later, the ministry moved a summary to the cabinet for relaxation of the prevailed policy to give it the power to allocate stations to candidates as per its choice by not only violating the policy but also the established process of competitive recruitment on merit-cum-choice basis.

The ministry gave the reasoning wildly that those who have qualified and came up to the merit want to enjoy paid holidays and nobody wants to serve at stations where most of the labor is concentrated which is an absurd logic if competitive recruitment of CSS are compared, sources claim.

Then the recruitment of CWA was held

in November 2019 and this time the ministry revised the 2016 recruitment policy and conducted exams by the IBA university and interviews by the Special Selection Board appointed by the prime minister.

However, a few candidates went to court against the ministry for changing the rules just before the interview.

The Islamabad High Court had given the decision in favour of litigants; subsequently, the ministry posted out a few officers to different stations. Currently, only 8 out of 24 stations have been filled so far by vehemently allocating stations and the federal government under section 7 of the Emigration Ordinance, 1979, will safeguard the interests of emigrants

and promote overseas employment, appoints a person to be a Labor Attaché /CWAs. Document state that the ministry also asked the cabinet to give approval of posting of seven candidates and in case if any of the top seven-candidate does not convey his/her acceptance to the offer of appointment within six working days of the receipt of the offer, OP&HRD may issue the officer to appointment to the next candidate on the merit list.

It is important to mention here that the candidates during the last two postings of CWAs got relief from court whereas the Ministry of Commerce has completed the Commercial Welfare Attache postings in a transparent manner.

Monday, 31 May, 2021

ISLAMABAD

NEWS

An oATH AnD SlEEplESSnESS CITy NOTES M A NIAzI

p

ERHAPS the most significant thing to happen in a long time was Ch Nisar Ali Khan’s oath as an MPA in the Punjab Assembly. Now Usman Buzdar should have been relieved that the Wah constituency, which had gone so long without a member in the house, having trustedly voted to have Ch Nisar represent them, only for him to refrain from taking oath.

He is said to have taken oath because the government was bringing in legislation allowing seats to be declared vacant if the member-elect did not take oath within a certain time. Ever since elections were introduced in 1872 (for local councils), those elected have been eager to take oath, to the extent that they enlist the support of the government to help them win, and fight long election petitions vigorously. I can only think of Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, elected to her

husband’s seat after he was disqualified by the Supreme Court in 2017, who never took oath, passing away before she did.

The real problem with Ch Nisar’s delay is not that the electorate of Wah went voiceless in the Punjab Assembly, but that he could be entering to become chief minister. This has thus given sleepless nights to Buzdar, or Waseem Akram-Plus, as he is known in certain circles. I gather that no amount of assurance that Ch Nisar is as innocent of the inswinging yorker as a baseballer.

Still, a lot of people think he only took oath on the behest of the same people who instigated him to contest the last election as an independent, along with a number of other independents who also had the ‘jeep’ symbol. They all lost, except for that same blessed provincial seat, which Ch Nisar has always won since 1985, but never sat for.

Except in 2018, when he finally lost the national seat. He enters the Punjab Assembly as a freshman MNA, but as the only person to have been a parliamentarian since 1985.

Sindh to launch media support program for journalists, families: minister

He seen a lot of ups and downs since them, not least being Pakistan’s nuclear explosion in 1998. It’s known now as Pakistan Science Day, instead of Yaum-e-Takbir. Though it’s been more than two decades, I think Science Day or Yaum-e-Takbir don’t cut it. A simple Yaum-e-Bam would both convey the message and be easily understood by both Mian Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan. But maybe we have more intellectual types to satisfy.

Anyhow, another intellectual callenge is how now we have e-business incubators springing up all over the place.

Once upon a time, it seemed, e-businesses did something. Then you had a whole lot of people who decided that they preferred teaching people about how to succeed. So they set up incubators.

The government seems to think that these incubators are the best way of getting in on the digital age. Or is that the latest scam? I hope it’s only a few who plan to get on this gravy train. I’m reminded of the early days of the internet, when one would be constantly getting emails from enthusiasts announcing that

Imran rules out talks with India until it rescinds August 5 move ContInued fRom pAge 01

KARACHI STAFF REPORT

Sindh Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has said that on the directives of Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, People's Media Support Program will be launched in the province to provide financial support to the journalists of the province and solve their daily problems. He expressed these views while addressing a meeting of senior directors of the Information Department here on Sunday at his residence. Secretary Information Ijaz Hussain Baloch was also present on the occasion. The provincial information minister said that under the People's Media Support Program, financial assistance for the journalist , health and life insurance facilities would be extended besides journalists' children school fees will also be paid. The provincial minister said that Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had a special vision for solving the problems of journalists and Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also wanted the problems of journalists to be solved on priority basis. The Provincial Minister further said that all the sections of the Information Department should further improve their performance, especially the senior directors have a responsibility to make the Information Department more active. Stressing on the need to complete the development projects of the Information Department as soon as possible, the Provincial Minister directed the Director Planning and Development to ensure quality construction work on the construction projects of all the district offices of Hyderabad Division.

The minister directed to focus on priority projects and programs in the next financial year. The provincial minister also directed the director of advertisements to pay the dues to media organization in time and clear the arrears as soon as possible. Stressing on the need for transparency and fair distribution of advertisements, he said that no negligence would be tolerated in this regard. The provincial minister directed to further improve the performance of press information and strengthen the liaison with media persons and organization . He directed the director films to make short documentaries and other video clips about development projects in the province. He said that the Information Department is of special importance as it is the spokes organ of the government so all the officers should perform their duties diligently, and with responsibly. He said that all possible steps would be taken to solve the problems of the Information Department. On this occasion Director Planning and Development Ghulam u Saqleen, Director Publication Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Director Information Muhammad Saleem Khan, Director Press Information Aziz Ahmed Hakro, Director Admin Syed Azeem Shah, Director Films Shabih Siddiqui, Deputy Director Admin Muhammad Yusuf Kabooro, Section Officer Nazir Ahmed were also present.

their email had been sent i0.435 seconds faster than ever before (and they were careful to add approx to the figure, in case someone clocked that mail at 0.4355 seconds. The purpose of this blinding speed was to tell you that it could be done.

Or perhaps to tell you to drink some foul concoction in preference to some other foul concoction. May now it can be used to tell kids when exactly they have their O and A level exams. Normally, there is a boring certainty about those exams. No matter the result, you can be certain they were held in June or November. Not after the pandemic.

They weren’t held last year, and instead, you got schools sending in assessments, and Cambridge hazarding a guess at an expected grade. So kids were allowed to retake the exam in October.

Cutting a long story short, kids this year had exams moved from June to November. And now there’s been a preponement to July. Even bright students are appalled. The Education minister isn’t. But then he isn’t sitting these exams.

Prime Minister Imran said that legislation is also being brought to ensure speedy disposal of land-related cases. He said that the government has taken strict action against the land grabbers and got vacated a large swathe of land from them.

He also said efforts are afoot to bring reforms in Punjab police and the day is not far when the people will also appreciate its performance like that of KP. When asked about Rawalpindi Ring Project, the premier said this is a very important project for the city and work on it will be started immediately. He said that he ordered an inquiry into the project after receiving reports of fraud in it. He added that an inquiry will be completed into it in a matter of two weeks and then action will be taken against the responsible persons who realigned the project for the benefit of few individuals.

Prime Minister Imran categorically stated that Pakistan will not sit with India for talks until it rescinds the illegal steps of August 5, 2019, in the Indian Occupied Kashmir.

He said that normalisation with India at this moment will amount to treachery with the people of Kashmir.

He said that trade cannot be carried out with India when it is committing the worst human rights violations in the occupied Kashmir.

The premier said that Pakistan stands firmly with the Kashmir people.

PM Imran said that the Palestine situation is very similar to the one in occupied Kashmir.

He said that there is greater awareness in the world now about the atrocities that Israel is perpetrating against Palestinians. He added that there is only a two-state solution to the issue.

Prime Minister Imran regularly speaks at public gatherings and addresses the nation through live or taped television briefings.

The prime minister used television addresses frequently over the course of the last year to apprise the public of the government’s strategy and evolving policies to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

In his inaugural speech in the parliament as the head of the government, he had vowed to answer the questions of his fellow MPs twice a month in a session later named “Prime Minister’s Question Hour”. “Twice every month I will answer to the people during the question-answer session in the assembly,” he said at the time. However, the same is yet to be implemented by the government.

British retail faces ‘tsunami of closures’ without rent help LONDON: Citing survey data it said two thirds of British retailers have been told by landlords they will be subject to legal measures to recover unpaid rent from July 1 when the moratorium ends. Many UK retailers deemed “non essential” had to close their stores during multiple COVID-19 lockdowns over the last 15 months, accruing total rent debt of 2.9 billion pounds ($4.1 billion), the BRC said. The pandemic has hammered the sector and industry data shows one in seven shops already lie empty. The BRC’s survey found 80% of tenants said some landlords have given them less than a year to pay back rent arrears.

Without action, the end of the moratorium could see thousands of shops close, said BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson. She called on the UK government to allow the rent arrears built up during the pandemic to be ringfenced and the moratorium on repayment of these debts to be extended to the end of the year. AGENCIES

05

Daily vaccinations hit new record after nearly 400,000 inoculated: Asad ContInued fRom pAge 01 Addressing a press conference, the minister said that over the last week, the recoveries significantly increased. “People being admitted to hospitals [are fewer] than the number of patients being discharged.

The graph is slowly coming down from the plateau,” she said. Only three districts in the province — Multan, Rahim Yar Khan and Khanewal — now had a positivity rate higher than five percent, she said.

While the positivity rate in Lahore had reduced to 1.5 percent. Giving details about the occupancy rates of beds and ventilators, the minister said 2,897 beds were allocated for coronavirus patients in primary care hospitals of which 410 were currently occupied while only nine ventilators out of a total of 112 were in use. The highest occupancy rate of ventilated beds was in Multan with 67 percent, followed by Lahore at 38 percent, Bahawalpur at 32 percent and Rawalpindi at 16 percent “The bed occupancy rate has significantly reduced in other districts. The bed occupancy rate in Gujranwala, where we saw a lot of [problems] last month, is 20 percent.” Rashid said the Punjab government was reopening swimming pools while tourism has also been reopened subject to guidelines. The NCOC would take a decision on reopening cinemas and theatres next week, she announced. She urged people to continue following the health guidelines, saying the government would be able to “control the pandemic” within the next three to four months if people did two things: properly maintained guidelines and got vaccinated. The minister also stressed that the government had adequate stocks of vaccine doses. “The vaccines available to the government are Sinopharm, SinoVac, AstraZeneca and CanSino. People oftentimes come to us and say we want a [particular] vaccine. The vaccine of only one kind will be administered at a time,” she said. “Right now, the administration of SinoVac has started at all our centres. Previously, AstraZeneca was being administered.” “Only a second dose of Sinopharm is being administered,” she said, adding that the government has 1.4 million vaccines in stock.

Cryptos recover but BTC, ETH far away from last highs ISLAMABAD: Crypto market recovered to some extent on Sunday after all major digital currencies witnessed a major correction in the past two weeks.

As of 1325 GMT, bitcoin, the world's biggest cryptocurrency, gained 3.07 percent to reach $35,736.

With this increase in price, the market capitalisation of the BTC has reached $669 billion. Likewise, ethereum (ETH) gained 1.09 percent to reach $2,404.

With this increase in price, the market capitalisation of ETH has reached $279 billion.Similarly, XRP gained 3.35 percent to reach $0.879. The market capitalisation of XRP stands at $87.9 billion after this increase. Furthermore, Cardano (ADA) price reached $1.65 with a 16.42 percent increase in its price. Its market capitalisation has reached $53 billion with this increase. Similarly, dogecoin (Doge) gained 1.49 percent to reach $0.302. With this increase in price, the market capitalisation of Doge reached $39.1 billion. Bitcoin (BTC) witnessed a major correction in the past two weeks as fell from its all-time high of $64,863 in the previous month to currently where it trades at around $35,736. It hit a low of $30,681 on May 19, reflecting a fall of more than 50 percent compared to its all-time high a month ago.On the technical side, Bitcoin (BTC) has been on a downtrend over the past two weeks. AGENCIES

No increase in electricity tariff in near future, says finance minister ContInued fRom pAge 01 Tarin regretted that currently the revenue collection was less than 10 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“Because our exports are not keeping pace with our overall growth, we fall short of dollars. Never have we gone for a tailspin for any other reason than the balance of payments,” said Tarin, referring to the constant balance of payments crisis that pushes Pakistan to knock at the doors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The federal finance minister said that the government is going to incentivise productive sectors including agriculture, services and industry.

