EpaperISB_22-2-19

Saturday, 19 February, 2022 I 17 Rajab, 1443 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XII No 232 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition

Allowing nAwAz to trAvel AbroAd wAs A big mistAke, Admits Pm

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M Imran Khan, while addressing a public meeting in Mandi Bahauddin that was packed with PTI supporters on Friday stated that the government made a big mistake by allowing Nawaz Sharif to leave the country for medical treatment.

“First it was one disease, then another, then platelets,” he said referring to Nawaz’s supposed ailments, adding that the government was under the impression that he would not survive for long. “I accept we made a big mistake by allowing him [Nawaz] to travel abroad.”

He further noted that the PML-N supremo used to visit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the past and ask the PTI where the ‘Naya KP’ was. “In the 2018 election, the province — which never gives anyone a second chance — elected PTI on a two-third majority.”

The PM, during his fiery speech also lambasted the opposition and promised to not let them off the hook until they returned the country’s looted wealth.

Referring to the opposition as a “gang of thieves”, the premier also lashed out at Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman. He said that the JUI-F chief was gathering the opposition and after every three months called for toppling the PTI government.

“The biggest reason for this is that

after 30 years the country ’s assembly is functioning without diesel. It is running on solar [power],” he said, referring to the fact that the Maulana was not part of the National Assembly.

He claimed that the opposition was afraid, adding that the JUI-F chief was urging the opposition to oust the PTI government as he sensed that it would come into power once again in 2023.

PM Imran went on to say that when the opposition had filed a case against him in the Supreme Court, he had stayed in the country and had proved that he was sadiq and ameen (honest and righteous).

“I provided the documents the court asked for. I did not run away [or] ask for more dates. I told them to listen to the case [dayto-day]. So Shehbaz, why are you running?” he said, adding that the courts were free.

He also accused the opposition of scrambling to move a no-confidence motion against the government in an effort to save its looted wealth.

“Why is there haste in moving a no-trust move?” he asked, noting that PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif was currently facing a money laundering reference.

“Shehbaz, if you are innocent, then why do you ask the courts for more time? Ask them to conduct day-to-day hearings.”

The PM while turning his guns on PML-N

CoronAvirus in

PAkistAn

CONFIRMED CASES:

1,496,693

LAST UPDATED AT 7:16 AM ON FEBRUARY 18, 2022

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

NEW CASES:

33

2,400

RECOVERED:

DEATHS:

1,396,218 29,950 SINDH:

PUNJAB:

562,597

497,820

KPK:

BALOCHISTAN:

213,762

35,187

AJK/GB:

ISLAMABAD:

42,429/11,285

133,613

Vice President Maryam Nawaz, stated that she was also “scared” due to the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case and was trying to “scare judges”.

“They want a no-trust move so that the government can be ousted and they can get off scot-free like they did during Gen Musharraf’s tenure,” he said, referring to the country’s former military ruler.

“I have a message for the Sharif family: we are prepared for whatever you decide to do. Whatever your plan is, kaptaan is prepared for that plan.”

He predicted that the opposition would once again not only fail, but would end up in jail this time around.

The PM also categorically said the opposition would not receive a National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) — a term used to imply amnesty — until it returned the money it had stolen from the people of the country.

“They are scared because Imran Khan has no price, he will not give you an NRO like General Musharraf.”

He said that the cases against the opposition were old and they were asking him for an NRO, the same way they had asked Gen Musharraf.

“These thieves will not get any NRO until they return the country’s [looted] money [… ] as long as I am alive, I will not let them rest until they return the people’s wealth,” he vowed.

He said that the courts were free, adding that the government respected the judiciary. Giving examples of the opposition’s alleged interference in the judiciary, he said that retired justice Sajjad Ali was pressured and chased away from the courts as he was hearing a corruption case against them, claiming that the SC’s Quetta bench was “bought”.

“Now Maryam sahiba says she has tapes. Have you ever heard of politicians keeping tapes and blackmailing judges?”

He said that there was first a tape of former accountability judge Arshad Malik, who passed away in 2020. “Then a fake tape was made of a former chief justice to save themselves in a case,” he said, referring to the alleged audio clip of former CJP Mian Saqib Nisar. News Desk

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Pakistan, Belgium agree to enhance military ties Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa, who is on an official visit to Belgium, on Friday met Belgian Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder, Chief of Defence Admiral Michel Hofman and Chief of Staff of Belgium’s Land Component Major General Pierre Gerard, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

The Belgian officials and the COAS discussed matters of mutual interest, overall regional security situation and bilateral relations.

Both sides agreed to optimise military-to-military ties, especially in defence production, training, counter-terrorism and intelligence domains.

“Belgian dignitaries acknowledged the professionalism of Pakistan armed forces. They also appreciated Pakistan’s sincere efforts for peace and stability in the region and reiterated earnest desire for enhancing bilateral cooperation in all domains,” said

JUI-F threatens to stop Aurat March with ‘baton’ The president of Jamiat Ulemai-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) Islamabad has warned to stop Aurat March, which is scheduled to be held across the country every year on International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8. He has threatened to stop the march with the use “baton” “If any attempts are made for obscenity on March 8 in Islamabad, we will condemn it,” warned Abdul Majeed Hazarvi, the chief of JUI-F’s Islamabad wing, while addressing a demonstration held in the capital’s D-Chowk in connection with India’s hijab row. He warned the government that if the march was allowed, “we will [use] baton to stop it”.

Hazarvi said that during Aurat March, “obscenity is spread in the name of women’s rights”.

The latest tirade against the event from the JUI-F comes just a day after Religious Affairs Minister Noorul Haq Qadri wrote a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying that anti-Islamic slogans should not be raised on International Women’s Day. The minister had also suggested celebrating International Hijab Day instead on March 8, in an effort to express

the ISPR. Earlier, the COAS had met European External Action Services (EEAS) Secretary General Stefano Sannino and EU Military Committee Chairman Claudio Graziano.

Gen Bajwa had discussed regional security, including the situation in Afghanistan, as well as bilateral relations in meetings with European Union (EU) officials.

During his meetings with the officials, the army chief had discussed matters of mutual interest, the security situation in the region and bilateral relations.

Gen Bajwa had said Pakistan values its relationship with EU countries and looks forward to enhance mutual cooperation based on common interests.

In turn, the EU officials had appreciated “Pakistan’s sincere efforts for peace and stability in the region and pledged to play their role for increased collaboration with Pakistan at all levels”. News Desk

more inside

Faisal Vawda moves SC against ECP, IHC decisions STORY ON PAGE 03

Pakistan demands justice for victims of Samjhauta Express blasts STORY ON BACK PAGE solidarity with Muslim women across the globe.

After the letter drew criticism on social media, notably from PPP Senator Sherry Rehman and Pakistan’s former ambassador to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi, Qadri issued a clarification saying that some political leaders were trying to spread negative propaganda without reading his letter.

At the JUI-F’s demonstration, MNA Shahida Akhtar Ali, who heads the party’s women wing, also spoke about the escalating hijab row in India.

The issue grabbed headlines last month after a government-run school in India’s Karanartaka barred students wearing hijabs from entering

classrooms, triggering protests outside the school gate. More schools in the state followed with similar bans, forcing the state’s top court to intervene.

The issue further escalated when a video of a hijab-clad student, Muskan Khan, being heckled and jeered at by a mob of Hindutva supporters in Karnataka surfaced on social media.

“We pay tribute to Muskan Khan,” said Ali at today’s demonstration, condemning the “hatred being directed towards Muslims in India”. She lamented that hijab was being targeted in India, adding that “we have all gathered here today … to raise voice for hijab.” News Desk

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

Bill Gates confident of wiping out polio virus in Pakistan STORY ON BACK PAGE

Fawad says nation doesn’t trust those trying to bring notrust motion against govt STORY ON PAGE 02

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Saturday, 19 February, 2022 | ISLAMABAD

NEWS

Fawad says nation doesn’t trust those trying to bring no-trust motion against govt

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News Desk

NFORMATION Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Friday lambasted the opposition parties by stating that “those attempting to bring a no-trust motion against the government do not even have the trust of their families and nation”.

It is pertinene to note that the minister’s remarks came a day after PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz made another statement regarding the opposition’s planned no-confidence motion, in which she termed the move was a “risk that should be taken” because Prime Minister Imran Khan was “on his last legs”.

It is pertinent to note that Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) President Maulana Fazlur Rehman had also stated last week that the opposition alliance had decided to move a no-confidence motion

against the prime minister and would contact the PTI government’s allies in the centre for this purpose.

Pakistan records lowest number of Covid cases since Jan 12 News Desk Pakistan reported 2400 new coronavirus cases during the past 24 hours, which is the lowest daily Covid-19 case count since January 12. According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 2400 people tested positive for coronavirus while 33 succumbed to the virus during the past 24 hours. The forum said 48,744 diagnostic tests were conducted across the country during the past 24 hours, adding that the decline in new cases pushed the country’s coronavirus positivity ratio down to 4.92 percent. The overall case count climbed to 1,496,693 while the death toll rose to 29,950 overnight. The country’s active case count dropped further to 70,525 after 3,009 patients recovered overnight. However, the number of patients, who are currently in critical care units, rose to 1,496. The authorities have so far confirmed 562,597 coronavirus cases in Sindh, 497,820 in Punjab, 213,762 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 133,613 in Islamabad, 42,429 in Azad Kashmir, 35,187 in Balochistan and 11,285 in Gilgit Baltistan. The country has so far conducted 25,997,179 coronavirus tests while 1,396,218 patients have recovered in the country so far. So far, 122,046,024 people have received their first dose of coronavirus vaccine, including 600,992 in the last 24 hours, and 94,523,444 citizens have been fully vaccinated.

As a response, Chaudhry, while addressing a gathering in Pind Dadan Khan today, said opposition members must return

the “public money they acquired through corruption”.

“Nawaz Sharif told a lie and left the country, and now his daughter is visiting courts on a daily basis while her father and brothers are not returning to the country,” said the minister.

Castigating PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Chaudhry said the JUI-F believed it could topple the government by gathering students of seminaries. “You need to work hard, get public support and then bring about revolution. It requires a hard work to challenge any government and everyone does not have the guts to do that.”

He further accused Shehbaz Sharif of using delaying tactics in indictment proceedings against him. “Billions of rupees have been recovered from bank accounts of peons of sugar mills owned by Sharif brothers and the PML-N leaders have to face

the court of law in this connection.”

He said the measures taken by Prime Minister Imran Khan would result in the provision of gas to most parts of Punjab, which were earlier deprived of the important resource in the tenure of Nawaz Sharif.

He further stated that the politics of Bilawal Bhutto and Maryam Nawaz was on the decline. He referred to the two leaders, saying they must contest mayoral elections in Punjab to “determine their actual popularity”. He reiterated that opposition leaders would not be able to escape the accountability process.

Chaudhry further stressed that Imran Khan would once again emerge victorious in the general elections of 2023.

The minister also claimed that Imran Khan was the first prime minister in the history of Pakistan who was taking practical measures to help the poor.

Economic, industrial development interlinked: PM TLTP Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the government is taking steps on priority basis for industrial development, which is imperative for overall economic development.

The prime minister was presiding over a high level meeting on Friday on the development of the industrial sector in the country.

The prime minister said that it is for the first time that a policy of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) was introduced in the country.

He said that due to the government’s successful policies, the wheels of industry continued to turn during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The prime minister ordered to take measures to encourage investment in the industrial sector on priority basis.

Federal ministers Shaukat Tarin, Asad Umar, Khusro Bakhtiar, Hammad Azhar, Governor State Bank Reza Baqir and senior officers attended the meeting.

The meeting was briefed in detail about the current capacity of the industrial sector and the future strategy

for its development.

It was told that owing to the government’s business-friendly policies, the country’s industrial sector achieved a lot of progress despite the Covid-19 pandemic, which is also evident from the running of the textile industry to its full capacity.

The meeting was further told that the government’s package for the development of the construction sector not only brought about economic improvement but also helped create ample job opportunities in the country.

It was told that the government is focusing on enhancing the share of the manufacturing sector in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 25 percent from the current 12.5 percent.

Besides the provision of jobs in the country, the development of the manufacturing sector will help improve the overall state of the economy. The meeting was further told that the government has formulated a comprehensive strategy for boosting the existing capacity of industries, reviving the sick units, encouraging investment in IT, plant and machinery and enhancing

foreign investment. The strategy was being implemented on a priority basis.

Besides, it was said that measures were also being taken to enhance investment of overseas Pakistanis and for the development of SMEs in the country.

Meanwhile, the PM said the government is taking steps to attract

investment from overseas Pakistanis and provide protection to their capital.

He was talking to a delegation of Pakistan Association Dubai on Friday.

The delegation commended government’s steps such as granting the right of franchise to overseas Pakistanis and Roshan Digital Account for transfer of money.

IHC orders probe into alleged torture of Mohsin Baig News Desk The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday has given directive to the Islamabad’s inspector general of police (IGP) to investigate the allegations of Mohsin Jamil Baig’s torture while being in police custody.

The IHC has also directed the IGP to submit a report on the matter. It is pertinent to note that the IHC issued the order on a petition filed yesterday by Baig’s wife, Shehla Mustafa, pleading the court to reconsider the cases registered against Baig.

As per the details, Baig has been named in two cases, one registered with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the other with the Margalla police.

The first case was registered at the FIA’s cybercrime reporting centre in Lahore on Communications Minister Murad Saeed’s complaint over his “character assassination” during NewsOne talk show G for Gharidah, in which Mohsin Baig was one of the panelists.

Soon after the incident, an FIA team raided Baig’s residence in Islamabad on Wednesday, upon Saeed’s complaint. The officials alleged that during the raid, Baig shot at members of the FIA team, for which he was arrested by police and a separate case was registered against him for attacking the government officials.

Although, Justice Minallah did not approve the petition to quash the case, saying that Baig needed to be the petitioner himself for the court to consider that plea, he still took up the petition involving the criminal case against Baig, registered after he allegedly attacked the FIA team raiding his house.

Observing that Mustafa had essentially sought the quashing of the criminal case against Baig, the court said in its written order that the “petitioner’s husband has been formally arrested in the case and, therefore, he alone can be treated as an aggrieved person” in this regard. “We cannot set an example of issuing an order on the plea of a third party,” he said.

Justice Minallah had also said, as stated in the court order, that Baig would have to file a petition himself for the quashing of the police case against him.

But the judge said allegations of torture under police custody were “grave” and asked the police chief and a

judicial magistrate to look into these allegations and submit a report on them.

In its order issued on Mustafa’s petition, the court said the petitioner’s counsel maintained that Baig was “manhandled and physically harmed while in the custody of the in-charge of the police station, Margalla”, and had been “denied access to a lawyer of his choice”.

“It is noted that no accused, regardless of the gravity of the alleged offence, can be treated otherwise than in accordance with law, let alone being subjected to physical harm,” the court order read.

The IHC, basing on these observations, directed the Islamabad IGP to “independently” carry out an inquiry regarding Baig’s treatment and submit a report at the next hearing on February 21.

The court also sought a report from the Islamabad district magistrate, directing him to inspect the Margalla police station and probe allegations of Baig’s manhandling, torture and denial of access to a lawyer.

Moreover, the court issued a notice to the Islamabad attorney general in the case.

“It is reiterated that regardless of the gravity of offence, manhandling and torture of an accused during custody in a police station is intolerable and such acts are likely to expose the responsible officials to consequences,” the court said in its order.

Mustafa’s lawyer, Latif Khosa, had also claimed in court that an additional sessions judge, who had declared the raid on Baig’s house illegal, was being “threatened”.

“It is being said that action will be taken against the additional sessions judge,” he said, referring to media reports on the matter.

In this regard, Advocate General Niazullah Niazi stated that “the prime minister has directed me to file a petition/reference against Additional Session Judge Islamabad Zafar Iqbal for giving judgement beyond his mandate before Islamabad High Court chief justice.”

“This matter is being linked to the prime minister,” Khosa said in court today, at which Justice Minallah assured him that no judge could be threatened and told him not to worry.

When Khosa said all television channels were airing this news, Justice Minallah replied: “Let them do whatever they are doing. Courts are above all this.”

With regards to the allegations of torture, the judge said the Islamabad police chief should ensure that Baig was treated according to the law. He added that Baig should also be allowed to meet his lawyer.

Meanwhile, an Islamabad anti-terrorism (ATC) court extended Baig’s physical remand by three days in the case registered against him for allegedly attacking the FIA team that raided his house.

Earlier, the court had sent Baig on a three-day physical remand in police custody on Wednesday, right after he was arrested.

Yesterday, the court had also sent two of his household staffers on physical remand in police custody for a day, who were again sent on a judicial remand today.

Baig was presented before ATC Judge Muhammad Ali Warraich today, upon the expiry of his initial remand.

He said that the truth was that he was sitting in the SHO’s room at Margalla police station when FIA personnel beat him and alleged that police had stealthily taken away the digital video recorder from cameras installed at his residence.

Baig also told the court that his medical examination was conducted for five hours but police was yet to release its report Later, Baig’s lawyer moved an application before the

court for the release of his medical report.

The application stated that Baig was diabetic and suffered from other illnesses as well.

It said the FIA had tortured Baig and the agency and police had got his medical check-up done at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences and Polyclinic.

It prayed the court to issue directives for the release of Baig’s medical report.

Khosa, who is also representing Baig in the ATC, pointed out at the hearing that the FIA team had raided Baig’s residence around 9:15am on Wednesday on an FIR that was registered with the FIA at 9am that very day.

“Chadar aur char diwari were violated in this matter,” he said, adding that men had entered Baig’s house in plain clothes without a search warrant.

Khosa then read out the content of the case registered with the FIA before the court, contending that since the FIR mentioned Reham Khan’s book, she should be taken into custody.

He further argued that the FIR mentioned the entire panel of the TV show in which remarks were made about federal minister Saeed, but only Baig had been arrested from among them.

He contended that there were no grounds for the inclusion of the sections on Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, in the FIR. The lawyer said that FIA’s cybercrime cell had registered a “fake” case against his client.

Following that, police presented Baig’s photographs as record before the court, wherein Baig is seen holding a pistol at the place of the incident (raid at his house).

Police Inspector Sajid Cheema then sought Baig’s remand for the recovery of the pistol.

At that, Baig’s counsel argued that police had already recovered the weapon from his client after his arrest and it was with police.

When the court asked which FIA official was injured in the incident, police said Sub-Inspector Wasim Sikandar had sustained injuries and his medical checkup had been completed.

The judge then inquired about Sikandar’s medical report.

Saturday, 19 February, 2022 | ISLAMABAD

NEWS

Faisal vawda moves sC against eCP, ihC decisions

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News Desk

TI leader and former federal minister Faisal Vawda has challenged his lifetime disqualification and the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) order to maintain it, in the Supreme Court, seeking his restoration to the Senator’s seat.

As per the details, Vawda, who was recently declared ineligible as a lawmaker for life by the ECP, had challenged the commission’s verdict in the IHC, seeking revocation of his lifetime disqualification.

However, the high court dismissed his plea.

Stating that the IHC hastily dismissed the plea for the revocation of his disqualification, Vawda sought his restoration on the Senator’s seat through nullification of ECP and IHC’s decisions.

The PTI leader has nominated ECP and the complainants who had challenged his election as a lawmaker as respondents in his apex court petition, maintaining that he didn’t hide any details from the election commission.

“The ECP exceeded its authority […] ECP lacked jurisdiction to invoke Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution to disqualify me for life since it was not a court of law,” he argued in the petition, adding that he got US citizenship by birth.

Earlier on Thursday, the IHC had dismissed former federal minister Faisal Vawda’s plea seeking the revocation of his lifetime disqualification. “…the Court has not been able to persuade itself that the impugned order, dated 09-02-2022, suffers from any legal infirmity requiring interference. The petition is, therefore, accordingly dismissed,” IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah — who heard the case — said in the judgement.

Justice Minallah said the date for being qualified to be a member of the Parliament was the date when

weekly inflation rises 0.22pc IsLAMABAD TLTP

The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation increased by 0.22 percent while it went 18.o9 percent up on a year-on-year (YoY) basis.

According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday, the SPI-based weekly inflation registered an increase for the week ended on February 17, 2022, after registering a slight decrease of 0.08 percent in the preceding week. The weekly inflation for the lowest income group (Q1) witnessed a decrease of 0.16 percent, while it went 19.40 percent up on a year-on-year (YoY) basis for the same group.

Similarly, for the income groups (Q2) with monthly income of Rs17,733-22,888, weekly inflation slipped 0.26 percent, while it went 16.98 percent up on a year-on-year (YoY) basis.

However, for other income groups (Q3-Q5), inflation went up from 0.14 percent to 0.45 percent for the week ended on February 17, 2022, and increased from 16.41 percent to 18.43 on a yearon-year (YoY) basis. According to the PBS, the combined index was at 169.61 on February 10, 2022 as compared to 169.23 on February 10, 2022 while the index was recorded at 143.63 a year ago on February 18, 2021. The SPI is computed on a weekly basis to assess the price movements of essential commodities at a shorter interval of time so as to review the price situation in the country.

The SPI comprises 51 essential items and the prices are being collected from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country. During the week under review, out of 51 items, prices of 28 (54.90%) items increased, prices of 11 (21.57%) items decreased, and prices of 12 (23.53%) items remained stable. The SPI for the current week recorded an increase in the prices of food items including garlic (10.53%), tomatoes (4.35%), bananas (4.28%), chicken (2.89%), cooked daal (1.94%) and vegetable ghee 2.5kg (1.08%) and non-food items including petrol (8.12%), diesel (6.52%), match box (2.17%) and long cloth (1.50%) was observed with joint impact of (1.21%) into the overall SPI for combined group of (0.22%). On the other hand, a decrease was observed in the prices of chillies powdered (5.41%), eggs (5.31%), electricity for Q1 (5.20%), onions (1.39%), potatoes (0.89%), gur (0.82%), sugar (0.59%), wheat flour (0.27%), LPG (0.17%), pulse Moong (0.11%), and pulse Mash (0.08%).

According to the PBS data, the year on year trend depicts an increase of 18.09%, in tomatoes (322.87%), electricity for Q1 (65.79%), garlic (60.98%), LPG (55.11%), mustard oil (48.44%), petrol (42.28%), cooking oil 5 litre (41.81%), vegetable ghee 1-kg (39.13%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (38.97%), washing soap (38.40%), pulse Masoor (37.19%) and diesel (32.26%), while a major decrease was observed in the prices of chillies powdered (36.30%), pulse Moong (28.43%), chicken (9.77%), sugar (5.72%), onions (3.84%) and potatoes (0.38%).

the nomination papers were filed. “…the process of relinquishment of the foreign nationality should have been completed and concluded before submission of the nomination papers,” the judge noted.