“There is a need to make the industry more efficient so that exports can be enhanced. Pakistan, unfortunately, was converted from a food-exporting to a food-importing country; so, the govern-

ment’s focus would be on reversing this trend.” he informed.

Tarin said there was also need to focus on all agriculture chains, adding that a progressive plan was being put in place with a number of incentives for agriculture reforms.

He said that there was also a need to control food inflation by adopting a mechanism to curb the practice of taking huge margins by playing middle man. “Administrative control will be strengthened, but more importantly, the government will have to consider bringing back price magistrates, which had been removed during the former military ruler Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf.

The finance minister said that a “bottoms up approach” would prove successful in eradicating poverty.

“We will also incentivise services sector such as housing and e-commerce and valueaddition, and explore new areas of exports including motor parts, three-wheelers, mo-

torcycles in the next budget. This has to be done to ensure exports grow.”

“Similarly, we want to incentivise the IT sector. I have a meeting, and we will look to put an end to FBR’s harassment of the IT sector,” he said, adding that he looked forward to seeing IT exports increase from the current $2 billion to $8 billion by 2023.

Speaking further about FBR, the minister said that the government would announce a universal self-assessment system and a third party audit for three to four per cent of the population would be carried out on risk basis.

In addition, the government will establish a technology based data cell through which the tax department can take action against defaulters.

Regarding Special Economic Zones (SEZs), the finance minister said the government has decided against applying a 1.5 per cent turnover tax on SEZs in the next budget in a bid to increase exports as there is dire

CmYK

need to bring foreign direct investment (FDI) in the export sector.

“Exports, exports, exports! This is the mantra,” he said.

Regarding the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), the finance minister said the government planned to spend Rs650 billion on it this year, while he aimed to increase the spending to Rs900bn next year.

“But it will have to be efficient and since the planning commission has started public-private partnership initiatives, Rs900bn will have a greater impact on the ground,” he added.

He also said that circular debt is a major issue and the government would be introducing innovative ways to tackle this challenge as capacity payments would be increasing Rs1.45 trillion per annum in the coming years. “Due to past contracts, the government is paying for unproduced and unutilised electricity but the prime minister does not want

the price of electricity to increase as people are already heavily burdened”.

However, stressing the need for bringing stability in the power sector, he said that certain incentives would be withdrawn in the upcoming budget.

“We are not going to introduce new taxes, but only remove incentives being given to people we believe have been receiving the incentives for no rhyme or reason,” he said.

Moreover, Shaukat Tarin opined that he would love to have a charter of the economy and would be meeting Prime Minister Imran Khan to seek his permission to reach out to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

“There is a political will to make changes this time. Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has assured me of this. The political apparatus will be involved, and reforms would be inclusive,” Tarin said.

Monday, 31 May, 2021

06 COMMENT

Balochistan under the shadow of CPEC

Some good news at last Delivering results

P

RiME Minister imran Khan took to twitter to congratulate the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for having crossed the Rs 4 trillion mark for the first time in revenue collection, with a month remaining in the financial year, which meant that the final collection target of Rs 4.691 trillion is doable. Most importantly, the psychological barrier of Rs 4 trillion has been broken, after three years of collection hovering around Rs 3.8 trillion. this has prompted the iMF to propose a target of Rs 5.963 trillion, though this is probably not going to get past Finance Minister shaukat tarin, who has already said that there will be no new taxes in the coming budget, or any rise in electricity tariffs. that too will provide a modicum of relief to the common man. the FBR achievement shows that the Pti government’s experiment of brining in a chairman, shabbar Zaidi, from the private sector, was unnecessary. the target has been achieved by the same much-maligned taxation bureaucracy that he had come in to reform. it just goes to show that the same civil service machinery can deliver results if it is given the right direction from its political masters. similarly, Mr tarin’s announcement must have been cleared by the iMF, which meant, among other things, he had put before them a plan for tackling circular debt which did not involve a tariff hike. this immediately raises the question of why Mr tarin’s predecessor, Dr hafeez sheikh, did not exhibit such negotiation skills. While Dr sheikh was brought in along with Mr Zaidi, he did not do a particularly good job while he held office. Mr tarin might seem to lack a political background as much as Dr sheikh, but his stakes in the country are much deeper, as he headed a bank here before his present assignment, as opposed to Dr sheikh, who came to his assignment from a stint at the World Bank. the real problem remains, that of bringing inflation down. it is the most painful for the common man, and so far, all the government has achieved is not adding to it.

While that may be all very well, it should not hide the fact that the real task remains, which is to bring prices into check, so that normal existence becomes affordable.

Will the country’s poorest province benefit from the development in its own backyard?

Ali JAn MAqsood

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alochistan is very rich in resources, but it is very poor in literacy, infrastructure, development, job opportunities and so forth. Balochistan’s single-carriageway roads have caused an abundance of accidents resulting in the loss of numerous lives over the years, particularly on the route connecting Karach, Quetta and Zhob. When one intends to make a journey in Balochistan, no one knows if he or she will return back home safely or not due to the poor road communication of the region. the china Pakistan Economic corridor (cPEc) is deemed to be the biggest project of Pakistan with china, which has been given a practical shape in Balochistan’s port city, Gwadar. the project is of $62 billion, which aims at the infrastructural, economic and educational developments to other provinces of Pakistan in general, and Balochistan in particular. But things are the opposite; the orange line has been activated in Punjab’s lahore, whereas the main highways of Balochistan are till date single-carriageway. coming towards education, a bill was passed in Balochistan assembly for Gwadar University back in 2017, but its construction has yet not begun in the cPEc city. the politicians are fighting with one another (maybe because of rivalries over bagging the funds) whereas the locals of Gwadar are still traveling to neighboring city turbat and the capital city Quetta for admissions. sadly, not all of them secure admissions in Quetta and hence turn back to turbat University where they rarely find the disciplines they are interested in, due to the shortage of departments in the university. on the other hand, Gwadar stadium has attracted international figures who have shown desire to play in the stadium. however, the locals of Gwadar are restricted to playing on their own soil as government officials and other people from islamabad, lahore and Karachi visit the stadium and take selfies. as a result, the local cricketers have boycotted playing cricket in the stadium and turned to the football ground where they have made a pitch in the middle of the ground. one wonders if this is the development Balochis-

PSL woes Why aren’t visas being arranged?

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hE apparently simple decision of staging the rest of the incomplete Pakistan super league (Psl) 6 in Dubai is running into trouble because the Pakistan cricket Board (PcB) has failed to persuade the UaE government to issue the requisite visas. as a result, not only have some players been refused visas, but so have broadcasters. that is not just the only problem, though it is a major one. the PcB seems to have gone to ground, without proper decision-making by PcB chief Executive Waseem Khan, or chairman Ehsan Mani, who seem to be nowhere to be seen. the PcB seems to be behaving as if they have all the time in the world, but they do not. the Psl has two deadlines looming before it. the first is that tournament must start, complete the remaining pool matches, and the semifinals and finals, all before the start of Pakistan’s tour of England, due to start in just over a week, with the first oDi scheduled for July 8. then there is the problem of prolonging the delay into a clash with the indian Premier league (iPl), which was also called off after covid-19 concerns, and india was engulfed by the pandemic. though some teams have been flown out, without a match schedule being finalised, the tournament seems to be in difficulties, and with the Psl 6 facing such difficulties, the necessary preliminary discussions about Psl 7 have not yet begun. the PcB should not assume that Dubai is some sort of home ground, after it played all of its home matches there for so many years. it must not forget that the UaE is taking the pandemic seriously, even if the PcB is not. the strange silence of the PcB does not reflect well on the competence of it or its office-bearers, particularly the chief Executive. Mr Mani too cannot entirely wash himself off all responsibility, and must be ready to get down and solve the complex equations which will allow the ill-starred Psl 6 to come to a conclusion, the Pakistan tour to England must take place without disruption, and let the Psl be staged smoothly, to the satisfaction of their Emirati hosts.

China’s Military and Economic rise in East Asia JAzib Ali

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hina was once a struggling state but it gained importance internationally in a short space of time, china grew its economic and military strength. now china grows its economy and is converting it into military power. already china is a major player in the region and it has a strong economy in the region. china enhanced its economic potential rather than military, but the other side of the picture shows a cyclic process of how china is investing its economic rise in the enhancement of its military capabilities. china’s spending on defence and military power is now greater than any state in the East asian region. in 2019, china increased its defence budget 6.2 percent.

When we look at china as a rising power there is a cycle that interlinks the economy and the military with each other. china first grew strong in its economic condition and then invested in the military for strong defense and to maintain its deterrence in the region and the rest of the world as well. they used military power for diplomacy and cooperation for trade and to increase foreign direct investment, as a result building the trust of foreign investors due to proper diplomatic moves by china. the cyclic process continues, that started from investing in defense along with trade and then using that defense in diplomacy and repatriating the invested money from trade and FDi through diplomatic moves. Due to these methods, a state like china made it possible for the world to witness its remarkable escalation at the regional as well as global level. the rise of china does depend on rapid and sustained chinese financial development, but it also does involve a reshaping of china’s military influence, made conceivable through expanded abundance and further developed innovations. china is undoubtedly not a military superpower like the Usa, but after a while of expanding its military spending plan and submitting today’s weapons framework, china is able to counter any type of threat that comes from adver-

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compromise, President Xi Jinping clearly came to the conclusion that china is currently in a position to demand to win its big debates with its neighbours, although the region needs to be cautious about it. Under Xi’s administration, we have seen a military emergency that suggests that Japan is threatening to support china’s cause of accountability for Japan’s affected senkaku islands and a chinese effort to force south Korea to launch equipment at north Korean missiles, while china opposes the involvement of the Usa and south Korea in missile defense. a more militarily anchored china exacerbates presaries, especially the Usa. it is said that the economic and military rise of vious tensions between china and some of its neighchina has threatened the will of the Usa in the asia- bours. china has had military clashes with Russia, india, Pacific region. Reports and statistics show the rapid Japan, south Korea, taiwan and Vietnam over the past increase in the growth of the chinese economy, and century. some other territorial states are generally conin future china will be able to claim itself as eco- cerned that china is trying to overwhelm them. the milnomic power. the same is the case with the military itary advantage generally encourages china to deploy development of china. it is investing to attain the old retaliation measures. there is no doubt that china would adopt sun tzu’s “win most advanced military without a fight” strategy. technologies and equipment however, the relative military of any time in its history. strength assures china that, so, the rapid rise of china is China is a powerful amid the chinese tensions, problematic for the Usa as opponents will see no practia global power and one still stakeholder in the region.

On cal course other than to withprominent in the asia Pathe one hand China is an draw. sometimes the chinese cific, where it has domidiscover enemies who are nated in reshaping the emerging economic power ready to fight. dynamics of the region for a china is a powerful long time in history. and major exporter in the stakeholder in the region. on the military confrontaworld, and on the other hand the one hand china is an tion with china is riskier for emerging economic power the Usa than before. in the China also investing in its and major exporter in the 1990s, the Usa facing theomilitary field and enhancing world, and on the other hand retical threats against chinese china also investing in its powers in the Western Pacific the defence of the country. military field and enhancing could hope to kill chinese the defence of the country. ships and planes before they The USA is the major the Usa is the major stakeapproached to attack Us stakeholder in the Asia holder in the asia Pacific reunits. in any case, at this gion, and china is also an point, a huge Us fleet enterPacific region, and China is emerging power of this reing the area would be subject also an emerging power of gion. the Usa is involved in to chinese missiles and torthe various conflicts in the pedoes of the a2/aD system. this region. world, whereas china fothis gives china an excuses on economic growth traordinary discouragement and attaining more advanced in the face of certain activitechnology and weapon systies that Washington might consider. the transition from the negligible antici- tems. according to the statistics china will surpass the pated danger of a true human and material calamity Usa economically by 2030, and now the Usa feels a to the extreme danger in the event of combat upsets serious threat from the rise of china in the asia Pacific the Usa in peacetime and despite more prudent pol- and globally as well. china adopted sun tzu’s policy itics. american rulers are more likely to submit to of winning without actual fighting, and in this regard china maintains diplomatic relations with neighbours. hostile chinese activities than to face them. china is looking for a more determined internaThe writer is a freelance columnist tional strategy. after its stereotype of striving not to

A credible threat for the USA in a hostile neighborhood

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Yousaf Nizami Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

tan needed. on one side, the government is attempt- officers, levies, police, and Fc take their charges from ing to take out the locals from the port city in order us after which very little money gets saved for us when to bring strangers in the city and make them perma- we go back to home.” he said in utter grievances. one cannot find a check-post empty, but the law nent residents of Gwadar, and on the other, they are promoting a fence for the city in the name of security enforcement agencies have lined up all the border cars and are taking bribes– that too very much. Bethreat for the locals.