The IHC noted that it is, indeed, a settled law that when a citizen of Pakistan has acquired the citizenship of a foreign state, the latter shall not be qualified to be elected or chosen or being a member of the Parliament until and unless such legal status — being a citizen of a foreign state — was obliterated or extinguished.

The judge said the petitioner had contested from NA 249, Karachi, in the general elections held in 2018.

His notification as a member of the National Assembly was challenged before various forums, including the IHC. In the petitions against Vawda, it was alleged that he had filed a false affidavit to get elected as an MNA. However, “for reasons best known to him”, the former federal minister’s conduct before the IHC remained “evasive” and he kept delaying the proceedings on one pretext or the other.

“It appears from the record that instead of establishing his bonafides by producing a certificate of renunciation of citizenship, proceedings were delayed by the petitioner before the Commission,” the IHC said.

Justice Minallah noted it was not “pleasant” for the

court to disqualify an elected member of the Parliament. “…the courts claim no supremacy over organs that represent the people of Pakistan.

“The petitioner’s conduct has led to disqualification of an elected representative and, regrettably, he alone is responsible for the consequences,” it added.

It is pertinent to note that Vawda had won the 2018 general election from Karachi’s NA-249 constituency.

In January 2020, an investigative report published in The News had revealed that Vawda may have committed perjury by falsely declaring in an oath to the ECP that he did not hold any, foreign nationality.

According to The News, Vawda was in possession of a United States passport at the time he filed his nomination papers on June 11, 2018. The minister remained an American national even at the time the scrutiny of his nomination papers were completed.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan in a past judgement has categorically ruled that candidates who hold dual nationality are supposed to submit a renunciation certificate of the foreign nationality along with their nomination papers.

The same judgement has previously led to the disqualification of various lawmakers, notable among whom Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senators Saadia Abbasi and Haroon Akhtar.

Therefore, PPP MNA Qadir Khan Mandokhail, Asif Mehmood and Mian Faisal, had sought Vawda’s disqualification maintaining that he had concealed his US nationality while submitting his nomination papers to the returning officer for the National Assembly seat, and refrained from stating the date of his renunciation of the US nationality despite being asked by the ECP several times.

In this regard, Vawda sought received multiple extensions and received as many warnings for the submission of his arguments to counter the prosecution’s stance.

Pakistan offers huge opportunities in IT, digitalisation: Alvi IsLAMABAD TLTP

President Dr Arif Alvi has urged tech companies to invest in Pakistan as the country possesses adequate tech talent and its economy is becoming more conducive to foreign investment.

The president, addressing a meeting via video-link with technology entrepreneurs based in Singapore, said that Pakistan offers huge investment opportunities in the fields of IT and digitalisation, and international companies need to benefit from the business-friendly climate of the country.

He said that the government is focusing on digitalisation, data integration, and cyber security and facilitating foreign investors through one window facilities. The president also lauded the government’s commitment to facilitate and support foreign investment in the technology sector by establishing Special Technology Zones (SEZs) and improving the ease of doing business.

The meeting was informed that enormous opportunities exist in Pakistan for tech companies to

work in the areas of app development, AI-based digital identity solutions, digital payments, e-commerce, and digital remittance platforms.

Separately, Alvi has called for a broad-based campaign at the national level to raise awareness amongst the people about implications of rapid population growth on the socio economic development of the country.

In an interaction with senior journalists on Friday, the president stressed the media to play its important role in shaping the public opinion and behaviours regarding family planning.

He also emphasised the need for political will with an active input by the parliamentarians to lead a mass movement of advocacy on population management.

In his remarks, Special Assistant on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan said unplanned population growth could become an issue of national security, where the future generation grows in absence of proper education and health facilities.

He said the government is sensitising the masses at all levels involving political leaders, academia, executive, Ulema, civil society and youth.

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Pm felicitates KP govt on brt’s recognition as gold standard service News Desk Prime Minister Imran Khan has congratulated the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on the recognition of Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) as a Gold Standard BRT service by the International Technical Standard Committee. In a tweet on Friday, the prime minister said that Peshawar BRT scored 97 out of 100, which means it is consistent in almost all respects with international best practices. He said that Peshawar BRT has revolutionised the public transport system in the city and since the start of its operations in August 2020 more than 71 million people have travelled in it. The prime minister said over 250,000 commuter’s use BRT on daily basis out of which twenty percent are women and sixty percent are from low-income groups. Earlier, Planning Minister Asad Umar congratulated Defence Minister Pervez Khattak and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan. The BRT was inaugurated by then chief minister of the province Khattak in 2020 and received the award on Thursday for providing passenger-oriented, environmentfriendly facilities to the people of Peshawar. A day earlier, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) hailed ZuPeshawar – the operator of the BRT system – on receiving the international award, saying that Peshawar has now become the first city in the subcontinent, third in Asia and 11th globally to receive the Gold Standard. The statement issued by the ADB said Dr Walter Hook, a member of the technical committee that evaluates world-class BRTs on the basis of best practices internationally, presented the award to K-P Minister for Higher Education Kamran Bangash on Thursday. The Gold Standard was awarded to the city for transforming transport through its clean technology buses, promoting non-motorized traffic, and transporting a staggering 250,000 passengers on daily basis, out of which 20% are women. Earlier, the BRT had also received the certificate of International Sustainable Award by the International Transport Organisation while the UN Women has also honoured the BRT for providing the best and safe travelling facility to women. The BRT, he added, was providing the best possible commuting facilities to its passengers.

Journalist shot dead during ‘robbery bid’ in Karachi News Desk A journalist associated with Samaa TV was shot dead by armed robbers during an alleged snatching bid in Karachi’s North Nazimabad area on Friday morning, police revealed.

As per the SSP Central Usman Maroof, a 45-year-old man, identified as Ather Mateen, was returning to his home in the North Nazimabad area after dropping off his children at school when he was waylaid by a couple of armed robbers on a motorbike near Shah Medical Hospital in Block-A of the area.

He further quoted that the initial investigation as revealing that the victim sensed danger after spotting a motorbike approaching him and he accelerated his car and hit the bikers. “They fell off the motorbike and in reaction, opened fire on the man and fled,” he added.

However, the officer said some eyewitnesses claimed that the armed men were robbing the victim of his valuables and upon resistance, they shot him dead.

It is pertinent to note that the gunmen also left their motorbike on the spot after it reportedly developed some fault and made off after snatching another bike from

a citizen on the crime scene, the SSP added.

He said the police were investigating the case from all aspects.

The body of the victim was taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan also strongly condemned the incident and directed the authorities to take all possible steps to bring the killers to book, according to a statement from the Prime Minister Office.

In their separate statements, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail and Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah also took notice of the killing and sought a report from the additional inspector general. They directed the senior cop to ensure the arrest of the killers at the earliest.

The governor said the provincial government must take immediate steps to contain rising incidents of street crimes in Karachi.

“The police should ensure the protection of life, property and honour of the citizens,” Ismail said.

PTI MPA from Sindh, Khurram Sher Zaman, said criminals were on the rampage in Karachi, adding that the city’s

Central district was the most affected in terms of street crimes and robberies.

He said incidents of robberies raised a question mark on the performance of law enforcement authorities.

He also asked the police to nab the killers of Mateen.

In his condolence message, CEO of Samaa TV, Naveid Siddiqui, expressed grief over the death of Mateen and said he was associated with the channel for the last two years as a senior news producer.

Siddiqui said in a tweet that “remember him in your prayers”.

Saturday, 19 February, 2022 | ISLAMABAD

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NEWS

PoliTical consideraTions Take forefronT in faTf: fo ISLaMaBaD

UMT holds 21st convocation Lahore PR

University of Management and Technology (UMT) held its 21st Convocation 2022 at the UMT Greens.

The UMT family adhered to strict COVID-19 SOPs in order to be safe and protect the community. Total 2311 graduates were given degrees in various disciplines on this occasion. According to the details 1458 Bachelors, 202 Masters, 634 MS/MPhil and 17 PhD degrees were conferred. Furthermore, 30 Patron’s Gold Medals, 32 Rector Silver Medals, 14 Rector Academic Excellence Award Gold Medals, 13 Certificates of Excellence, 10 Research Publication Awards for MS/MPhil students, 2 Dr. Hasan Sohaib Murad Medal Awards (Gold) for PhD graduates along with cash prize of rupees 100000 each, 2 Khurram Murad Medal Awards (Gold) along with cash prize of rupees 50000 each for MBA graduates, 2 Mubarak un Nisa Medal Awards along with cash prize of rupees 50000 each to BBA graduates, 2 Dr Muhammad Ahmed Medal Awards along with cash prize of rupees 25000 each to the graduates of Social Sciences, 1 Fast Excellence Award along with cash prize of rupees 100000 to BSEE graduate, 2 Certificates of Appreciation, 19 Rector Awards for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 6 Extra-Curricular Gold Medals, 11 Extra-Curricular Certificates, and 2 Alumni Awards were also given away on the occasion of the convocation. The convocation commenced with the recitation of the Holy Quran followed by the National Anthem. Rector UMT Dr Asif Raza gave a welcome note where he offered his genuine appreciation to the presence of Governor Punjab, Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar, and said that he is a source of inspiration for the graduating students, their parents, and the entire UMT family.

Addressing the attendees of the convocation, he admired the graduates on the accomplishment of completing their respective degrees and proclaimed that their presence has added color and value to the ceremony. Dr Asif Raza shared that UMT has accomplished different milestones throughout a specific timeframe. He also treasured the passion and commitment of the faculty and staff in assisting UMT to maintain its stature as a prominent premier general research university in the country. Rector UMT urged the participants to strive for higher goals in life and advised them to transform into superb professionals and credible human beings. ViceChairman UMT Farooq Salman Murad congratulated the graduates and advised them that as you start a new phase of your life you need to become responsible citizens of the society and leave a mark on human history with your ambitious behavior and aligned vision. He further stated that we should be grateful to Allah Almighty for our accomplishments, as we only get opportunities for success and growth when we are thankful. Farooq Murad advised the students to believe in themselves, make themselves a brand, and always have a growth mindset.

Chaudhary Mohammad Sarwar, Governor of Punjab congratulated the graduates for achieving this great milestone and making their parents and teachers proud. He highly praised Ibrahim Hassan Murad for his tremendous efforts, hard work, and dedication in making UMT reach the skyline of success and said that he is proud that UMT is functioning on the vision of Dr. Hasan Sohaib Murad (Shaheed).

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OREIGN Office has said that Pakistan has faithfully complied with and completed all technical requirements of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), hoping the world body will also take decisions in accordance with the technical standards.

At his weekly news briefing on Friday, Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar said that there are issues of politicisation in the FATF by some countries wherein technical requirements are set aside and political considerations take the forefront. He, however, said Pakistan is a strong and important country and it knows to defend its interests.

The FO spokesman’s remarks came as Indian media has started a malicious campaign against Pakistan, saying that Pakistan is likely to slip into the 'black list' of the global anti-terrorist financing

and anti-money laundering watchdog for non-compliance.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will undertake the next review of Pakistan’s progress in curbing terror-financing and money laundering when the plenary begins on February 21 in Paris, France. Pakistan has been on the Parisbased FATF's grey list for deficiencies in its counter-terror financing and antimoney laundering regimes since June 2018. This greylisting has adversely impacted Pakistan’s imports, exports and remittances, and limited access to international lending.

In October 2021, FATF retained Pakistan on its grey list for non-compliance in one critical parameter out of the 27-point action plan that the country had committed to. Additionally, the new action plan with six items had been drawn up to address the deficiencies noted in Pakistan’s 2019 APG Mutual Evaluation report.

In a briefing, FATF President Marcus

Pleyer said that Pakistan has “addressed or largely addressed” 30 of the 34 items of the FATF action plan to curb money laundering and terror financing.

Pakistan is hopeful that it would get off the list. Finance Minister Senator Shaukat Tarin on Friday last said that it is an “injustice” that Pakistan was not removed from the grey list of the FATF despite implementing its 27 points.

“Any country who has implemented 27 points is removed from the FATF’s grey list but it is an injustice that the same precedent is not being followed in our case,” Shaukat Tarin said. The finance minister, however, said that Pakistan would soon be removed from the grey list.

Meanwhile, Asim Iftikhar responding to a question on Friday, said that Pakistan has faced and confronted the menace of terrorism with a lot of courage and success. He said India has a track record of supporting terrorism in Pakistan. “We are aware of the threat and we will take all

necessary steps to halt it,” he added.

The spokesperson said formal invites have been issued to all the OIC member countries to attend the 48th session of OIC Council of Foreign Ministers meeting to be held in Islamabad on 22nd and 23rd March.

Asim Iftikhar said Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected to visit Russia next week.

Regarding the Russia-Ukraine crisis, the spokesperson hoped that continued engagement will lead to a diplomatic solution, saying it is the right way to go.

Hyderabad: Workers of Jamaat-e-Islami stage a protest against rising inflation. INP

Private sector’s role in combating climate change Taha haShMI Climate change is arguably the biggest threat the world is facing right now and its effects are all around us. The melting of glaciers and the warming of seawater have pushed global sea levels up by an average of 8 to 9 inches since 1880.

Nearly 70% of this increase has occurred in the last three decades, indicating the impact of anthropomorphic activities. A large chunk of the heat radiated from our planet is being pushed back into the ocean, instead of rising into space, thanks to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The global weather, meanwhile, is getting more and more extreme, with frequent droughts, heat-waves, snowstorms, and other similar climatic events.

Climate change is not only affecting animal life but also human prosperity.

The rapidly shifting weather patterns are hurting agriculture everywhere while crop yields are facing growing threats from floods, reduction in water supplies, and pests. Meanwhile, the increase in pollution is affecting everyone’s health.

Pakistan has been hit particularly hard by these factors.

Not only are we facing extreme weather conditions in every corner of the country, the alarming decline in air quality and the emergence of smog in urban centres have also made life difficult for the residents. In several cities, including Karachi and Lahore, the Air Quality Index (AQI) reading, released by the global environmental forum IQAir, persistently stays above the unhealthy range.

In Lahore, the metric occasionally rises

to alarming highs of more than 500 – a point where even the healthiest of individuals could face respiratory problems.

The good thing, however, is that the PTI-led government has recognized the seriousness of this issue and has taken various steps to tackle climate change.

The government first launched the Billion Tree Tsunami program in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2014 at the provincial level and later, in 2019, after the PTI won the general election and formed the national government, the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami project was launched.

This will surely go a long way in reversing the adverse effects of climate change.

On the policy front, the government has also taken various initiatives, such as updating the nation’s climate action plan - Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) – which now aims to reduce the country’s emissions by 50% by 2030 (15% unconditional cuts in emissions and 35% conditional on the availability of resources).

Although the government is leading the way, the private sector, particularly the leading corporations, will also have to play its part. There are various benefits of engaging the private sector to tackle climate change. First and foremost, this can significantly increase financial resources earmarked for protecting and preserving the environment. Moreover, the authorities can also make use of the private business’s technical expertise and capabilities.

In Pakistan, Cnergyico Pk Limited (formerly Byco Petroleum), which is one

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of Pakistan’s largest petroleum companies, is one of the few energy companies that has been actively participating in the environmental initiatives. Mr. Azfar Saeed Baig, Cnergyico’s Vice President of Information, said that by working together, “the private and public enterprises can do a better job of mobilizing the civil society and develop innovative solutions to fight climate change.”

Cnergyico carries out various kinds of activities under the banner of Corporate Social Responsibility, ranging from preserving marine life to supporting COVID-19 vaccination campaigns. The company has long been a proponent of improving access to clean drinking water, which is in line with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (Goal number 6: Clean Water and Sanitation).

“Polluted and contaminated water is one of the biggest sources of diseases, like diarrhoea and hepatitis A,” Mr. Azfar Saeed Baig explained, “but by providing clean drinking water, we can prevent diseases and improve quality of life in our local communities.”

Cnergyico has made arrangements to provide clean drinking water to every single family in five villages that surround its oil refining complex in Hub, Balochistan by installing solar-powered RO plants at different locations, thereby serving 12,000 individuals. The company has also partnered with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Water Conservation initiatives at its petrol pump in Quetta by installing a water recycling plant. Moreover, Cnergyico has also taken steps that promote women’s

empowerment and help in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal of achieving gender equality (Goal number 5). The company supports vocational training courses and skill development programmes for women by collaborating with TAF Foundation.

However, “our focus has been on planting trees to aid the government’s large scale restoration initiatives and substantially increasing the country’s forest cover.” The country’s forest cover is just around 5%. However, Mr. Azfar Saeed Baig believes that “by planting thousands of trees and working together with the government agencies and civil society, we can play our part in increasing the nation’s forest cover to more than the global average of 31%.”

Cnergyico was the first major company in Pakistan to start planting trees using the novel Miyawaki Method of afforestation. In 2018, the company sponsored the first Urban Forest Park in Clifton, Karachi, and since then, it has planted thousands of trees in the city as well as near its refinery in Balochistan.

Other major corporations have also started following in Cnergyico’s footsteps by planting trees across the country using the Miyawaki Method.

The private sector is responding to the government’s call and the policymakers should further increase their engagement. Climate change is quickly emerging as an existential threat to everyone. But through effective public-private partnerships, we can mitigate the impact of climate change and prepare a better world for tomorrow.

Saturday, 19 February, 2022 | ISLAMABAD

NEWS

JUI-F threatens to stop Aurat March with ‘baton’ continued from page 01 “Hijab is our pride, our honour,” she said. “As Muslims, it is obligatory upon us to respect hijab.”

Ali demanded that since the matter held significance for the entire Muslim ummah, it should be raised in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

She said the opposition to hijab in India was actually “propaganda against Islam, and we will continue to defend the sanctity and honour of hijab”.

JUI-F general secretary Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri said, “India has been exposed as its constitution is being violated and rights of minorities trampled.”

He criticised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “extremist groups” in India, regretting the “silence of human rights organisations” on the matter.

Haideri also demanded that the “OIC should play its role and raise voice against the atrocities in India”.

It is pertinent to note that Aurat March, which was first held in Karachi in 2018, is now organised in numerous other cities across the country on March 8 every year to celebrate International Women’s Day and highlight the issues women face in Pakistan. The march has been subjected to criticism earlier as well, in particular for the slogans and placards raised during it. In 2019, the march’s participants in the capital came under attack when male students from Jamia Hafsa took down their tent and hurled stones at them.

Last year, petitions where filed in the Islamabad and Lahore high courts, asking for a ban on the march. But these petitions were dismissed, with courts saying the right to assemble peacefully was guaranteed in the Constitution.

ALLowING NAwAz to tRAVEL AbRoAD wAs A bIG MIstAkE, ADMIts PM continued from page 01

There is no doubt it has increased.”

However, he went on to say that the government was always working on how to lessen the burden of this inflation on the people of the country.

PM Imran also called on journalists to inform the people about the reason behind the hike in prices. “Supply lines were affected due to the pandemic.

There was a shortage of commodities and they became more expensive.”

He said that petrol that was previously available for $40 per barrel was

“t

HIS is not what politicians do, this is what the mafia does,” he declared, calling on supporters to help the government combat them. “I have vowed to fight them as long as I am alive.”

The PM while commenting on the increase in inflation stated that “they [the opposition] say that it has increased.

Rationalisation plan for 1800 MHz spectrum completed islamabad

islamabad PR

Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit a local Kiryana/Utility store in Islamabad to inaugurate the roll out of Ehsaas Rashan Riayat for lowincome families. The country’s first ever targeted commodity subsidies programme is in line with the PM’s vision to provide relief to masses and to target government subsidies.

At the retail outlet, PM will witness the digitally enabled Ehsaas Rashan Riayat disbursal to eligible families. Senator Dr. Sania Nishtar, SAPM will brief him on the salient features of end-to-end digitized programme, which is the first of its kind worldwide. Although the recent inflation is driven by rising

prices in the international market; however, this still puts pressure on low-income households. Ehsaas Rashan Riayat will effectively lower the price by 30% for 3 essential commodities—wheat flour, cooking oil/ghee and pulses. The programme will disburse Rs. 106 billion in subsidies to 20 million eligible families over this year; 130 million people which is 53% of the country’s population is expected to benefit. “Ehsaas Rashan Riayat is a one-of-a-kind programme using technology for easy sign up for beneficiaries via SMS; effective targeting using first ever dynamic and nationwide Ehsaas’ survey registry; and financial inclusion promoted with all participating Kiryana agents provided with bank

accounts, 8% tax free commission for Kiryana retailers, and real-time payments”, said Dr. Sania in a press statement. So far, 19.5 million potential beneficiaries have been registered and are currently being verified; 0.52 million beneficiaries already informed of their eligibility.

On the other hand, 117,000 plus Kiryana retailers have also been registered and are currently being verified; and around 2,300 retailers are ready to disburse the subsidy.

National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) has been mandated to execute this programme. The commodity subsidy will be disbursed through a network of government run Utility Stores as well as NBP enabled Kiryana stores. Ehsaas and NBP have developed a mobile point of sale application that enables processing of Rashan subsidies against the Computerised National Identity Card number of a beneficiary through a real-time verification process. Provincial Governments of Punjab, KP, Gilgit Baltistan and AJK are participating in the programme. The federal government and all participating federating units are sharing budget in the proportion of 35/65. In other federating units, federal share of Rashan subsidy worth Rs. 350/month will be given for each eligible family.

USAID’s HESSA project inaugurated islamabad

PR

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has conducted Spectrum Auction in Pakistan in September 2021 in accordance with the Policy Directive of Government of Pakistan issued on 4th August 2021. Accordingly, a rationalization plan in 1800 MHz spectrum band was issued by PTA in consultation with Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) for contiguity of spectrum by all Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs) for efficient spectrum utilization. Jazz, CMPAK, Telenor & Ufone, under the supervision and guidance of PTA and FAB, in a coordinated activity of approximately three months, have implemented the Rationalization Plan. The technical teams of all stakeholders worked day and night for a successful outcome, without disturbance of services in entire Pakistan. This will ensure efficient utilization of contiguous spectrum holdings and better user experience. Furthermore, it will be beneficial for launch of future technologies in Pakistan.

now being sold for $90. “What can we do about this? We have to import petrol.”

The prime minister said that the government had reduced duties and taxes on oil so that it could lessen the burden on the common man. “Every month, the government suffers a loss of Rs70 billion due to this.”