When we talk of infrastructure, Balochistan has sides all this, they have caged the locals under their longed for dual-carriageway roads but it could gain self-made schedule. “they have reminded us that we no serious attention from the authorities. the main are slaves in our own soil,” he finished. this region has always contributed to the state, route connecting the main cities of sindh and but failed to grab much atBalochistan [Karachi and tention in return. on 28 May Quetta] is a very busy road, 1998, Pakistan conducted its which is yet single-carriage. nuclear tests in Raskoh according to reports, annuAs May 28 is labelled as a (chaghi) where the local ally 6000 to 8000 people population, since then, has lose their lives due to road ‘black day’ from the Baloch been badly infected with accidents on the given Reperspective, CPEC can end up multiple diseases such as gional cooperation for Dedisabilities, cancer, etc. velopment (RcD) highway. labelled a ‘black project’ in Back then, some promises When we talk of job opBaloch eyes if things do not were made by the then portunities, we mostly find Prime Minister of Pakistan, the locals making their own change in the best interests nawaz sharif, who, in return with their cars by going to for the nuclear tests, vowed iran and supplying petrol of the Baloch land and infrastructural, educational and diesel. sadly, the law population. and health developments of Enforcement agencies are Balochistan but nothing interfering in the businesses practical took place. still, which have come in the rethe illnesses spread by the gion for fixing security issues. the border drivers have always been free to blasts have made Yaum-i-takbeer a ‘Black Day’ in travel to iran and supply petrol and diesel any time Balochistan.

Back in his third tenure, in 2016, Prime Minister they wished. however, the agencies have fixed dates for them to travel. for the people of Panjgur and tur- nawaz sharif asked for the same developments in return for cPEc. once again it was ‘no’ to Balochistan. bat (Makkuran) areas in particular. in a recent encounter with a Zamyad driver, he told if cPEc is meant to make more economic zones in me that his turn comes after every 12 days which is so the region, why aren’t they initiated? in fact, if ecolong. “it is only for the people of Panjgur (and turbat). nomic activities are scheduled in the Baloch belts, a chi is also fixed on our cars which tells them our lo- there are almost no chance of promotion of Baloch cations and we are not allowed to turn to the iran bor- people, but only of citizens from the other provinces der from other routes.” he goes on, “and here we have and from china. as May 28 is labelled as a ‘black day’ from the to wait for our time which takes very long.” he was concerned about his children’s expenses Baloch perspective, cPEc can end up labelled a because before he turned to the border almost every ‘black project’ in Baloch eyes if things do not change week, but now he is restricted to one trip every two in the best interests of the Baloch land and population. weeks. “the problem is that with only two trips per The writers is a freelance columnist month, we do not get much income because custom

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Monday, 31 May, 2021

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

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

Rapists are free i just want to draw the attention of the concerned authorities towards a very serious issue which is being neglected by government and though they are not taking it as serious as it is required to be concerned. it is public hanging of rapists or a strict punishment or sentence should be imposed on rapists.

Rape, from the last few years it has become a major problem in our country. there are at least 11 rape cases reported in Pakistan every day. is this the islamic Republic of Pakitan where a woman didn’t feel herself safe. Rape is criminal offense in Pakistan. Punishment for rape in Pakistan under the Pakistani law is either death penalty or imprisonment of between ten and twenty five years.

Married and unmarried women are raped, girls are raped, childs are raped, boys are raped, trans man and woman are raped, animals are raped, old age woman are raped. Even some of them are raped and murdered. this is a loss of many innocent lives. But what, the rapists are roaming freely, finding their new target. this is the high time for the government that they should have to take strict actions on rapists in order to safe the lives of innocent and amplitude of woman. and we will feel safe and free and confident.

Madiha Zubair KaraChi

Typhoid threat

Dealing with child abuse Because of the abuse suffered by children, shaking, burns, fractures, are included in this. children believe that everyone loves them, they may have physical marks like those of but parents must want to teach their children that burning, carving, wounds, mental illness and many more serious inno one can love them MUqqAdAs iJAz And AlisHA KHAn juries and harms which as much as parents. may be so severe that Everyone else is a they can lead to death. stranger for them Though it is a serious nY behaviour which makes a child so, the children that beWithout physical feel uncomfortable is referred to as contact, abuse includes problem the government has come the victims of child abuse. the effects of abuse on passing of sexual comchild abuse are not not been looking into it with a child are serious and longlasting.it ments or verbal sexual physically well, while is a leading cause of emotional, be- abuse. With physical their mental state also the needed focus and havioral, and health problems across his or her contact, it includes suffers because of the lifespan. physical ill-health. kissing, hugging or therefore it is widely any act or series of acts of commission touching in a sexual they are not well spreading. It is the duty of the groomed or omission by a parent, guardian, caregiver abuse, fondling and because of the or another person in a custodial role that re- oral sex. provided environment, government to have an sults in harm, potential for harm or threat of so they do have a wellchild abuse is of austere and deep look over it developed personality. harm to a child. global prevalence. the effects of abuse on child are serious and Globally 73 to 150 the abused children in order to resolve it and to long-lasting. child abuse can take many forms, million girls are subhave fewer friends beincluding physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, jected to abuse every save the children as they are cause they do not like bullying, or plain neglect. in many cases child year. in india, a neighto be social and they the future of a country. It is abuse is done by someone who are very close bouring country with are not ambitious. they with the child, when he or she feels secure with similar socio-cultural don’t have a fixed goal necessary to develop a close person. if we suspect child abuse, we background reported in their life. they have preventive programmes want to report the abuse to proper authorities. a feeling of self-blame, that two thirds of chilthe relation between the child and parent dren are beaten at shame and stigmatizaand enforce the laws which may be sequestered and the child may appear home or schools every tion. child abuse victo be solicitous, and for comfort and support year. 52 percent have tims may suffers have been assed dealing the child may find someone else to be their admitted some form of insecure and disorganwith this issue. loved ones. ized attachment with sexual abuse. child abuse is a major social issue for all their primary caregiver child protection countries. it has a wide range of adverse conse- is a concept that aims .as normally the parquences for children and young people. an to safeguard children ents are the primary overview is provided of the possible effects of from physical and sexual abuse and effects of caregivers, and they have a deep and a closer atchild abuse. to protect the child from abuse we war. tachment with their children but for the chilmust protect every single right of a child to enthe forced involvement of child in sexual dren who suffers child abuse the parents sure their security. activity also comes in terms of child abuse becomes the source of harm and threat so that it has not been long since the case of Baby because the child is not so mature and men- they do not developed a interpersonal relation Zainab from Kasur, a city in Punjab, made the tally prepared for it, so he may face fear and with their children . headlines in the media. as if that case was not discomfort. children do not share their feelings with parenough, 200 more Pakistan is both na- ents and become deeply tense which will have a cases of sexual abuse tionally and interna- negative consequence on their personality as well were detected from the tionally committed to as their social and personal life. child abuse is a same city. fully protect the rights maltreatment which is violent and threatening for Child abuse is a major social of its children. in the past few a child. it is a serious problem that has long lastyears in Pakistan there children who suf- ing effects not only on the children but also the issue for all countries. It has have been so many fer abuse or neglect are families and even the generations. the impact of cases of child abuse more likely to have an child abuse may be in term of physical, psychoa wide range of adverse reported in the media. emotional disturbance. logical, behavioural ,and emotional ill-effects. consequences for children the concern over the their internal feeling, the children are suffering from this issue and derising incidence of emotion and their inner veloping a negative behavioural pattern which is and young people. An child abuse have reself become weak and harmful for them as well as for society. overview is provided of the ceived global attenthe outcomes of child abuse are highly adfeel lonely and often tion. they do not share their verse and develop an uncomfortable environpossible effects of child a number of napains with others be- ment all over the surrounding society. though it tional and international cause they also devel- is a serious problem the government has not abuse. To protect the child organizations have oped trust-related been looking into it with the needed focus and from abuse we must protect shown serious concerns problems. children therefore it is widely spreading .it is the duty of and are demanding to the government to have an austere and deep look also develop the every single right of a child to of abasement, feeling tackle the issues of abhor- over it in order to resolve it and to save the chilensure their security. child protection. rence, anguish, melan- dren as they are the future of a country. it is necthe World health choly and acerbity and essary to develop preventive programmes and organization (Who) there is a greater enforce the laws which have been assed dealing defines child abuse as chance that all these with this issue. any act that causes physical harm to the child. feelings may lead to attempts at suicide because the type of injuries, including severe beating, of inner dissatisfaction.

The writer is a freelance columnist

How to control this issue?

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thE second phase of vaccination against typhoid was just started. this drive has began under the leadership of the Ministry of health services, Regulations and coordination. however, the campaign has achieved the set target of vaccinating 13 million children between the ages of nine months to 15 years. the Government of Pakistan has engaged 6,975 skilled vaccinators . although the typhoid rates of patients has greatly increased so we highly appreciate the efforts of government and health workers for expecting the best for health matters. it is a new vaccine for typhoid. We are happy that polio and typhoid would be eradicated soon if we continue our efforts in such a way. i request the health authorities to keep working for Pakistan’s future health matters fast. barKatullah turbat

The plight of DISCOs accoRDinG to recent nEPRa report , the power distribution companies ( Discos ) are in shambles both technically and financially . as a matter of fact , the power distribution sector performance has been always highly unsatisfactory and far from acceptable standards of quality and reliability . Power distribution in the country had been plagued with high corruption , inefficiency, and lack of poor engineering practices . non - adherence to standards in the construction and proper maintenace of distribution lines & equipment and haphazard installation of metering apparatus / service cables and wires contribute to the very poor service to the consumers at large . Besides , these factors contribute to frequent breakdowns , fatal accidents and encourage power thefts with and without the involvement of line staff of the distribution companies . Due to public dealing , the element of corruption creeps in causing huge financial losses to the exchequer. there has been little training in force to the field staff and their supervisors resulting in poor workmanship . one can observe ugly scenes of meters mounting on poles with freely hanging wires & cables . in short , there is no professioalism and good engineering practices on the part of the concerned staff of Discos . also , there is insufficient or neglible supervision by the higher officers to check the quality of work of their line staff on a regular basis . nEPRa’s call for the privatisation of Discos is unlikely going to be fruitful . K Electric example is there . their service is as bad as of Discos and may be even worse . Going from one monopoly to another is not going to solve the problems .Privatisation of a utility is only beneficial when there is a competition . otherwise , overall , it may cause more harm than good . Unless the root causes of the problems are addressed , the things are not going to improve . that calls for rooting out corruption and inefficiency and to take measures to inculcate “ professioalism “ in the Discos with service oriented approach . till then , you will have to live with the status quo .

Engr riaZ bhutta lahorE

Please get vaccinated!