He highlighted that inflation had increased across the globe, noting that it was at an all-time high in the United States for the first time in 40 years. He also gave the examples of Germany,

PM to inaugurate Ehsaas Rashan Riayat disbursements today

NEPRA chairman visits HVDC station in Lahore Chairman NEPRA, Mr. Tauseef H. Farooqi along-with NEPRA professionals visited Pakistan first ever High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Transmission Line, Matiari Lahore Converter Station at Lahore. The Transmission Line is first of its kind in Pakistan having transmission capacity of 4,000 megawatts (MW) at ±660 kV from south to north. The Chairman was briefed by the CEO Pak Matiari-Lahore Transmission Company (Private) Limited (PMLTC) regarding functions of converter station, its management, safety and security measures and employment of Pakistan’s skilled and unskilled labor. The project is on Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis, therefore, the initiative of employing Pakistani engineers has been taken to smoothly process the same for transfer of technology and eventual handing-over to Pakistan after 25 years of service. The Chairman appreciated the efforts of Chinese Company and also ensured that NEPRA being custodian of interests of the consumers as well as investors will provide a level playing field to all and will welcome such mega projects in Pakistan with the help of the private sector. At the end, Chairman NEPRA planted a sapling to promote green and clean Pakistan in line with the vision of Prime Minister of Pakistan. PR

PR

USAID’s Higher Education System Strengthening Activity (HESSA) project has been inaugurated at the National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST).

HESSA is a project of the governments of the United States and Pakistan, launched from the platform of USAID. The project aims to reinforce the country’s higher education system by capacity building of HEIs. Launched in October 2021, the five-year project will serve as an impetus to enhance graduate employability and improve relevance, adequacy and inclusivity vis-à-vis the higher education ecosystem of Pakistan. HESSA’s approach hinges upon engaging a wide array of stakeholders to introduce feasible, relevant, viable and sustainable reforms. The project will encompass baseline studies, strategic plans, interna-

tional higher education summits, study tours to the US universities, and inclusive financial aid system for students, to name a few. Speaking at the occasion, Lt Gen (Retd) Javed Mahmood Bukhari, Rector NUST, expressed gratitude to the US government, its international development agency, USAID, and the University of Utah for establishing HESSA at NUST.

Britain and Turkey.

The PM while concluding his speech also highlighted that the country’s exports, remittances and tax collection were at an all-time high, adding that the country was now on the right track.

“If you Google this on your mobile phones, you will see that I am speaking the truth,” he said, adding that the government was committed to lessening the burden on the people of the country.

Qadri says his ‘letter on Hijab Day’ being misinterpreted ISLAMABAD: Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Minister Pir Noor ul Haq Qadri Thursday said some politicians were misinterpreting his letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan for marking Hijab Day on March 8, just for ‘point-scoring’. Such elements had in fact resorted to negative propaganda for political mileage without even going through the contents of the letter, he added in a statement. The minister said the Muslim girls in India were psychologically and physically being tortured due to wearing Hijab, and in order to express solidarity with them he had proposed marking the International Women’s Day as Hijab Day. He said he had urged the human and women rights organizations working in Pakistan to raise their voice against the burgeoning extremism and Islamophobia in various states of India. He had also asked the civil societies to highlight the women issues like their right in property, education, job opportunities, domestic violence and harassment etc. The women rights, Qadri said, were equally protected in Islam and the Constitution, but no one would be allowed to spread obscenity in their wake. The contents of his letter in fact reflected the overall thinking of Pakistani society vis a vis the Islamic values, he concluded. PR

NHMP IG directs officials to ensure enforcement at different toll plazas

The Inspector General, National Highways and Motorways Police, Inam Ghani, has issued directions for all Zonal Commanders to ensure snap checking and enforcement at various toll plazas during different timings to check violations i.e. unregistered vehicles, tinted glasses, video players (which distracts attention of driver from driving), driving without driving license, seat belts, unfit/unworthy vehicles, fancy registration plates, drunk drivers. PR

NFS&R holds meeting to discuss major issues of farmers Syed Fakhar Imam, Federal Minster for National Food Security and Research (NFS&R) has chaired a meeting today on 18th February, 2022 on major issues/concerns of the farmers. The meeting was attended by Mr. Tahir Khursheed Federal Secretary for M/o NFS&R, former SAPM M/o NFS&R, Additional Secretary Ministry of Power, representative from Ministry of Industries and Production, Ministry of Commerce, and other Federal Government Departments. Secretaries Agriculture Government of the Punjab and KPK attended the meeting while representative from Government of Sindh and Baluchistan participated the meeting.

Grower Associations and Progressive farmer have participated from all provinces. It was in the continuation of previous meeting dated 4thFebruary 2022 where it was decided that

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a fortnightly meeting will be arranged on regular basis on the subject matter.

Speaking on the occasion, Syed Fakhar Imam Federal Minister Ministry of National Food Security & Research ensured to the farmers that the grievances/issues of farmers may be take up at proper forums. Federal Minister also appreciated, that Power Division is in process to move a summary for the ECC on Electricity rates for agriculture sectors. Syed Fkhar Imam also stated that the issue will be resolved in collaboration with Provincial Governments because after 18thconstitutional amendment most of the components of the agriculture sector relates to the Provincial Governments. Secretaries Punjab and KPK also showed their commitments for resolving the issues of farmers at their parts. The agenda of the meeting was issues, problems, and con-

cerns of the farmers. Progressive growers showed their concerns on withdrawal of concession on GST on agricultural inputs and agricommodities whereas farmers from South Punjab raised the issue of water shortage/theft.

In the meeting enhancement of support price was also discussed. The farmers raised the point that fuel price adjustment on electricity bills of agriculture tube well be divided on whole the year with flat rate. Issue regarding GST on fisheries and its feed was and Grower grievances on an unannounced ban on export of gur and shakkar was discussed as well.

Growers pointed out the cost of production has increased manifold, they also demanded to ensure the availability of fertilizer and removal of GST on pesticides including other product used in cotton crop. The meeting was ended with the vote of thanks by the chair. PR

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Saturday, 19 February, 2022

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Should Bangladesh Lease Land from South Sudan?

Vote of no-confidence Revising a principled stand?

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T is for the third time in a row that the opposition has lost a vote in the Senate where it enjoys a comfortable majority. This clearly indicates that instead of claims of winning over some of the treasury members, a number of opposition’s own legislators dodged it, providing an opportunity to the government to get three of its bills passed despite stiff resistance from the Senators of the combined opposition present in the meeting. This becomes all the more significant at a time when the opposition has decided to present a motion of no-confidence against the PM. The no-confidence motion is to be tabled in the National Assembly where unlike the Senate the opposition is in minority. Unless the PML(Q) and MQM, who are major government allies, decide to part company with it, or a major chunk of PTI dissidents agrees to go along with the opposition, there is little chance of the opposition turning tables on the govt. The opposition’s talks with the PTI’s coalition partners have so far yielded no result. The PTI dissidents led by Jahangir Tareen too have kept their cards close to their chest. Neither the PML(Q) nor MQM are likely to break up ties with the PTI till they receive a signal from the establishment and an assurance of a favourable place in a future set up. Is the opposition now willing to seek the support of the establishment in return for agreeing to a new version of the current hybrid system? one wonders what PML(N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz meant when she said that a no-trust move against the government was a risk that should be taken. The idea of a no-confidence move was initially mooted by the PPP leadership. Mian Nawaz Sharif had however opposed it, putting his weight instead behind public contact campaigns including the PDM’s march on Islamabad with an aim to expose the government and put up a show of strength forcing double-minded PTI legislators to change loyalties. PML(N) SVP Khaqan Abbasi too had ruled out a no-confidence move which he maintained was not practicable in a hybrid system. Is the party willing to abandon its slogan of “vote ko izzat do” in its zeal to get rid of the PTI administration?

A new prospect appears as it gets a challenging offer NaNdita roy

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or a long time, Bangladesh has been striving to ensure food security at home by planning to acquire farmland abroad. recently, South Sudan, an African country, has expressed interest in leasing a vast area of its fallow land to Bangladesh in order to collaborate in agricultural production, processing, and marketing in the central African countries. This is not the first time Bangladesh is going to lease foreign land; earlier, two Bangladeshi companies leased 40,000 hectares of farmland in Tanzania and Uganda. This move of Dhaka in leasing foreign land is one of the various initiatives undertaken to increase food production in the wake of the growing population and decreasing arable land. But this time, citing the feasibility of this proposal, critics raise the question, “Should Bangladesh accept this offer?” “What benefits Bangladesh will get if it accepts this offer?”

South Sudan, a landlocked country of Central Africa, has a total 644,329 sq KM land area with a total population of 11.06 million. Most of the land of this country is fallow and not being used for cultivation or for any other productive purpose. Undoubtedly, there is a huge untapped possibility that can be accrued by utilizing these lands for agricultural production. The government of South Sudan has been discussing the issue of cultivating crops in their land with the Bangladesh government for a long time.

Luckily, the issues have started seeing light as many Bangladeshi entrepreneurs have agreed in considering the proposal seriously to invest there.

In recent years, Bangladesh is focusing largely on industrialization but the agricultural sector remains the lifeblood and irreplaceable driving force for Bangladesh’s economy. In FY 2020-21, the contribution of agriculture to Bangladesh’s GDP was 13.47 percent. Though the contribution of agriculture to the GDP is gradually declining, it is still the major employment source with 40 percent of total employment.

Bangladesh is now self-sufficient in food production with net food produced in 2021 being over 45.3 million metric tons. The agriculture-friendly policies of the country have contributed greatly to this success.

Besides, the skills and expertise of the farmers cannot

International Women’s Day Religious Affairs Minister’s letter reflects confusion

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ELIGIoUS Affairs Minister Noorul haq Qacri has written to Prime Minister Imran Khan asking him to redesignate March 8, designated International Women’s Day by the United Nations, hijab Day. This has caused concern amongst women’s organizations and activists, because he also said that Women’s Day Women Marches raised objectionable and unIslamic slogans. Women serve a certain amount of latitude because a number of issues facing women have ot ben solved in Pakistan. These do not involve solely reproductive health, or even honour killings and acid atacks, but economic ones like equal pay for equal work. Women in Pakistan, like women all over the world, may have come a long way, but there is still much to be done. It may also be true, as Mr Qadri would like to say, that Islam has given many righjts to women, but even by that standard, Pakistani women have a distance to travel, and Women’s Day sems to be thetime that distance is to be covered.

Setting up a separate hijab Day to clash with International Women’s Day seems to be about as successful as earlier attempts to stop Valentine’s Day commemorations and replace them with a hijab Day. The hijab Day proposal seems a sort of obedience to the same sort of impulse that it critiques: it celebrates another Day, one which is only marked in Pakistan. As Mr Qadri said, it refers to the ban on hijab in some Indian schools.

It also creates an image of Pakistani womanhood that is in contrast with reality as well as where the majority of Pakistani women want to go. Women’s Day is about aspirations, and Pakistani women’s aspirations are in line with the rest of the world. True, it should not be used by some activists merely to get a rise out of the more conservative, but still, the Aurat Marches which are organized to mark the occasion must not become an opportunity for anyone to breach the peace. The state must ensure adequate security to make the occasion one where there is a clash of ideas, not of persons.