EVER since, the covid-19 has scattered around the globe, the entire world has been trying to associate it. the first very symptoms of covid-19 were shown in 2019 in the Wuhan city of china, then the world has been struggling to find the cure of this deadly virus. it has almost been a year after the first victim of the corona has been dead, and owning to which almost 20,540 deceased and 911k cases are recorded. according to Who reports, the number of corona cases has surpassed 160 million. after the multiple crusades of worldwide organizations, they have eventually formulated a vaccine for cure of covid-19, to get the antibodies of the body prepared for the viral attack. the vaccine is given through the upper arm muscle. thus vaccines are the critical tool in the battle against covid19. the vaccine is formulated to inhibit the progress of the virus when entered into the body. similarly to activate the memory cells of the body for the next attack of the virus. in the last 24 hours, approximately 3180246 people have been partially vaccinated and around 1513144 people have been completely vaccinated. additionally, the total doses of vaccine which are administered are 613059. henceforth, with the help of advanced medical technology, the world has achieved the sword to fight out the covid6 virus. Most importantly, on the recent, a rumor on social media is spreading rapidly that the peoples who have vaccinated will die after 2 years. this rumor has initiated the hesitation of getting vaccinated, many people refuse to get the vaccine owning to which it has been another sordid situation to face for the safety of the world. therefore, i request to the World health organization and other concerning organisation to respond against this issue to build the confidence and trust after getting vaccinated. gulSaMEEn haSSan turbat

Monday, 31 May, 2021

08 WORLD VIEW

‘Where are The moderaTe hindus?’

INDIANS ARE CIRCULATING PETITIONS CALLING FOR MODI’S RESIGNATION. WE MUST NOT ONLY REMOVE MODI, BUT WE MUST ALSO NEVER AGAIN LET HINDUTVA OCCUPY A SEAT OF POWER

nation, Us SuNita viSwaNath

“W

heRe are the moderate hindus?” A friend stopped me in my tracks with this question. ever since 9/11, many of us have heard the question “Where are the moderate Muslims?” I’m an activist who has spent much of her career working on women’s rights in Afghanistan, and my colleagues and I have been confronted with this deeply problematic question on a regular basis.

But now the world is witnessing the carnage of India’s second Covid-19 wave. A third of last week’s Covid deaths in the world were in India—the daily average over last week was 4,000—and this is probably a vast undercount. This calamity did not unfold overnight, and it did not happen innocently.

This is the latest and most horrific of the many fires burning in India since 2014, when hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi was elected as prime minister. India’s Covid-19 crisis is only the latest calamity under a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government that puts hateful ideology and religious extremism in the driver’s seat, over

and above science and ethics.

For the last decade, I have worked to alert the world and my own hindu community to the dangers of another deadly virus: the ideology of hindutva, or hindu nationalism, which guides India’s government under Modi’s rule.

In contrast to hindu religious traditions, many of which date back thousands of years, hindutva is a century-old far-right political ideology, whose founders were directly inspired by hitler’s Nazism and Italian Fascism. In a country in which a fifth of the population is not hindu, advocates of this ideology seek to transform India into a hindu nation (rashtra), where Muslims, Christians and other non-hindus will be relegated to second-class status. It is this ideology that has led India into its current Covid-19 nightmare.

The catastrophic scale of India’s Covid crisis was entirely avoidable. even though Modi’s government reportedly received information about a possible second wave in March, Modi and his party leaders have been organizing super-spreader events from election rallies to hindu religious festivals attended by millions.

Take the Kumbh Mela—a hindu festival famous for hosting the largest gathering of people on earth. It should have been a nobrainer for the Indian government to defer this festival during a pandemic: In fact, the Kumbh Mela was originally scheduled for

next year, in April 2022. Instead, the Modi government held the festival a year early in spite of the grave risks, to bolster its claim of protecting “hindu interests” and improve its chances of winning state elections.

Over 4 million devotees gathered on the three main days of the festival, and the Indian media now reports that the vast majority of devotees who attended have contracted the virus. Rather than protecting hindus, the Modi government is responsible for killing them.

The ideological virus of hindutva has become deeply rooted in hindu religious, social, educational, and political spaces, both in India and among the Indian diaspora.

When hindu Indians do speak out against the government, they are more likely to do so while identifying as secular, as an Indian, or simply as a human being.

But India is at a crisis point now—and if hindu Indians do not speak up as hindus against hindu nationalism now, I fear we may not have anything left to fight for.

Mobs have lynched hundreds of Muslims and Dalits accused of eating or even storing beef; atrocities against Dalits, especially women, have skyrocketed; thousands of journalists, intellectuals, and activists who expressed any form of dissent have been arrested, and several prominent intellectuals have been shot dead; the mainstream media and judiciary have aligned

Modi’s leadership failures COULD THIS BE THE REASON WHY THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF HIS SECOND TERM WENT ALMOST UNNOTICED LAST WEEK?

indian exPress

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tavleeN SiNgh

hIS has turned out to be the year in which Narendra Modi ran out of luck and leadership. Could this be the reason why the second anniversary of his second term went almost unnoticed last week? Usually, it is an occasion in which his ministers, party men and ‘bhakts’ raise their voices in praise of his ‘great’ leadership. Usually, departments of the Government of India compete to place huge advertisements plastered with pictures of the leader and words of effusive praise in the media. This time on May 26 these advertisements were conspicuously absent. There are reports that a hefty document has been produced to commemorate the seven years of Modi’s rule but if it was released online last week, it was done quietly. Leaks to newspapers say that it praises Modi for his ‘strong and sensitive leadership during Covid’. If this is true, it will sound like mockery.

As a former ‘Modi bhakt’ I wanted this to be a fair mid-term assessment, so I thought long and hard but was unable to come up with shining achievements. The Prime Minister said last week while virtually addressing Buddhists on Buddha Purnima that historians would look back on our pandemic years as a time that was ‘pre-Covid and post-Covid’. It was this measure that I used to analyse his second term. In his pre-Covid months Modi travelled to countries far and near. Most memorably there was ‘howdy Modi’ in houston which he may have hoped would match that magnificent event organised in 2014 by the Indian diaspora in New York.

Donald Trump came to howdy Modi and the crowd was huge, but spontaneity was missing.

In between foreign travels in those first few months Modi gave priority to implementing what some think of as the hindutva agenda. Article 370 was abrogated, triple ‘talaq’ was made a criminal offence and then came that amendment to the Citizenship Act that specified that except for Muslims, refugees of other faiths would be on a fast track to get Indian citizenship. The amendment may have gone through quietly if the home Minister had not

made it into an election issue and warned, in menacing tones, that the next step was a National Register of Citizens. Indian Muslims saw this as a signal that they could lose their citizenship if they were unable to give proof of it and took to the streets in protest in cities across India. The Prime Minister had to personally assure Muslims that his government had no immediate plans for a citizens register.

This assurance came too late and tensions between hindus and Muslims were so high that Delhi saw communal riots for the first time in 30 years at exactly the moment when there was a State banquet for Donald Trump in Rashtrapati Bhawan. Modi’s supporters blamed the riots not on ugly speeches by BJP leaders but on an a ‘jihadist’ conspiracy. Student leaders remain in jail under preventive detention for having ‘masterminded’ the protests. BJP leaders who believe that the only way to win elections is by dividing hindus and Muslims hoped the riots would help them win elections in Delhi. This did not happen.

Tensions were still high when Covid arrived in March last year. Its first wave was gentle and caused few deaths. It caused terrible suffering for migrant workers who were forced to walk hundreds of kilometres to their homes because the Prime Minister’s decision to close India down at four hours’ notice left them jobless and homeless and bereft of public transport. But, when the death toll was remarkably low and our fragile health system held up, Modi took full credit for having shown decisive and exemplary leadership. In a speech this January to the World economic Forum, he said India had defeated Covid in a way that should inspire other countries. he was so sure that this was true that he allowed hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to gather for the Kumbh Mela in haridwar. Then off he went along with the home Minister and the BJP president to campaign in West Bengal. The business of governing India was left mostly in the hands of bureaucrats, and they chose to ignore the early warnings of a second wave. The catastrophe that resulted is such recent history that it does not need elucidating. What does need to be said is that in the worst crisis that India has faced in decades, the Prime Minister has failed to lead.

Once he recovered from the shock of losing in Bengal and returned home to confront the death and devastation, he took to appearing in his virtual incarnation to offer tears and sympathy. But to this day, there is no certainty that India will manage to get the 200 crore vaccinations we need this year for our adult population, or how we are going to get the same amount next year when boosters will be needed.

Last week farmers marked May 26 as a Black Day because it coincidentally was exactly six months since their agitation began against Modi’s three farm laws. The last thing we need is for the protests on Delhi’s borders to begin again. Modi has so far failed to satisfy farmers that the laws will benefit them. All in all, it can be said that this has without question been the worst year of Modi’s political career. There is nothing to celebrate.

with the government; and hindu nationalist leaders have brazenly declared that India is now a hindu nation. If none of that has convinced the world that democracy and human rights in India have been decimated by the virus of hindutva, India’s current Covid-19 crisis must.

My social media stream now brings me endless stories of deaths caused by the lack of a hospital bed or oxygen, and cremation grounds unable to keep up with the body count. India’s capital, Delhi, is an open-air crematorium, and photographs of mass funeral pyres are circulating all over the world. The government’s response has been to ban pictures of cremations, and Twitter has been forced to remove criticisms of the government.

A democratic government concerned with its citizens’ well-being ought to have prepared for a possible second wave by securing enough oxygen and hospital beds in cities and villages nationwide, and conducting a swifter, comprehensive, public, and free vaccine rollout. It could have listened to its epidemiologists and scientists instead of looking the other way as BJP politicians promoted cow urine as a cure for Covid.

When Greta Thunberg and Rihanna brought attention to the ongoing farmer protest in India, India’s defense minister said it was an “internal matter” and non-Indians should not interfere. But in an interconnected world, the assault on one

nation’s democracy is never just an internal matter—and this is never more true than during a pandemic.

Just as we in the United States removed Trump from power, and pulled the nation back from a dangerous trajectory of white supremacy, India and every nation in the world must guard against extremist authoritarian rule.

Indians are circulating petitions calling for Modi’s resignation. We must not only remove Modi, but we must also never again let hindutva occupy a seat of power in the world’s largest secular democracy. As a hindu and an Indian American, I now ask my friend’s question: “Where are the moderate hindus?” With the outpouring of help from overseas, India will sooner or later bring the Covid virus under control and get most of its people vaccinated—even as we lose many more thousands of precious lives that could have been saved.

But there are no magic vaccines for the deadly virus of hindutva. Now is the time for every hindu that cares about democracy and pluralism to stand up and be counted—not merely as “moderate” hindus but as hindus who choose love over hate, who oppose hindutva as a weaponization of our faith, and who will work to return India to the secular democratic values of its founders.

Sunita Viswanath is a cofounder of Hindus for Human Rights.

Is oil and gas exploration at an end?

COULD THIS BE THE REASON WHY THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF HIS SECOND TERM WENT ALMOST UNNOTICED LAST WEEK?

ProsPect Magazine

T

Nick Butler

he International energy Agency’s assertion that all exploration for oil and gas should end immediately moved the climate debate to a new and crucial stage. In the last two years, the issue has moved from street protest to the long-term aspirations of governments and companies. Now we are getting to the hard detail. The question is whether the ambitious commitments to net zero by 2050, made by more than 100 countries across the world, can really be translated into reality.

The IeA is in some ways a surprising vehicle for the sharp message delivered last week. The Agency was set up in the aftermath of the 1973 Arab oil embargo to ensure the security of global supplies. Members were the oil-importing nations of the world, who agreed on elaborate arrangements to share resources in times of supply disruption. The Agency has long argued for more investment in oil and gas development to ensure adequate supplies. In recent times, however, under transformational leadership, the IeA has redefined energy security and has extended its coverage to other fuels, and crucially to the unresolved climate risks associated with the growing use of hydrocarbons.

The Agency has no formal power, but its reputation for providing accurate and objective analysis gives it a powerful voice in the climate debate. Last week’s intervention is at one level simply a statement of fact.

More than sufficient oil and gas has already been found to match the maximum amount of consumption possible if the world is to keep emissions below the level of danger. That is no secret, but the amplification provided by the IeA poses a direct challenge both to governments and companies.

For countries which have made commitments to net zero or comparable sharp reductions in future emissions, the conclusion makes for uncomfortable reading. The

United States, Norway, and to a lesser degree the UK all fall into this category. They will now have to justify why further exploration—in the North Sea or among the shale rocks of the Permian Basin—is still necessary. equally, companies which have embraced net zero will have to explain why they are still exploring around the world. Almost all of the major energy companies will now face further challenges from campaigners and activist investors.

Both governments and companies have some strong lines of defence, beginning with the fact that oil demand globally continues to rise. So long as the world’s population still uses petrol to drive vehicles with internal combustion engines and uses natural gas to power heating systems, hydrocarbons will be needed. The reality is that the transition of energy consumption has hardly begun.