Instead of diverting funds, defence industry should be made more useful Fatima Zaheer

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hEN it comes to military outflow and economic development, there are three kinds of relationships: positive, negative, and neutral, depending on whether it aids or hinders the economy In order to have a multifaceted, perplexing, and vigorous approach for the country’s setting, Pakistan must increase its military spending. Pakistan spends over 3 percent of its GDP on defense, which means that 97 percent of that money might be better spent by reducing surplus, cultivating skills, and increasing capacity at all levels. The 3 percent could be used to help the economy, especially through conversions.

War may be more expensive than guarding the state’s defense capability; therefore for a country like Pakistan, which has already invested heavily in its military, retaining erudite soldiers is exorbitant. Innovation that gives security and safety to the state while also offering possibilities for economic recovery can provide the basis for sensible industrial strategy by investing in defense infrastructure and spending.

Growing security concerns in Pakistan, such as inter-state border issues linked to the merger, racial tensions, and radicalization within the country, have an impact on the battle on radicalism. Since independence, India’s strategy and investment have dominated Pakistan’s defence industry. India, on the other hand, has accused China of starting a conventional and nuclear arms race in the region. Threat perceptions and security challenges have sparked a Subcontinent-wide weapons race. Expenditures on the budget are separated into two groups. Non-development expenditures include defense and interest payments, while development expenditures include social communities, services, and economic services.

The idea that “military spending” was a non-development expenditure shifted dramatically in the postCold War era, with many individuals believing that military spending does not fit within the category of development investment. Defence investment and the defence sector are considered as a source of increased

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it is a great achievement for Bangladesh as it has brightened the country’s image and testified to the country’s increased financial strengths and growing agricultural capacities. Not to mention, if Bangladesh can build agricultural infrastructure in a correct and responsible way, it will create a win-win situation for both countries

The writer is a freelance columnist

Defence industry in the economy

Dedicated to the legacy of late Hameed Nizami

Editor Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

be ignored while preparing the ledger of success of the country’s agricultural production. The agricultural scientists, researchers, faculty members of agricultural universities in Bangladesh have been working relentlessly to bring innovative ideas and latest technologies in this sector to ensure maximum output utilizing the limited arable land available and with minimal effect on the environment.

There are several factors that give a pointed direction towards why Bangladesh should accept the proposal of leasing land in South Sudan.

First, we know that Bangladesh is one of those countries in the world that has one of the lowest rates of arable land per citizen. Leasing land from abroad will help the country to meet the growing food demand of 165 million people at home. Second, if Bangladesh can successfully start cultivating agricultural crops in South Sudan, it will bring economic gain for Bangladesh not only by selling the agricultural goods to the local market but also by exporting to 27 other Central African countries.

Third, Bangladesh has sufficient expertise in agricultural sectors which can be optimally utilized, and possibly further be expanded, if Bangladesh can successfully start producing in the land leased from South Sudan.

Fourth, there are many renowned agricultural scientists in Bangladesh who are doing excellent research work on the country’s agricultural sector: if Bangladesh leases land in South Sudan, these researchers can also contribute to boosting agricultural production in African countries. This is how Bangladesh can contribute, to some extent, to finding a sustainable solution to the prolonged food crisis in Africa.

Fifth, Bangladesh has huge labour, mostly notably farmers, who have expertise and experience in

the agricultural sector. If Bangladeshi investors invest in the agricultural sector in South Sudan, it will create huge employment opportunities for Bangladeshi migrant labour, and ultimately contribute to increasing Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserve. Sixth, once Bangladesh leases land from South Sudan, it will increase Bangladesh’s brand image as it is a sign of the country’s capability and financial strength. Seventh, once successfully implemented, this project will open a new window of opportunities for Bangladesh in other African countries which can be further utilized for increasing financial returns for Bangladesh. Eighth, both countries can jointly produce lentils, oil, cotton, and other crops on the leased land and share the products which will bring fortune for both of them by helping them to avoid future food shortages.

These are the projected benefits that Bangladesh may avail if it cooperates with South Sudan in the agricultural sector. As it will require hefty investment, Bangladesh should conduct a feasibility study and seek the opinion of the experts of the relevant field before making the final decision.

Also, Bangladesh should send a team of multi-sector specialists including agro researchers, agricultural scientists, agricultural extension officials, and marketing and financial experts to examine the potential and financial viability of investing in the agricultural sector of South Sudan.

But there is no doubt that it is a great achievement for Bangladesh as it has brightened the country’s image and testified to the country’s increased financial strengths and growing agricultural capacities. Not to mention, if Bangladesh can build agricultural infrastructure in a correct and responsible way, it will create a win-win situation for both countries.

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demand and employment, particularly in developing countries. The global defence sector generates trillions of dollars annually. Military investment may have a favourable effect on the development of the industrial sector in the world’s least developed countries. By selling armaments and other related equipment, the defence business brings in billions of money for countries.

Defence businesses globally earn billions of dollars each year. There are plans for Pakistan’s military sector to be indigenized as part of the country’s independence By 2009, Pakistan’s defence sector was expected to have furnished equipment worth $6.3 billion, with a total value of $10.4 billion by 2015. The majority of the items were made for the military’s domestic requirements. In defence work, Pakistan has followed a strategy of self-assurance. Since 2002, a scheme has been in place to lower the current capacity of defence industrial facilities in order to promote the export of arms. As a result, the country’s armament exports more than tripled in 2012, hitting $300 million, up from $100 million in 2006 and $40 million in 2000, representing a 650 percent increase (Sen, 1983).

In Pakistan, the defence sector, on the other hand, offers health, education, transportation, and communication, as well as other social sector-related services that contribute to economic growth. The governments have arguments to spend more on defence on the basis of the aforementioned reasons. one study found that increasing defence spending through inflation boosts economic development, especially in resource-constrained nations like Pakistan Furthermore, these sectors’ research and Development (r&D) sections aid the civil industrial sector in terms of technical development and the development of a skilled workforce for the country. If nuclear reactors in Pakistan are well-managed, they will contribute to the country’s economic development by supplying energy.

Even if the military changes the composition of its spending to more productive routes, the inequity that welfare benefits primarily the military associated people persist. only if the civil administration gives value for money can the shift of resources to more universal welfare be successful. It s unclear if the military-cre-

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ated welfare is inhibiting the establishment of a universal system or is a reaction to the one that has failed.

Army welfare may become obsolete if political governments use the possessions at their disposal more efficiently, and resources may be dispersed more equally. resources can be saved by limiting the highranking officers’ monetary rewards and eliminating communication waste in inter- and intra-services setups due to underdeveloped C4Is. General Musharraf’s administration took several noteworthy initiatives to solve this issue. In 2002, Shireen Mazari was of the view that even at the level of r&D, where each service appears to be “doing it alone,” the presence of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee should result in extensive coordination between the three services in terms of doctrine and induction of new weapons systems, but the reality is otherwise.

It not only squandered time and space, but it also squandered resources. Inter-service rivalry that lead to final outbursts and turf wars should be eliminated, and operations should be marked by “real jointness.”

Private enterprises should be brought in to improve capacity and efficiency, build a target-oriented approach, and free up resources for the strategic avenues, especially in non-strategic areas.

Pakistan’s military budget is likely to increase in the near future due to the country’s strategic situation.

As a result, it appears that Pakistan’s current military budget is being spent in a more effective and beneficial manner for economic growth. Steps would be taken to make the military, or at least just the military industry, self-sufficient.

Defence investment and the defence sector, particularly in emerging nations, are considered as sources of increased demand and employment. The global military industry generates trillions of dollars in revenue every year. Military spending in the world’s least developed countries may have a favourable influence on the industrial sector’s growth.

The military industry earns billions of dollars for governments by selling guns and other associated equipment. Still it seems the situation is giving the glimpse of your guess is good as mine, as everyone comes forward with novel predictions. It may be as useful as a chocolate teapot, nevertheless there is always room for optimistic views dispersing positivity.

The writer is a freelance columnist

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

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Real estate in Pakistan

India’s tottering democracy The current state elections depend on money

amjed jaaved

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N a startling statement, the Uttar Pradesh police have revealed that they had seized cash, gold and drugs worth rs 110 million ahead of the second phase of the UP elections in India. Besides, they also recovered 2053 illegal arms, ,835 cartridges and 165 kg of explosives. Preventive action has been taken against 440,000 hooligans likely to disrupt the peace.

India’s representation of Peoples Act forbids politicians from possessing, distributing or transporting illegal cash, narcotics, drugs, liquor, gold and silver and a host of freebies and gifts among people to lure them to vote in their favour. Yet,the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections saw biggest seizures of drugs, cash, liquor and so on to date.

Enforcement agencies let the offenders slip off with a slap on wrist. The election commission keeps issuing clean chits for all sorts of violations.

About rs 3 billion in cash was seized during the 2014 Lok Sabha election. This excludes 1, 61, 84,508 litres of liquor and 17,070 kg of drugs and narcotics seized from different parts of the country.

The Western notion of democracy maintains, among other things, an analytical distinction between formal democracy, which India fulfils with regular elections, and substantive democracy whose sine qua non are a corruptionfree society, elimination of iniquities and human-rights violations.

Thus, repeated elections are no real test of a democracy. Money plays an important part in determining a poor voter’s electoral choice.

Elections are marred by anti-democratic features like violence, en bloc voting, voting along religious and caste lines, and so on.

The central and state governments in India do not necessarily represent rule by a majority.

Through coalition politics a party with less than 50 percent votes can form the government at the centre or in states. There are several ways to determine the majority in an electoral system. In India’s system, whoever gets the largest number of votes is elected.

The multiparty system allows not only a plethora of political parties, but also individuals to contest elections. If votes get divided among different contestants in a constituency, a candidate with less than 50 percent votes can win. To avoid this situation, some countries require that a candidate should get 50 percent of the votes cast to be declared a winner.

Caste influence has always been predominant

in secular India. The social structure and equipoise of the traditional polity legitimized ‘the power and control of land-based jatis (castes) over a disaggregated and alienated mass of the landless, the bonded labourers, low castes and sudras’.

Ever since independence, the politicians made no serious effort to reduce the influence of caste on elections. They continued to hoodwink masses with buzzword-subsumed themes of ‘removal of poverty, illiteracy and disease by bridging the gulf between the rich and the poor, between the urban and rural, through industrialization, spread of education and building of an egalitarian-cum welfare state’. The slogans brought no change in the condition of scheduled tribes (girijans), scheduled castes (harijans), castes (jatis), religious communities (dharmic sampratya) and language communities (bhashai sampratya).

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, in a lecture on “Democracy and its Critics”on 16 December 2005, said, “The rise of caste-ist politics was a failure”.

Stephen P. Cohen points to ‘slow expansion of military influence within the Indian political system’, ‘institutional anomaly of caste-based units recruited on a “martial races” basis, ‘the great social distance between officer and jawan (soldier)’ even when from the same class background.

Cohen regards the army’s expanded role in governing states as a ‘challenge to democratic values’. he expresses disgust at ‘forty million Indians living under military rule, if not military law, making India one of the world’s largest military-dominated states while it was simultaneously the world’s largest democracy’. Cohen also refers to ‘the bypassing of the para-military forces in quelling riots, irregularities in senior promotions, controversy over caste recruitment to the army’. honest men like even Acharya Narendra (the doyen of Indian socialism) and Acharya Kirplani got rejected at the hustings. The people have now realised that repeated elections are no real test of a democracy. India’s democracy accepts the right of cheats and bullies to rule.

Corporate contributions, up to five percent of a company’s net profits, to political parties are legal. huge funds are collected from individuals and companies by extortion or for past or future favours.

Political corruption has become integral to India’s governance process. The disclosure norms are very feeble and un-enforced. Most expenditure is illegitimate, going on buying votes, distributing liquor, transporting voters, bribing local powerbrokers, bribing polling agents, payoffs to police and polling personnel in several places and hiring hoodlums for rigging and booth capturing.

Most major parties no longer attract voluntary party workers motivated by principles and goals.

They hire workers at great expense during elections. Large mobilisation of poor people for election meetings, spending enormous sums for lorries, and bribes to hired audiences, and ostentatious campaign in the form of large fleets of cars and jeeps, huge cut-outs, banners, posters, tents, and loudspeakers account for other expenditures.

According to the Association for Democratic reforms, a record 43 percent of MPs elected in 2019 had been charged with a crime, with 29 percent booked for grave offences like rape and murder, 109 percent up over ten years earlier.

Crime seems to pay: analysis shows that a

candidate with a criminal record is three times more likely to win than one without. Similarly, one with declared assets of more than rs 50 million is six times more likely to succeed than one with less.

Donations were introduced in 2018, ostensibly as a reform to weed out illicit cash. This allows for unlimited, opaque financing of political parties. It is nearly impossible to trace links between a billionaire whose fortune ballooned after securing lucrative deals from the government, and his or her donations to enabling politicians. The sole indicator of political funding now disclosed is the total amount received. In 2020 the BJP’s declared assets of $655m surpassed those of the next 51 political parties combined. More striking, its wealth rose by 443 percent in just five years.

Some 814 million voters speaking 1,652 languages voted in 900,000 voting centres across India over 35 days in 2019. This cost parties a flabbergasting rs 300 billion.

Individual candidates can spend only rs7 million on their campaigns. This is too little to meet even poster printing costs in important contests. Key candidates spend between rs 750 million to rs 3 billion. Lesser stars spend between rs150 to 500 million and marginal candidates between rs10-100 million.

Mammoth rallies where half a million people cheer candidates cost upwards of rs 30 million. Every major party holds at least one major rally or counter-rallies a day. Add the cost of sending thousands of workers out in cars, trains, planes, rickshaws, bicycles, bullock carts, tractors, camels, horses, and boats to woo voters with speeches, street plays, and songs.

Persecution of religious minorities and the so-called untouchables (who prefer to call themselves dalits) is endemic to the social and cultural systems that circumscribe the Indian polity.

A four-year-old girl, named Surjo, was boiled in a tub in Muzaffarnagar, UP, and then beheaded to please gods as part of a religious sacrifice.

In a country where sons are sold for 25 paisas and women are thrown into the fire to please Sati, goddess of chastity, such events cannot be foreseen or forestalled. The solution lies in state funding of elections. reforms suggested in Tarkunde Committee, Indrajit Gupta Committee, Dinesh Goswami Committee and N. S. Gehlot could not be implemented. hindutva supporters want to convert India into a centralised state for the Brahmans only.

The rise of the BJP from a marginal hindu nationalist party of the 1980s to the majority party in parliament in 1999 vindicates the ascendancy of the hindutva trend. obviously, India is the largest democracy in form but not in substance.

India, the world’s largest democracy, stands divided into two worlds, the affluent and the poor. half of India’s population lives below the poverty line ($1 or $2 a day). The poor are prone to be influenced by cash doles, booze, and freebies. Money plays an important part in determining a poor voter’s electoral choice. historically, the richer party wins.

Bulk of money goes to media advertising.

The BJP spent over one-third of its funds on advertising. Political parties shun paupers and nominate candidates with hefty wallets.

The writer is a freelance journalist, has served in the Pakistan government for 39 years and holds degrees in economics, business administration, and law. He can be reached at amjedjaaved@gmail.com

ThE real estate business community and other relevant stakeholders of about 40 major cities were seemingly upset as the incumbent government announced new market prices for immovable property on December 1, 2021. The decision to increase the prices came under the government’s plan to generate greater tax revenue from property and boost the economy of the country. The new evaluation caused a hike in prices from 100% to 600%. The rapid and enormous change will only cause a ripple effect in many quarters of the economy involving immovable property. hence, an uproar was seen throughout the country, especially in Punjab, and the decision was halted within a week of the said announcement.

Stakeholders’ inclusion in the revised decision is needed for the revaluation of changes in property prices as promised by the Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and revenue.

Although this news is a sign of relief when compared with the storm that brewed for the real estate community, it will only soften the blow. The situation is not just a major concern for real estate property owners and dealers, it will affect other sectors as well. Those planning private and public investments in schools and hospitals will have to rethink their decision to invest.

The real estate industry is highly concerned and speaks on behalf of its valued customers, builders, real-estate businessmen, and the community. A decision by the government inclusive of all is a sure recipe of success and will prove to be a win-win for all the stakeholders.

MARYAM NAWAZ KAYANI ISLAMABAD

Social justice and prosperity ALBErT Einstein has rightly said that striving for social justice is the most valuable thing to do in life. Freedom is incomplete and economic prosperity is meaningless without social justice. Social justice and economic growth always go hand in hand.

The principle of social uprightness is all about empowering people; it is about equal opportunities, ensuring meritocracy, establishing social harmony, enforcing good governance and ensuring equal distribution of national wealth. In the contemporary world, the dark clouds of social injustice have stagnated economic growth for the past several decades.

Underdeveloped countries in particular are in dire straits as foreign direct investment has stagnated, the law and order situation remain precarious and widespread discrimination continues unabated. Under these circumstances, there cannot be social justice without economic prosperity because a shattered economy breeds systems that are frail and corrupt. This is exactly what has happened in Pakistan. Therefore, it is essential for state administrators to devise strategic measures to curb social injustice so that economic prosperity can be ensured along with sustainable development.

TAHSEEN ALI ABRO KARACHI

Digital payments ThE expansion of digital payments has turned out to be a game-changer for not just individual customers but also Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), especially start-ups. I own a small business in Karachi and ever since various digital payment enablers began introducing revolutionary steps, we have been able to considerably streamline our operations while creating a more sustainable business model.

An important milestone in this regard has been the introduction of ‘raast’ by the State Bank of Pakistan. It is Pakistan’s own instant payment system that has significantly cut down on processing and turnaround times for transactions. The defining feature of this scheme, however, is how simplified transferring money has become. Gone are the days when people struggled to remember and relay their account number. With ‘raast’, people can send and receive money through their mobile numbers without any charges.

I have been an account holder at a local bank for a long time and it recently introduced ‘raast’ into its banking app and the internet banking portal. Since then, as a business, we’ve witnessed greater interoperability when making payments to suppliers or receiving money from customers. It has allowed my company to cut costs on each transaction while opening various avenues of digital payments across our supply chain. The efforts that the State Bank of Pakistan is making in collaboration with financial institutions such as commercial banks are extremely appreciable.

Ultimately, they are building a robust, convenient, secure and instantaneous digital payment ecosystem.

AMMAR MUZAFAR KARACHI

Gaming in Pakistan I remember playing my first video game, Snake, more than thirty years ago. over time games have become more entertaining and complex. When I was a kid my parents used to stop me from playing games, saying they were bad for me. over the years research has shown that playing video games can be beneficial. Surgeons play games to improve hand-eye coordination. Kids are learning the basic concepts of technology, savings and other skills through games. Games are also used for helping reduce stress and improve well being of players. Games allow the player to immerse their mind and thoughts into the game, leaving their worries. Therefore burn victims are told to play snow and ice themed games to help them heal better and reduce their pain.

Because of the improved graphics quality of games, they are now used to teach skills and knowledge. For example, a chemistry game allows the students to mix different chemicals and see the reaction, in a game of test tube mixing. Similarly, oil and Gas companies are using games to train workers on equipment on oil rigs. While flight simulator game has been used by pilots for training. There are many more simulator games like farming, train and boat simulators. Pakistan should tap into this gaming market and use it to generate jobs and spread knowledge. The government should promote game companies by offering zero tax for five years and then slowly increasing tax on the industry. Similarly, the government should fund the production of games that teach new skills to its players.

SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEER P ENGR PESHAWAR

08 WORLD VIEW 19th February 22_Layout 1 2/18/2022 9:31 PM Page 1

Saturday, 19 February, 2022

08 WORLD VIEW

Like us, Russia Lost an empiRe. We aRe Witnessing the afteRshock

ProsPecT ANAtOl lIeveN

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N the summer of 1992, some journalist colleagues and I broke into the former soviet naval base of Paldiski in Estonia, which was still occupied by the Russian navy but was to be evacuated. A story was going round that the Russians were reinforcing, not drawing down their forces in Paldiski, and we wanted to find out if this was true. (It wasn’t).

We were arrested by a Russian naval patrol—more like a bedraggled ceremonial guard of honour left behind once the vast majority had already been withdrawn or had simply gone home—and were politely escorted to the headquarters of the admiral command, which appeared to be pretty much the only intact building left in the base.

After a perfunctory interrogation, the admiral offered us a drink and raised his glass in a melancholy toast: “To Britain and Russia, two former great naval powers.”

I was reminded of this toast a couple of years later on a visit to Kiev, when I heard a British diplomat ask in supercilious tones: “When is Russia going to get over its ridiculous obsession with holding on to pointless overseas naval bases?” That remark occupies a top place in my cabinet of western diplomatic gems—ones that went beyond hypocrisy and mendacity to a sort of almost transcendental lack of self-awareness.

The British and French—unlike the Americans— are in a position to know that the end of empire is generally a very messy affair, whose consequences play out disruptively not over years, but decades and generations; not least in the great power syndromes of the former imperial countries. Like so many of my class and generation in Britain, I grew up in the shadow of the end of the British empire, and the profound sense of loss and diminished horizons that this left behind. so when I covered the end of the soviet empire, it was hard not to feel a certain sense of empathy with what Russians were going through.

More importantly, serious comparative study of the end of empires reveals historical patterns that are vastly more complex than the usual picture of “good” and “bad” actors—and this is certainly true of the present crisis with Russia over Ukraine.

The Middle East is in many ways still working through the consequences of the collapse of three empires: the Ottoman Empire 104 years ago, and the French and British after the second World War. These empires left behind a range of largely artificial, deeply internally divided successor states and bitter regional rivalries.

American hegemony has sometimes suppressed and sometimes aggravated these conflicts. The Balkans too are still living with the results of the Ottoman and Habsburg empires and their collapse. south Asia is still living with the consequences of the end of the British Indian Empire, including most notably the partition of India and Pakistan, and the resulting conflict over Kashmir. As south Asia also indicates, con-

THE WEST’S ATTEMPT TO EXPEL RUSSIA FROM EUROPE HAS FAILED—IT IS FAR TOO POWERFUL AND DEEPLY EMBEDDED FOR THIS TO WORK flicts spawned or exacerbated by empires and their fall can simmer for decades before breaking out: as with the revolt of the East Bengalis against Pakistan in 1971 (leading to Indian intervention and the creation of Bangladesh), and the civil war between Tamils and sinhalese in sri Lanka, which erupted in 1983, 36 years after sri Lanka became independent. In Africa, innumerable local conflicts can be traced back at least in part to empire and how empire was dismantled, including most terribly the Rwandan genocide, which also occurred more than 30 years after the Belgian empire fell.

The parts played by empires in helping to generate these conflicts vary from case to case; and while sometimes the empires themselves were culpable, sometimes they found themselves responsible for local issues that they could contain but not solve. For in many cases, one insoluble element was the creation of modern exclusive nation states in areas where no such institutions had previously been known, and where the intermingling of populations made ethnically based states an automatic recipe for conflict.