The use of oil, gas and coal is growing. The demand for each form of hydrocarbon is likely to be higher at the end of this year than it was at the end of 2019, and higher still through the next decade. Covid has caused an economic recession but not a structural transformation of the energy market. hydrocarbons still account for 80 per cent of global energy needs. Renewables—led by wind and solar—are certainly growing, but account for little more than 5 per cent of supply. In a market driven by population growth and the spread of prosperity, hydrocarbons will remain dominant for a long time to come.

Governments and companies will argue that the IeA’s calculation is mathematically correct. Sufficient oil and gas has been found, given their climate pledges. But the resources available are in large part controlled by OPeC member states and Russia. Fragile and autocratically led suppliers such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela cannot be relied upon to provide the secure energy supplies essential for modern economies. So long as consumers need oil and gas, the only answer is to find more diverse sources of supply, particularly as the provinces which have been so important to the world market over the last 50 years—such as Alaska, the North Sea and the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico—run down. hence the need for continued exploration activity.

They will also remind us that most of the oil and gas producing and exporting nations have noticeably failed to embrace the climate agenda, and would no doubt be happy to revert to a world in which they are the dominant suppliers with the power to impose embargoes or to set ever-higher prices.

The suggestion of ending exploration ignores the political challenges and the insecurities of those who fear finding themselves dependent on others. exploration will only cease when demand falls dramatically. Achieving that should be the focus of climate policy.

Nick Butler is a Financial Times columnist and visiting professor, King’s College London. He is a member of the International Energy Agency’s commission for urgent action on energy efficiency.

Monday, 31 May, 2021

BUSINESS 09

ISLAMABAD

Pakistan’s CaD to DroP to 0.5PC of GDP in Current fY: fitCh oGra seeks hike in fuel prices

FORECASTS OFFICIAL FOREIGN RESERVES TO REACH $17.4BN BY JUNE-END ISLAMABAD

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has prepared a summary seeking an increase in petrol prices from June 1.

Local media reports on Sunday claimed that the regulator has recommended an increase in diesel prices by Rs4.30 per litre besides a minimal increase in prices of petrol and kerosene oil. However, light diesel prices will remain unchanged. In this regard, a summary to revise fuel prices for the next 15 days has been sent to the Ministry of Finance for approval.

However, the final approval will be given by Prime Minister Imran Khan, who had rejected a similar summary for a price hike earlier on May 17. MONITORING REPORT

encashment date of prize bonds rs15, 000 and above extended The Finance Division has extended the date for encashment, conversion and redemption of Rs40,000, Rs25,000 and Rs15,000 prize bonds up to September 30, 2021. The last date for encashment, conversion and redemption of prize bonds of Rs40,000, Rs25,000 and Rs15,000 denominations “is extended up to 30th September, 2021,” according to three notifications of the Finance Division. In December last, the government had extended the deadline for Rs40,000 bonds to December 30, 2021, while the last date for Rs25,000 and Rs15,000 bonds was May 31 and June 30.The procedures for encashment, conversion, redemption of the prize bonds will remain the same. The bonds can be replaced with savings certificates and premium prize bonds or encashed at the face value. The bonds can be converted to premium prize bonds through the 16 field offices of SBP Banking Services Corporation and branches of six authorised commercial banks. Premium bonds of Rs40, 000 and Rs25, 000 are attracting bondholders who invested Rs43 billion in them between July and April. Struggling to generate new revenue sources, the government continued the taxation reforms of its predecessor to document the bonds market that sees billions of rupees transactions go untaxed. Considering the volume, the documentation can help the government contribute to an additional tax revenue target of Rs500 billion under the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) loan programme. NEWS DESK

Govt to allocate rs55b for CPeC The government has proposed an allocation of Rs55 billion for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects in the next budget, which does not match with the needs to finance a portfolio of Rs1.6 trillion. According to a report

by The Express Tribune, about 25 CPEC related schemes have been included in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2021-22, according to officials of the Ministry of Planning and Development. The story is based on schemes that have been mentioned either as CPEC projects in the official documents or are already known CPEC schemes. The government has proposed Rs55 billion to finance the development work in the next fiscal year.

Majority of these infrastructure projects had been initiated few years ago and should have been completed by now. The total cost of CPEC projects has increased to Rs1.6 trillion, of which Rs305 billion has already been spent on these schemes. The remaining financing for these projects is estimated at Rs1.3 trillion, according to the Ministry of Planning officials. MONITORING REPORT

TLTP

f

ITCH Ratings has projected that Pakistan's current account deficit (CAD) will narrow to 0.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the current fiscal year from 1.7 percent recorded in last financial year due to a surge in remittance inflows, import compression, and low average oil prices.

According to the rating agency, remittance growth averaged nearly 30 percent on a year-on-year (yoy) basis in FY21, reflecting a shift from informal to formal remittance channels and an underlying increase in transfers from non-resident Pakistanis. Export growth, which is key to medium-term external sustainability, has also picked up, but from low levels.

“We forecast a widening of the current account deficit to 1.9 percent of GDP in FY22 as the recovery in domestic demand and higher oil prices push imports higher.”

Pakistan's 'B-' rating reflects weak public finances, external finance vulnerabilities, and low governance

indicator scores. The authorities have made progress in addressing external and public finance challenges over the past few years, despite the headwinds from the Covid-19 pandemic. However, economic uncertainties from the pandemic and political challenges to keeping the reform agenda on track pose risks.

A decline in external vulnerabilities has been facilitated by adherence to a market-determined exchange-rate regime, which has served as a shock absorber during the pandemic. Progress towards institutionalising this framework, if sustained, should limit medium-term risks by keeping current account deficits contained and reducing foreign-exchange (FX) reserve pressures.

External inflows have supported an appreciation of the Pakistan rupee against the US dollar and a further rebuilding of FX reserves. Fitch forecasts that official FX reserves (excluding gold) will reach USD17.4 billion (3.2 months of current external payments; 2021 B median: 4.7 months) by the end of the fiscal year to June 2021 (FY21) from USD13.3 billion at FYE20.

“Under our baseline, reserves are expected to rise

to USD22.3 billion by FYE22, including a planned USD2.8 billion boost from the IMF's special drawing rights allocation,” said Fitch.

External debt repayments will remain high, at about USD8 billion-10 billion per annum over the next few years. Participation in the G-20's Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) has reduced nearterm pressures by postponing USD3.7 billion in payments previously scheduled between May 2020 and December 2021 to over a five- to six-year period.

Access to external financing from multilateral, bilateral and private sources has been sustained, facilitated by the government's policy reforms and continued progress in meeting conditions under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme with the IMF. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday last that foreign exchange reserves of the country stood at $23,015.90 million by the week ended May 21, 2021. The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank stand at $15,862 million, while reserves held by commercial banks stand at $7,153.90 million by the week ended May 21, 2021, according to data released by the SBP.

Stocks likely to keep bullish momentum going KARACHI TLTP

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is likely to keep bullish momentum going on this week amid strong economic indicators, dropping coronavirus cases as well as increasing vaccine rollout, and expectations of relief in the upcoming budget.

The fundamental economic recovery, stable outlook on the external sector, impressive corporate profitability, strong liquidity and prevailing attractive valuations are likely to ignite buoyancy in the bourse this week.

The benchmark index of Pakistan Stock Exchange, KSE-100, crossed two psychological barriers of 46,000 points and 47,000 points last week amid 3.94 percent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) and expectations of favourable

budgetary measures for the capital market in the upcoming budget. Overall the KSE-100 Index gained 1,219.9 points during the last week as the market opened at 45,906.39 points on Monday last and closed at 47,126.29 points.

Financial gurus, including Arif Habib and Aqeel Karim Dhedhi, are expecting that the GDP growth number would be over 4.5 percent when the financial year concludes by June-end.

Such statements by two top experts who hold a grip over financial markets, are most likely to influence the PSX in a positive way. Arif Habib a few months earlier had predicted that the benchmark index of Pakistan Stock Exchange, KSE-100, will reach up to 52,000 points by next December.

The announcement of Finance Minister Shukat Tarin on Sunday that power

tariffs won't be increased in future and those paying taxes won't be burdened with more taxes will certainly boost investors’ confidence. The vaccination rollout is increasing in the country amid dropping cases of the coronavirus, while the country reached the 383,000 Covid19 vaccination mark in a single day on Sunday and the total number of vaccinations has crossed 7 million mark.

Analysts hoped that the market will remain bullish in the upcoming week amid expectation of relief in the upcoming budget, reduction in duties on imported raw material for construction sector and export oriented sector to spur growth which might keep these sectors in limelight. On the other hand, E&Ps scrips are expected to continue performing well due to higher international oil prices and government shelving di-

vestment plan of E&Ps scrips.

The benchmark KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is currently trading at a PER of 7.0x (2021) compared to Asia Pac regional average of 16.3x while offering a dividend yield of 6.9 percent versus 2.6 percent offered by the region.

During the last week, sector-wise positive contributions came from commercial banks (456 points), oil & gas exploration companies (163 points), cement (131 points), technology & communication (120 points) and fertilizer (89 points). Meanwhile, the sectors that contributed negatively include tobacco (26 points) and chemical (17 points).

Scrip-wise positive contributors were HBL (174 points), BAHL (103 points), PPL (101 points), SYS (92 points), and OGDC (82 points).

High agri yields to help reduce food imports: Fakhar Imam ISLAMABAD APP

The country’s economy will get a boost as the production of four important crops as well as three minor crops posted a record production this season from a year ago, indicating a lesser reliance on imports of eatables in the upcoming fiscal year 2021-22 (FY22).

This was revealed by Minister for National Food Security Research Fakhar Imam while addressing a press conference on Saturday.

The minister said that due to the supply of good quality seeds and favorable weather conditions, the production of wheat, rice, maize, potato, onion and groundnut has increased to a record level.

He said that the country’s current wheat production was 27.3 million tonnes, while last year’s wheat production had totaled at 25.3 million tonnes, which

was 2 million tonnes more than the previous year.

At the same time, maize cultivation area grew 0.97pc to 1.418m hectares in 2020-21 compared to 1.404m hectares last year. The yield of maize crop witnessed a growth of 7.38pc to 8.465m tonnes in 2020-21 against 7.883m tonnes last year.

“Quality research and intellect in the agriculture is need of hour to achieve the agenda of food security in the country,” he added.

He said that livestock has also emerged as a major component of the agriculture sector and now has achieved a growth rate of 3.1 per cent. In the sector, he said focus will be on breeding, feeding and health.

“We will take measures to attract foreign investments in the livestock to encourage value-addition”, he said. The focus will be on milk and meat.

Replying to a question, the minister said that the government has especially focused on the production

of edible oil to decrease the biggest export bill in this commodity.

“The government has also planned to promote floriculture for promoting flower farming and is focusing on organic farming for enhancing exports,” he added.

Moreover, Fakhar Imam said that massive drop in cotton yield is due to decline in Sindh. He said a 2.1m bales were received in Sindh as against the target of 4.5m bales.

The minister said standing crop was damaged due to excessive rain. He said Punjab has received only 3.8m bales this year, which is lower than last year.

“This is a setback for our economy,” he said, adding government will take several initiatives to achieve next year target.

The government has projected 10.5m bales target for 2021-22.

Possible return of Iranian supply to dominate OPEC+ agenda ISLAMABAD AGENCIES

Possible return of Iran to the global oil market is expected to dominate discussions when OPEC+ countries meet this week, as the producer group, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia will convene its ministerial monitoring committee on Monday and the main session is scheduled for Tuesday.

OPEC+ plans to incrementally add 2 million barrels per day by July despite a surge in Covid-19 infections in several markets, particularly India. Saudi Arabia, which supported the group’s restrictions by volunteering to withdraw 1 million bpd until April, will phase out the cuts by the end of this month.

According to market analysts, energy markets remain fixated on both the coming OPEC+ ministerial meeting and likely revival of the Iran nuclear deal. They predicted that OPEC+ will likely move forward with the June increase of 700,000 bpd but may decide to hold off a July supply increase. The

alliance may adopt a more cautious approach even if the revival in oil demand warrants an increase in July, they opined.

The resumption of Iranian output may come sooner than expected. Tehran, which came to the negotiating table with the US to reinstate the nuclear deal, is expected to reach closure before Iran’s presidential elections on June 18. However, the possible return of Iranian crude to oil markets may complicate the recovery of demand.

Brent could swing by $10 in either direction but energy traders are still optimistic the market will stay balanced. Goldman Sachs said last week it expects oil prices to climb to $80 per barrel in the fourth quarter of this year, arguing that the market has underestimated a rebound in demand even with a possible resumption in Iranian supply."

The case for higher oil prices therefore remains intact given the large vaccine-driven increase in demand in the face of inelastic supply," the bank said in a note.

Oil rounded off its best week since April

on Friday, with international benchmark Brent registering a weekly gain of 3.57 percent. West Texas Intermediate, which tracks US crude grades, gained 4.3 percent during the week. Brent closed at $68.72 a barrel

CMYK

while WTI closed at $66.32 a barrel on Friday last.

Projections by London-based consultancy Facts Global Energy suggest that Iran’s production halved from 3.8 million

bpd before sanctions were reimposed in 2018 to below 1.9 million BPD. Tehran was exempted from OPEC+ cuts last year when the alliance introduced some of the steepest production cuts in history, drawing back 9.7 million bpd from markets in response to a significant drop in demand caused by the coronavirus-induced slowdown.

The group has since been gradually phasing out cuts and aims to bring back more supply in line with growing demand. However, demand may rise over the summer as Covid-19 infection rates decline slightly in big oil consumers such as India, the world's third-biggest oil consumer.

According to experts, embattled Indian and Japanese crude runs are set to recover over summer as infection rates are expected to continue declining and movement restrictions phased out. Consequently, we currently see the global crude balance net short by around 3 million bpd over July-August, making the case for a return of at least part of the OPEC+ barrels increasingly convincing.

Monday, 31 May, 2021

10 FOREIGN NEWS

ISLAMABAD

Pro-PaleStiNe rally iN WaShiNgtoN SeekS eNd to US aid to iSrael

M

AGENCIES

ORE than 1,000 people rallied on Saturday in Washington in support of Palestinians, calling for an end to US aid to Israel.

The demonstration on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial came as a ceasefire, which ended 11 days of violence in the Gaza Strip, has so far held.

“We are hoping to send a clear message to the United States government that the days of supporting the Israeli state without repercussions are over,” one of the demonstrators, 39-year-old Washington lawyer Sharif Silmi, said as he

stood in the crowd where many protesters held red, white, green and black Palestinian flags.

“We will stand against any politician that continues to fund weapons to Israel. We will oppose them, we will vote against them, we will fund their opponents until we vote them out of office,” said Silmi.

Lama Alahmad, who is of Palestinian origin and a resident of neighbouring Virginia , said US public opinion is turning in favour of the Palestinian cause.

“There is a huge change” going on in the US with regard to the Palestinian cause seeking a sovereign homeland, said Alahmad. “We just want the world to recognise

MyaNMar Covid-19 oUtbreak hitS health SySteM Shattered after CoUP AGENCIES Breathless, fevered and without the extra oxygen that could help keep them alive, the new coronavirus patients at a hospital near Myanmar's border with India highlight the threat to a health system near collapse since February's coup. To help her tend the seven Covid-19 patients at Cikha hospital, day and night, chief nurse Lun Za En has a lab technician and a pharmacist's assistant. Mostly, they offer kind words and paracetamol. "We don't have enough oxygen, enough medical equipment, enough electricity, enough doctors or enough ambulances," Lun Za En, 45, told Reuters from the town of just over 10,000. "We are operating with three staff instead of 11." Myanmar's anti-Covid campaign foundered along with the rest of the health system after the military seized power on Feb. 1 and overthrew elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose government had stepped up testing, quarantine and treatment. Services at public hospitals collapsed after many doctors and nurses joined strikes in a Civil Disobedience Movement in the forefront of opposition to military rule - and sometimes on the frontline of protests that have been bloodily suppressed. Thirteen medics have been killed, according to World Health Organisation data that shows 179 attacks on health workers, facilities and transport nearly half of all such attacks recorded worldwide this year, said WHO Myanmar representative Stephan Paul Jost. Some 150 health workers have been arrested.

Hundreds more doctors and nurses are wanted on incitement charges. Neither a junta spokesman nor the health ministry responded to requests for comment.

The junta, which initially set fighting the pandemic as one of its priorities, has repeatedly urged medics to return to work. Few have responded.

TESTING COLLAPSED: A worker at one Covid-19 quarantine centre in Myanmar's commercial capital, Yangon, said all the specialist health workers there had joined the Civil Disobedience Movement. "Then again, we don't receive new patients any more as Covid test centres don't have staff to test," said the worker, who declined to give his name for fear of retribution. In the week before the coup, Covid-19 tests nationally averaged more than 17,000 a day. That had fallen below 1,200 a day in the seven days through Wednesday. Myanmar has reported more than 3,200 Covid-19 deaths from over 140,000 cases, although the slump in testing has raised doubts over data that shows new cases and deaths have largely plateaued since the coup. Now, a health system in crisis is raising concerns about the likely impact on the country from the wave of infections with variants that is sweeping through India, Thailand and other neighbours.

SURGE OF CASES: Twenty-four cases have been identified in Cikha, said Lun Za En. Seven were so serious they needed hospitalisation - a sign of how few cases had likely been detected. Stay-at-home orders have now been declared in parts of Chin state, where Cikha is located, and neighbouring Sagaing region. The WHO said it was trying to reach authorities and other groups in the area who could provide help, while recognising the difficulties in a health system that was precipitously reversing years of impressive gains. "It is not clear how this will be resolved, unless there is a resolution at the political level addressing the political conflict," said Jost. Lun Za En said her hospital was doing the best it could with nebulisers - machines that turn liquid to mist - to relieve breathlessness. Some patients have oxygen concentrators, but they only work for the two hours a day that the town gets electricity. Refusing to abandon the sick, Lun Za En said she decided not to join the strikes. "The junta will not take care of our patients," she said.

that we are human beings. We are not terrorists,” said Alahmad, a 43year-old stay-at-home mother who grew up in the United Arab Emirates before moving to the US around 20 years ago.

Silmi insisted there was now broad opposition in the US to how Israel treats Palestinians, which he likened to the apartheid in South Africa.

“People have now woken up, and we're resisting. Whether young Jews, young Muslims, young blacks, young whites, there is a generational shift. And people are working across ethnic groups, racial groups, to work for change and freedom and liberation for Palestinian people,” Silmi said.

‘My soul has left me’: family grieves after El Salvador mass grave discovered EL SALVADOR AGENCIES

In his wrinkled hands, Jose de la Cruz held a tangled gold-colored necklace adorned with hearts and a pendant spelling out the word “love.”

The necklace belonged to his granddaughter Jacquelinne Palomo Lima, one of more than a dozen people suspected to have been murdered by a former El Savaldoran police officer, Hugo Osorio, in his home.

De la Cruz, 79, also lost his daughter Mirna Cruz Lima and grandson Alexis Palomo Lima inside that house, according to police, in an atrocity that has shocked all of El Salvador.

"My soul has left me," he said in an interview at his daughter's home, the walls of which were lined with diplomas and stacks of books on literature, physics and medicine.

Alexis, a fourth-year medical student, was planning to travel to the United States to look for work and buy a house for his family back in El Salvador, de la Cruz recalled. The family raised $7,000 for the trip by mortgaging de la Cruz's house and contacted Osorio's brother, who allegedly worked as a human smuggler, de la Cruz said. But nothing went according to plan.

After the family delivered the money, Osorio arrived at the store where Mirna and Jacquelinne worked,

saying that Alexis had been kidnapped but that he knew where he was being held, according to an account told to de la Cruz. He would not say who told him.

The two women then got into his car and traveled to his home in the municipality of Chalchuapa, some 80 km (50 miles) northwest of the capital San Salvador, according to this account.

Police say that once Osorio got the two into the house he murdered Alexis and Mirna, while Jacquelinne escaped and ran down the street screaming. Osorio

quickly recaptured her and, after dragging her back inside, killed her, the police said.

A neighbor, alerted by the sound of her screams, called the police, authorities say. After discovering the bodies of Mirna, Jacquelinne, and Alexis, and arresting Osorio, authorities found a mass grave containing many more corpses.

Reuters has been unable to obtain information from the Attorney General's office or the Security Ministry about the precise number of victims. The Attorney General's office has said that the majority of the victims may be women.

El Salvador's national police chief, Mauricio Arriaza, said Osorio was removed from police ranks 15 years ago after he was convicted of raping a woman and a minor, crimes for which he was sentenced to five years in jail.

Osorio is currently being held in a maximum-security prison charged with the killing of two women and two men. Sexual violence is the leading theory for the killings, according to prosecutors.

Authorities also point to the possibility of a wider conspiracy as 10 others have been charged with murdering nine women in presumably related homicides, along with four other murders of victims whose bodies have turned up in the grave.

“I can’t judge him. It’s God who is going to judge that day, the living and the dead,” de la Cruz said.

Netanyahu in last-minute bid to scupper possible deal to unseat him TEL AVIV AGENCIES

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu manoeuvred on Sunday to try to dissuade opponents from forming a "government of change", with media reports saying a deal to unseat Israel's longest-serving leader could be imminent.

A mandate for opposition chief Yair Lapid to put together a coalition after four inconclusive elections in two years, expires on Wednesday. Israeli media said Lapid was closing in on an alliance of right-wing, centrist and leftist parties.

Lapid's chances of success rest largely with far-right politician Naftali Bennett, a kingmaker whose Yamina party has six key seats in parliament.

Bennett, 49, was widely expected to announce, possibly as early as Sunday, whether he would team up with Lapid, who heads the centrist Yesh Atid party. Israeli media reports largely predicted Bennett would agree to the partnership.

But first, Bennett would have to rally his own party's legislators behind joining what right-winger Netanyahu's opponents have described as a government of "change" comprising factions from the left, centre and right.

Still, short of a parliamentary majority after a March 23 election that ended in stalemate, such a diverse grouping could be fragile, and require outside backing by Arab members of parliament whose political views differ sharply from Yamina's.

Bennett has maintained public silence in recent days, but Israeli political commentators largely predicted he would opt for a partnership with Lapid. Faced with a possible deal, Netanyahu made a sudden counter-offer on Sunday that would entail a break in the prime minister's 12 consecutive years in office.

TRIPLE ROTATION: In a proposal he signed along

with leaders of parties in his current coalition, Netanyahu offered to go second in a "triple rotation" of the premiership of a right-wing government.

Under the blueprint, published by a Likud spokesman, Gideon Saar, head of the rightist New Horizon party, would become prime minister for 15 months, followed by Netanyahu for two years and then Bennett for an unspecified "remainder of its term".

Saar, a former Likud cabinet minister, swiftly rejected the offer, writing on Twitter: "Our position and commitment are unchanged -- to end Netanyahu's rule."

There was no immediate comment from Bennett, a former defence minister, who has reversed course before over ousting Netanyahu, 71, a right-wing leader in power consecutively since 2009 and now on trial on corruption charges which he denies.

Yamina announced late on Saturday that Bennett would meet and update its legislators on Sunday, after reports he had agreed to a rotation deal with Lapid and would serve as a prime minister first.

Netanyahu's rivals have cited his ongoing trial on corruption charges, which he denies, as the main reason why Israel needs a new leader.

Remaining in government, his critics say, could help Netanyahu in any bid to legislate immunity that could end the proceedings.

With a deal with Lapid widely reported to have been finalised just before fighting erupted on May 10 between Israel and Hamas, Bennett said during the hostilities he was abandoning efforts to form a coalition with the centre and left. But a ceasefire is holding, a recent wave of street violence in Israel between Arabs and Jews has ebbed, and a Lapid-Bennett partnership could be back on track.

If Lapid, 57, fails to announce a government by Wednesday, a fifth Israeli election since April 2019 -- a prospect Bennett has said he wants to avoid -- is likely.

Nuclear flash cards: US secrets exposed on learning apps WASHINGTON AGENCIES

US troops charged with guarding nuclear weapons in Europe used popular education websites to create flash cards, exposing their exact locations and top-secret security protocols, according to the investigative site Bellingcat Friday. To familiarise themselves with things like which shelters in various locations had "hot" vaults with live nuclear bombs, with security patrol schedules, and with identification badge details, the soldiers created digital flash card sets on apps like Chegg Prep, Quizlet and Cram. "By simply searching online for terms publicly known to be associated with nuclear weapons, Bellingcat was able to discover cards used by military personnel serving at all six European military bases reported to store nuclear devices," wrote Foeke Postma, the author of the Bellingcat article. They found one set of 70 flashcards on Chegg, entitled "Study!", which noted the exact shelters containing nuclear weapons at Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands.

"How many WS3 vaults are there on Volkel ab," said the question side of one virtual flash card, referring to the military term for weapons storage and security systems. Another card from the same set indicated that five of the eleven vaults were "hot" with nuclear bombs while the other 6 were "cold," and specified which vaults. A set of 80 cards on the Cram flashcard site detailed hot and cold vaults at Aviano Air Base in Italy, and revealed how a soldier should respond in activating them based on the different level of alarms they receive. Other cards exposed secrets at bases in Turkey, Belgium and Germany.

Monday, 31 May, 2021

ISLAMABAD

Moto3 rIder Jason duPasQuIer dIes after MuGello QualIfyInG crash

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AGENCIES

WISS Moto3 rider Jason Dupasquier has died aged 19 from injuries sustained in a crash in qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix, organisers MotoGP announced on Sunday.

"We're deeply saddened to report the loss of Jason Dupasquier," MotoGP said on Twitter. "On behalf of the entire MotoGP family, we send our love to his team, his family and loved ones. You will be sorely missed, Jason. Ride in peace," the statement added.

The Careggi hospital in Florence treating Dupasquier confirmed to AFP that the teenager had suffered brain injuries "incompatible with life" in the multi-bike accident at Mugello on Saturday.

Dupasquier, in his second season in Moto3, fell and was struck by at least one bike, before sliding along the track, during qualifying. Doctors rushed to the scene and after attending to him for 40 minutes on the circuit had him airlifted to hospital.

He underwent chest surgery overnight "for a vascular lesion" and had suffered "severe brain damage", a hospital spokesman told AFP earlier Sunday.

Motorcycling's governing body the FIM, the team's IRTA umbrella association, and the sport's commercial rights holder DORNA issued a joint statement on the tragic news.

"Following a serious incident in the Moto3 Qualifying 2 session at the Gran

THE SWISS RIDER SUSTAINED SERIOUS INJURIES IN A CRASH DURING THE QUALIFYING ROUND AT THE ITALIAN GRAND PRIX

Premio d’Italia, it is with great sadness that we report the passing of Moto3 rider Jason Dupasquier," it read.

It said after Dupasquier's crash medical officers "arrived at the site immediately and the Swiss rider was attended to on track" before his transfer to hospital.

"Despite the best efforts of circuit medical staff and all those subsequently attending to the Swiss rider, the hospital has announced that Dupasquier has sadly succumbed to his injuries," the statement continued. His team, Pruestel GP, had already pulled out of Sunday's race, posting on

Facebook: "PruestalGP decided not to race today in the #italianGP. The situation of @jasondupasquier50 is still critical and all our thoughts are with him."

Tom Luthi, a Swiss rider who races in Moto2, also withdrew from Sunday's grand prix to be close to Dupasquier's family at the hospital, his team SAG Racing announced.

Japan's Ayumu Sasaki and Spaniard Jeremy Alcoba were the others involved in the horrific accident. Organisers reported that both were "fine". MotoGP championship leader Fabio Quartararo had dedicated his pole-clinching qualifying lap to Dupasquier on Saturday.

Dupasquier, whose father Philippe was a former motocross rider, was in his second season in Moto3.

Racing for his German team he finished his rookie Moto3 campaign last year pointless in 28th in the overall standings.

After five races in 2021 he was placed 10th with 27 points.

The FIM joint statement noted: "Dupasquier had made an impressive start to his second season in the lightweight class of Grand Prix racing, consistently scoring points and within the top ten in the standings. "The FIM, IRTA, MSMA and Dorna Sports pass on our deepest condolences to Dupasquier’s family, friends, team and loved ones." The last fatality in the motorcycling world championship was Spain's Luis Salom, who died in practice at the Catalonia Moto2 Grand Prix in Barcelona in 2016.

Group of players and staff headed to PSL from Pakistan denied entry on commercial flight AGENCIES As many as 11 players and officials on their way to the PSL, including the Quetta Gladiators captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, were not allowed to board commercial flights going from Lahore and Karachi to Abu Dhabi via Doha early morning on Sunday. This was down to these persons not having the required clearances to board the flights, as per restrictions in place on travellers to the UAE amid the pandemic.

Five persons from this PSL contingent were cleared to fly, while the others had to return to their hotels where they have been in quarantine since May 24.

As the PCB prepares to hold the remainder of PSL 2021 in the UAE, a batch of more than 25 individuals from both cities was supposed to travel to the UAE on a chartered plane. But the PCB, in a late decision, instead opted to put them on commercial flights, which nullified the quarantine protocols already in place. ESPNcricinfo could not establish what prompted the sudden change in travel plans. In all, 202 players, support staff and tournament officials from Pakistan - that is, 57 persons from Karachi

THE GROUP WAS ORIGINALLY SLATED TO TAKE A CHARTERED FLIGHT TO ABU DHABI, BUT IT SEEMS THERE WAS A LATE CHANGE IN PLAN and 145 from Lahore - are already in Abu Dhabi for the tournament, flown over on a special chartered flight on May 27. ESPNcricinfo has learnt that there remain multiple individuals, including the franchise support staff, who are yet to get UAE visas though.

Overall, over 270 personnel - both Pakistani and overseas - are in Abu Dhabi and have already started quarantine, a basic requirement before entering the tournament's bio-secure bubble. The quarantine periods vary based on the country from which the persons have travelled: the batches from Pakistan are meant to spend seven days in quarantine from the day of check-in, while those from South Africa and India - the latter as part of the production crew - have to undergo ten days isolation.

The PSL has already faced multiple logistical challenges in trying to complete the 2021 edition in the UAE, after the tournament was suspended mid-way in Pakistan

in March after players and officials tested positive for Covid-19 within the bio-bubble. The PCB has had lengthy negotiations with the Abu Dhabi government to stage the tournament in the emirate, and got clearance for the same last week. Over the last ten days, the PCB has even come close to postponing the event further, but has somehow managed to pull most of the pieces together.

Had things gone to plan, the PCB intended to restart the league no later than June 5. But with several pending issues, there is still no certainty over the the schedule of fixtures. With every passing day, the available window continues shrinking - the Pakistan team is set to fly to England on June 22, meaning the PSL needs to wind up before then. ESPNcricinfo has learnt that the remainder of the tournament - as things stand, 20 matches out of 34 remain to be played in the season - might be truncated to fit it within the available window.

SPORTS 11 Italian MotoGP: Quartararo dominates to win at Mugello after Bagnaia crashes Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo dominated a dramatic MotoGP Italian Grand Prix after an early crash for Francesco Bagnaia to strengthen his championship lead. The MotoGP field assembled ahead of the 23-lap race for a moment of silence to remember 19year-old Moto3 racer Jason Dupasquier, who died from injuries sustained in a horrible crash in qualifying on Saturday. The drama of the race started before lights out, when Avintia rookie Enea Bastianini ran into the back of Johann Zarco as he warmed up his brakes on the grid on the warm-up lap. This left Zarco with some tail unit damage while Bastianini was forced to miss the race, but the start wasn’t delayed as a result. Race Direction will investigate the incident after the race. Bagnaia grabbed the lead on the run into San Donato at the start, but poleman Quartararo didn’t get swallowed up into the pack thanks to Yamaha’s new front holeshot device. The power of the Ducati meant Quartararo couldn’t do much to keep Bagnaia in reach on the 1.1km front straight as they started lap two. Behind them, Honda’s Marc Marquez made contact with KTM’s Brad Binder and crashed at the Poggiosecco right-hander – with Petronas SRT’s Franco Morbidelli dropped to the back of the pack having been forced to run off the track to take avoiding action. The drama continued a few corners later as race leader Bagnaia crashed at Arrabbiata 2 having just run slightly off-line, gifting Quartararo clean air to exploit the corner speed of his Yamaha.

Quartararo did have to engage with Pramac’s Johann Zarco over laps three and four, with the Yamaha rider executing a decisive move at Poggiosecco. From there, Quartararo steadily built up his lead with a searing pace, with the Frenchman coming under no threat to the chequered flag three seconds clear of the rest to claim his third win of the 2021 season.

Zarco held onto second until lap 16, when KTM’s Miguel Oliveira came through, while the Pramac rider would soon come under threat from the Suzukis behind. Alex Rins and Joan Mir engaged in a tight tussle over fifth spot in the early stages, but strong late pace put them into podium contention in the closing stages.

World champion Mir scythed past Zarco at the Palagio left-hander to steal third on lap 17, with Rins demoting the Frenchman further on the following tour at the Saveli left-hander. But having crashed out of strong positions in the last three races, Rins’ miserable run continued when he slid off at the last corner on lap 19.

Over the final lap Mir closed down the resurgent KTM of Oliveira but could do nothing to get ahead of the Portuguese rider.

Oliveira was demoted from second to third for marginally exceeding track limits on the exit of the Borgo San Lorenzo right at Turn 5 on the last lap. However, Oliveira’s second was reinstated after Mir was deemed to have also exceeded track limits at the same place on the last lap. Zarco held onto fourth, 1.3s clear of Binder, while the sole remaining factory team Ducati of Jack Miller was only sixth. Aleix Espargaro was seventh on the Aprilia ahead of a struggling Maverick Vinales, the Yamaha rider forced to recover from 16th after a poor start. AGENCIES

Russell Domingo wants Bangladesh to lift ODI scoring rates in search for overseas success AGENCIES Bangladesh coach Russell Domingo believes that the next step for his team should be to find success overseas. He wants them to adjust their strategies, particularly their scoring pattern, to foreign conditions and start by winning "one or two big games".

"The big challenge for this ODI team is to try to win away from home under different conditions," Domingo told ESPNcricinfo.

"They are a very good team in Bangladesh. I think if we can get that confidence going away from home, it will be a big thing. I think playing away from home, we need to win one or two big games. Once you get the confidence and belief that you can do it, that will put the team in a much better place mentally."

Bangladesh's recent 2-1 win over Sri Lanka was their tenth ODI series win at home out of the last 11 such engagements going back to 2015. However, the picture is very different when playing ODIs - perhaps their favourite format - away from home.

They have the best win-loss ratio at home since April 2015 (minimum 20 ODIs played), but among the worst away win-loss ratios in the same period. This, a result of Bangladesh having lost five out of seven away ODI series in this period, their only

win coming against West Indies in 2018 after tying the series against Sri Lanka the previous year.

Domingo wants all-round improvement in skills to win outside of Bangladesh more consistently. "There's a certain bit of upskilling that needs to take place with bat and ball," he said. "People need to improve in various departments to make sure they can win some games away from home. This team has won away from home in other conditions but to challenge them to win in those conditions is something that the team needs to embrace and take it forward."

Top among Domingo's priorities would be improving his side's scoring rate.

Bangladesh have an average of 238 runs in the 38 ODIs at home since April 2015, which goes up to 248 at a run rate of 5.68 in their 29 wins. There is a marginal difference in their average scoring away from home, with the figure going up to 241, but when they win abroad, that shoots up to 269 runs at a run rate of 6.13. Thus, Domingo says, Bangladesh must look to score 300-plus regularly to be at par with the teams ranked above them in ODIs. "I am not at all concerned by the number of runs we are scoring in Dhaka," he says.

"You can only score as much as the wickets

allow you sometimes. Not many times teams get 300 in Dhaka. Definitely when you are playing away from home, 230s or 240s are not going to win you many games. We have to be able to challenge ourselves, play expansively to get up to 300 and 350. It is of paramount importance in the modern game."

To get to those scores, Bangladesh would need to change their approach. Their over-reliance on the four senior batters Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah - remains unsustainable in any conditions; particularly when playing abroad, 300-plus can't be managed by relying on just this quartet every game.

Liton Das was recently dropped for the third ODI against Sri Lanka after averaging 12.62 in his last eight innings, while both Soumya Sarkar and Mohammad Mithun haven't been consistent in the last three years either. Also during the ODIs against Sri Lanka, Mosaddek Hossain and Afif Hossain couldn't capitalise on opportunities. However, Domingo isn't giving up on any of them and has instead appealed for patience.

"The younger players have shown some glimpses and positive signs, but it would be good to see them perform a bit more consistently," he said. "A guy like Afif has only played three [four] ODIs, so it is very hard

CMYK

to judge. You have to be patient with them, and they can learn a lot from the older players. I hate to put them under severe scrutiny and pressure. They are trying to find their feet at this level."

Domingo said while the current group of senior batters in the side are, as a bunch, at par with some of the best batting groups in the world, even those four accomplished batters took a bit of time to get accustomed to international cricket.

"Obviously, it would be great if they started producing runs in every single game," he added. "All teams rely heavily on their senior players to perform. India has Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli. England has [Joe] Root, [Jos] Buttler and [Ben] Stokes who are big players. The responsibility comes with the older players.

"If you go through examples, you think so many of our big-game players like Tamim, Mushfiq [Rahim] and Shakib, they also took a bit of time initially to find their feet in international cricket. Some of the wickets in Dhaka are not easy for batting. It has taken Mushfiq and Shakib a little bit of time to figure out what's the best way to play in these conditions."

On the upside, Bangladesh's bowling has improved, with three other bowlers - Mehidy

Hasan Miraz, Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed - now giving Shakib the support he needs. Mehidy, among the younger and the lesser-experienced lot, just climbed to No. 2 in the ICC ODI bowling rankings.

"I am really pleased for Mehidy. He is getting recognised for his consistent performances," Domingo said. "He is a wonderful team guy. He always has a smile on his face. He is willing to do whatever it takes to put the team in a better position."

Bangladesh's next ODI assignment will be against Zimbabwe, where they will be playing three ODIs in July. The Harare Sports Club, the venue of those matches, has an average score of 201 batting first, thus requiring a different type of adjustment for the side. After Zimbabwe, they also face England, Afghanistan, South Africa and Ireland in their remaining ICC ODI Super League matches, sides that would again test them differently. Hoping to consistently successfully defend around 240 against teams such as these, or being given targets of around 250, seems increasingly outdated thinking.

They have done really well to become a huge threat at home but, to be counted among the global game's top sides, Bangladesh must look to bolder strategies on foreign shores.

Monday, 31 May, 2021

prAyer timings

NEWS

Ceasefire along loC first step towards normalisation of pakindia ties: naravane

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NDIAN Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane has said that the observance of a ceasefire along the Line of Control by the Pakistani and Indian militaries is the first step towards improvement of ties between the two countries.

“This is the first step on the long road to normalisation of ties between the two countries, Gen Naravane said.

He said that India “would like the ceasefire to continue”.

The Indian army chief acknowledged that the move has “definitely led to an improvement in the security situation and benefited civilians living in forward areas”.

CeAsefIre ANNOUNCed After dGMOs HOLd tALKs: The ceasefire was announced in February after the directorgenerals of military operations of India and Pakistan reviewed the situation along the Line of Control and all other sectors in a “free, frank and cordial atmosphere,” according to

the Inter-Services Public Relations.

The two DGs of military operations made hotline contact in the interest of achieving “mutually beneficial and sustainable peace”, the ISPR statement read.

It said they agreed to address each other’s core issues and concerns which have the propensity to disturb peace and lead to violence.

Both sides agreed for strict observance of all agreements, understandings and cease firing along the LOC and all other sectors, with effect from midnight 24/25 February 21.

It was reiterated by Pakistan and India that existing mechanisms of hotline contact and border flag meetings will be utilised to resolve any unforeseen situation or misunderstanding.

2003 CeAsefIre AGreeMeNt: The statement was considered an attempt by both nations to adhere to the ceasefire on the LoC that was agreed in 2003.

The 2003 ceasefire agreement had three

main points.

Defence construction —- new defence construction will not be done within 500 meters of the LoC. However, defensive positions can be maintained.

Firing — direct engagement with each other’s posts will be avoided.

Flag meeting and hotline contact — Both sides can demand a flag meeting at the level of local commanders to resolve any issues along the LoC. If a clarification on any issue is required, it can be sought through a flag meeting or hotline contact.

Director-General Inter-Services Public Relations Major General Babar Iftikhar confirmed India and Pakistan’s DGsMO have been contact over a hotline connection since 1987.

There was a spike in ceasefire violations along the LoC from 2014, he said.

He said both DGsMO have agreed that the existing 2003 agreement should be implemented in letter and spirit. Agencies

Mortar shell hits Afghan wedding, kills at least six KABUL: At least six Afghan civilians were killed and several more were wounded when a mortar shell hit a house during a wedding ceremony in northern Kapisa province, security officials said on Sunday. The explosion on Saturday evening was in the Tagab district, which has seen fighting between the Afghan government forces and the Taliban insurgents. Shayeq Shoresh, a spokesman for the provincial police, blamed the Taliban for firing the mortar and added that at least six civilians, including women and children, were killed and four more wounded. But a senior security official in Kabul put the death toll at at least 10 and the number of wounded at 18.

A Taliban spokesman dismissed the allegation and said the mortar was fired by Afghan security forces. Afghan civilians often bear the brunt of the attacks as they are caught in the crossfire. Violence has sharply increased across the country since Washington announced plans last month to pull all US troops out of Afghanistan by September 11. Nearly 1,800 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in the first three months of 2021 during fighting between government forces and Taliban insurgents despite efforts to find peace, the United Nations said last month. According to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission’s annual report last year, there were 8,500 civilian casualties in 2020, including 2,958 deaths. Agencies

Vietnam detects hybrid of Indian and UK Covid-19 variants

China’s cargo spacecraft, carrying supplies, equipment and propellant, docked with the space station’s key module Tianhe on Sunday, the official news agency Xinhua reported.

The Tianzhou-2, or “Heavenly Vessel” in Chinese, autonomously rendezvoused and docked with Tianhe at 5:01 am Beijing time, Xinhua said on Sunday.

It blasted off via a Long March-7 Y3 rocket at 8:55 pm Beijing time on Saturday from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the southern island of Hainan, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said.

With a designed life of more than 1 year, Tianzhou-2 carried supplies for future astronauts including food for the Shenzhou-12 crew which will be launched next month for a three-month stay on the station, as well as two tons of propellant.

Tianzhou-2 is the second of 11 missions needed to complete China’s first self-developed space station around 2022, and follows the launch of Tianhe, the first module, in late April.

The three-module space station will rival the International Space Station, which is backed by countries including the United States, Russia and Japan. China was barred from participating in the ISS by the United States.

ASr MAghrib iShA 4:44

ISLAMABAD stAff report

Islamabad has conveyed to Kabul it will no longer conduct official business with its national security chief because of his recent “abusive outburst” against Pakistan, Voice of America reported citing diplomatic sources.

The trigger came from National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib who routinely accuses Pakistan and its spy agency of supporting and directing the Taliban’s insurgency in Afghanistan.

In a public speech earlier this month in eastern Nangarhar province, next to the Pakistan border, Mohib not only repeated his allegations but launched into an expletive-laden tirade against Islamabad. His remarks outraged leadership in Islamabad, who denounced them, saying they “debased all norms of interstate communication.”

Pakistan lodged a strong protest with the Afghan government and conveyed “deep resentment” in Pakistan over Mohib’s “undignified” remarks, VOA report quoted a senior official privy to the matter as saying.

The official said that Kabul has been told Islamabad would not hold bilateral engagements with Mohib. It has also been conveyed “by our side that Afghan side is not serious in engaging with Pakistan, but only in the blame game and degrading Pakistan’s sincere efforts,” the official added.

Afghanistan Vice President Amrullah Saleh, while addressing a public gathering in the southeastern border province of Khost earlier this week, indirectly confirmed Pakistan’s assertions.

In a video clip from the speech posted on social media, Saleh asserted that “a Western leader” recently telephoned Ghani and told him that Pakistan does not want to work with a

Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft docks with China’s space station module BEIJING

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Pakistan stops official contact with Afghan NSA after expletive-laden tirade

HANOI: Authorities in Vietnam have detected a new coronavirus variant that is a combination of the Indian and UK Covid-19 variants and spreads quickly by air, the health minister said. After successfully containing the virus for most of last year, Vietnam is grappling with a rise in infections since late April that accounts for more than half of the total 6,856 registered cases. So far, there have been 47 deaths. “Vietnam has uncovered a new Covid-19 variant combining characteristics of the two existing variants first found in India and the UK,” Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said, describing it as a hybrid of the two known variants. “That the new one is an Indian variant with mutations that originally belong to the UK variant is very dangerous,” he told a government meeting, a recording of which was obtained by Reuters. The Southeast Asian country had previously detected seven virus variants: B.1.222, B.1.619, D614G, B.1.1.7 – known as the UK variant, B.1.351, A.23.1 and B.1.617.2 – the “Indian variant”. Long said Vietnam would soon publish genome data of the newly identified variant, which he said was more transmissible than the previously known types. The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified four variants of SARS-CoV-2 of global concern. These include variants that emerged first in India, Britain, South Africa and Brazil. “At the present time, we have not yet made an assessment of the virus variant reported in Vietnam,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO Technical Lead for Covid-19, said in an emailed statement. “Our country office is working with the Ministry of Health in Vietnam and we expect more information soon.” From the WHO’s current understanding, the variant detected in Vietnam was the B.1.617.2 variant, more commonly known as the Indian variant, possibly with an additional mutation, she said. “However we will provide more information as soon as we receive it,” Van Kerkhove added. Long said laboratory cultures of the new variant showed the virus replicated itself very quickly, possibly explaining why so many new cases had appeared in different parts of the country in a short period of time. The health ministry told the meeting the government was working to secure 10 million vaccine doses under the COVAX cost-sharing scheme, as well as a further 20 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine and 40 million of Russia’s Sputnik V. The country of about 98 million people has so far received 2.9 million doses and aims to secure 150 million this year.. Agencies

Agencies

FAjr SuNriSe 3:54

The rocket’s launch was postponed this month due to technical reasons, state media said.

The first cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-1 was sent to refuel a space lab — Tiangong-2 — three times in 2017, as a test of the technologies needed to support construction of the space station.

Both Tiangong-2 and an earlier space lab Tiangong-1 have been deorbited in recent years.

Next year, China will launch the two other core modules — Wentian and Mengtian — using the Long March 5B, its biggest and most powerful space transport vehicle.

That rocket, capable of sending 25 tonnes of payload into low Earth orbit, was a source of worry earlier in May as it re-entered the atmosphere after delivering Tianhe into orbit.

Media reports warned of an uncontrolled re-entry of the rocket’s core stage, reviving memories of debris from the flight of the first Long March 5B in May 2020, which damaged buildings when it landed in Ivory Coast.

Remnants from the rocket finally fell harmlessly in the Indian Ocean, but China drew criticism for not being transparent about the timing of the debris re-entry and predictions of its trajectory.

From June until 2022, four manned spacecraft and four cargo spacecraft will also be launched, by the smaller Long March-7 and 2F rockets, which have a maximum low Earth payload of 14 tonnes and 8.8 tonnes, respectively.

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

“Pashtun leader in Afghanistan.”

The vice president did not identify the foreign leader, nor did he name Mohib but the Afghan national security advisor is an ethnic Pashtun.

Diplomatic sources confirmed to VOA that Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, during his visit to Kabul this month, had raised the issue in his meeting with Ghani in the presence of Nick Carter, Britain’s chief of the defense staff.

Carter has been engaged in facilitating contacts between the two countries to help ease tensions at a time when the United States and NATO allies have been withdrawing their troops from Afghanistan after 20 years of war with the Taliban.

A statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations following the May 10 meeting in Kabul confirmed it was held in the presence of Carter.

“Matters of mutual interest, current developments in the Afghan peace process, enhanced bilateral security and defense cooperation and need for effective border management between the two brotherly countries were discussed,” the statement said but stopped short of commenting on the controversy stemming from Mohib’s remarks.

Mohib had stirred a controversy in March after he accused the American special envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, of seeking personal benefit by sidelining the Afghan government during peace talks with the Taliban.

He suggested that Khalilzad had sidelined Afghan leaders because of his ambitions to be a “viceroy” in an interim government if the negotiations succeed.

“We see our relationship being impacted by what is going on, and we would like to rescue it,” Mohib told a small group of journalists in Washington.