As the Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz remarked about the Polish-Lithuanian conflict over the city of Vilnius, which broke out after the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917, this dispute simply could not be resolved (except by superior force) within the framework of rival and mutually exclusive state sovereignty in which it was couched. sometimes empires suppressed old local conflicts, which broke out again after empires fell. sometimes empires exacerbated those conflicts, by bringing together in one “state” ethnicities that had always lived separately. sometimes empires worsened these tensions through divide-and-rule policies. sometimes they favoured one local minority at the expense of others (as the French did with the Alawites of syria and the Belgians did with the Tutsi or Rwanda and Burundi). sometimes they created or worsened conflicts through encouraging migration for economic reasons.

And very often, of course, empires moved their own people to any territories where the climate was suitable for European settlement. Where the indigenous population was sparse and decimated by new European diseases (North America, Australia, siberia), these settlers established a permanently dominant presence. Elsewhere (southern Africa, Algeria, Kazakhstan), the decline of empire saw descendants of the settlers fight to defend their dominance, flee, or accommodate themselves to rule by the indigenous majority.

Many of the conflicts and tensions that accompanied and followed the end of the soviet Union have fallen into these wider imperial and post-imperial patterns. In the Caucasus, the soviet Union established republics which, after independence, found themselves bitterly divided by ethnicity. Armenians revolted against Azerbaijan; Abkhaz

and Ossetes against Georgia; Chechens against Russia.

The soviet Union moved Russians to work in the factories of Latvia and Estonia just as the British moved Chinese to Malaya and Indians to Fiji. After independence, Latvia and Estonia established an informal settlement with the Russian minorities rather similar to that of Malaysia, where the indigenous population gets to monopolise government and the security services while the “immigrant” minority dominates the commercial economy.

Despite these common patterns, a very significant difference exists between the maritime empires of western Europe and the land empires of Turkey, Russia and Germany. However nasty some of the conflicts involved in the fall of empire, the imperial power could in the end escape them (and responsibility for them) by returning home over the sea. For the land empires, no such clearcut escape was possible. They had to live with post-imperial conflicts on their own borders, with disputes sometimes overlapping them. On the one hand, some of their own ethnic minority populations saw no reason why, when the rest of the empire had collapsed, they too should not have the right to independence enjoyed by others a few metres across the new national frontier. On the other, ethnic minorities left stranded in neighbouring states inevitably looked to their mother country for support and protection.

In this clear-cut distinction between land and sea empires, there is, however, one huge exception: Ireland and Northern Ireland, where descendants of British settlers have fought with implacable determination against rule by the indigenous majority of Ireland as a whole. speaking as someone of Irish descent on my mother’s side (though to make things even more complicated, from an Irish Catholic family long in the British service), it has always been a matter of amazement to me that the British have managed to treat the history of their Empire and its aftermath in Ireland as a matter completely sui generis, with no relation to the experiences of other countries.

Yet there are lessons from Ireland of general significance. The first is that acknowledgement of even the greatest historical crimes (among which the British treatment of Ireland between the 16th and the 19th centuries must surely number) is no great help when it comes to sorting out in the present the issues that they left behind.

Nor are legality or democracy. Irish nationalists have always held with impeccable democratic and legalistic logic that an overwhelming majority in the Kingdom of Ireland gave them the right to rule over the whole island.

Ulster Protestants have argued with equal logic that a majority in the six counties of the north and a vote of the British parliament gave them the right to stay with Britain. If—as an essay by Andrew Adonis in the last issue of Prospect suggests is possible—sinn Féin wins a majority in the north and a referendum calls for union

THE ROOTS OF THE UKRAINE CRISIS LIE IN THE TRAUMA OF IMPERIAL DECLINE with the Republic, that will be a democratic and legal outcome. Whether democracy and legality will prevent a new war, and whether they should determine the policy of the British government, is another matter.

In continental Europe and its immediate periphery, the end of the soviet Union and Yugoslavia (a country that was itself the unhappy offspring of the end of the Ottoman and Austrian empires) has left behind eight unsolved conflicts and territorial disputes: Bosnia, Kosovo, Transdniestria, Crimea, the Donbas, Abkhazia, south Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

The conflicts in the Caucasus have been resolved, at least temporarily, by the intervention of Russian power; but peace in the Balkans depends on the presence of wholly inadequate numbers of Nato troops, the threat of American intervention and the absence of Russian intervention. The conflicts in Ukraine continue to fester, and to increase the risks of conflict not just between Ukraine and Russia, but Russia and the west.

This crisis should have made one thing at least plain: that the west’s attempt to expel Russia from Europe has failed. Russia is far too large, too powerful, and too deeply embedded in the affairs of its neighbours for this to be possible. Most importantly of all, Russia is in the last resort prepared to fight to defend what the Russian establishment regards as vital national interests in Ukraine and the Caucasus; and the west is not, because under all the self-promoting bloviation, western elites and populations do not think that their interests there are truly important, and have declared openly and repeatedly that they are not prepared to fight for them. Russia has also made clear that though Moscow has serious reservations about entering into a full partnership with China (given the enormous disparity between them in population and economy), it will do so if the west fails significantly to accommodate key Russian concerns.

In these perilous circumstances, it is of the utmost importance that France (hopefully assisted by Germany) should give real content to President Macron’s vague suggestions of a new European security architecture including Russia; and that if such a new framework can be created, it should assume as its first task the peaceful resolution of the continent’s most menacing conflicts. For this to be possible, all European participants will need to work on the basis of a principled but also pragmatic commitment to peace; and to eschew both rigid legalism and self-righteousness—a self-righteousness for which their own imperial and post-imperial records provide no justification whatsoever.

Anatol Lieven is a senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. His most recent book, Climate Change and the Nation State, is now out in an updated paperback edition.

as a muslim filmmaker, i want to tell my own story WE ARE OFTEN PORTRAYED AS EITHER VILLAINS OR VICTIMS. AT WORST, WE ARE CONDEMNED AS MONSTERS; AT BEST, WE ARE OBJECTS OF PITY IN STORIES THAT ATTEMPT TO “HUMANIZE” US. WE SO RARELY GET TO TELL OUR STORIES FROM OUR OWN LENS

L A Times ASSIA BOUNDAOUI

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s a Muslim American filmmaker, I’ve found that how I am seen — not how I see myself — has dictated whether I get to tell my stories.

How my diverse community is seen has dictated what stories about us get told. It’s exasperating.

From books to films, there are frames that box us in.

We are often portrayed as either villains or victims. At worst, we are condemned as monsters; at best, we are objects of pity in stories that attempt to “humanize” us.

We so rarely get to tell our stories from our own lens.

The latest example of this came last month, with the premiere of the controversial film “Jihad Rehab” at the sundance Film Festival. The documentary follows Yemeni men, formerly detained but never charged at Guantanamo Bay, who are sent to a “rehabilitation cen-

ter” in saudi Arabia to be “deradicalized.”

The director, a white American woman, says she approached the film from an informed perspective, since she spent time in Yemen. But a chorus of filmmakers have widely criticized the movie and human rights activists have raised ethical concerns. In a review, Filmmaker Magazine called it “unapologetically anti-Muslim jingoism.” Meanwhile, two senior staffers at the sundance Institute reportedly resigned because of the decision to include the film at the festival.

The film hits on two problematic narrative frames that plague storytelling of Muslims and people from the Middle East and North Africa. First, there’s the “war on terror.” We seemingly cannot be viewed outside of notions of terrorism and violence. Last year, a UsC Annenberg study of Muslim representation in 200 popular films found that roughly one-third of Muslim characters depicted are perpetrators of violence, and more than half are targets of violence.

The second is the empathy frame. The sundance synopsis claims that “Jihad Rehab” was made with empathy. But often, such “empathy” reinforces biases because it’s loaded with power dynamics about whose humanity is taken for granted and whose humanity needs to be proven. In an essay, novelist Namwali serpell writes: “The empathy model of art can bleed too easily into the relishing of suffering by those who are safe from it.” It can be, she argues, “an emotional palliative that distracts us from real inequities, on the page and on screen.”

Nearly 10 years ago I started making my first film, “The Feeling of Being Watched,” a documentary about

the decades of FBI surveillance of my Muslim and Arab American neighborhood in suburban Chicago. One afternoon while filming, a friend and colleague who was an established white male filmmaker told me that every good documentary film ought to answer a yes-or-no question. For me, he said, the question was: “Are you all terrorists?” He suggested that I spend the duration of my film proving the answer to be no. This was a wake-up call for me. I was investigating my community’s victimization by the state and their resilience from it. Yet cornered into the terrorism framework, his ultimatum would’ve burdened me with having to prove that my family and community aren’t guilty.

While making the film — from the pitching and fundraising phases to the distribution phase — I constantly found myself confronted with the presumption of guilt. As a Muslim filmmaker, I felt doubly compelled to prove my own innocence, while also asserting that I could tell my own story and that my perspective was legitimate. At one film festival pitch, a white woman who’s an industry gatekeeper and heads a major North American documentary fund for “underrepresented” stories, sat across a table from me for a “speed date.” After hearing my pitch, she bluntly told me that I couldn’t possibly take on the task of directing this film myself, since it was a personal film and I’m in it. she recommended a list of white female directors for me to bring on as a co-director.

(I doubt anyone ever presumed to tell French New Wave filmmaker Agnès Varda, for instance, that she couldn’t both direct a film and be in it.)

Months later, when I applied to the fund, the gatekeeper’s assistant sent me an email saying that I was a fi-

nalist for the grant. The gatekeeper wanted to know if I’d followed her guidance to hire on one of her recommended co-directors. I replied no. I didn’t receive the grant.

Ultimately, we’re depriving American audiences of a range of stories from varied views. They’re missing out on so much. Gatekeepers must consider how they perpetuate harm by ignoring their biases, as well as the Islamophobic frameworks through which they see us and our stories. It’s time for the industry that has invested so much talk to “diversity and inclusion” to speak with their actions.

After the controversy at sundance, a Twitter hashtag took off: #MyMuslimFilm. Many filmmakers, including Black Muslim women, queer south Asian men and Arab Christians, shared an incredible array of stories they’ve directed — from “Comin’ up short,” a feature-length documentary set in south L.A. that follows shorty (Jerome Muhammad), a member of Ice Cube’s platinum recording group Da Lench Mob, to “The syed Family Xmas Eve Game Night,” a short comedy about a queer woman who brings her partner home to meet her family for the first time.

Despite the many ways we have been marginalized within the film industry, Muslim and Middle Eastern filmmakers will continue to tell our stories — stories where our humanity is assumed, not a subject of debate.

Assia Boundaoui is an Algerian-American filmmaker, a recipient of a 2022 United States Artists award and a fellow at the MIT Open Documentary Lab, where she is co-creating a new-media installation called the Inverse Surveillance Project.

Saturday, 19 February, 2022 | iSLamaBad

newS

Footwear exports rise 13.45pc to $85.4m in seven months The footwear exports witnessed an increase of 13.45 per cent during the first seven months (July-January) of the current financial year 2021-22 as compared to the exports of corresponding period of last year.

According to the data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), Pakistan exported footwear worth $85.406 million during July- January 2021-22 against the exports of $75.283 million during July- January 2020-21, showing growth of 13.45 per cent.

In terms of quantity, the exports of footwear also increased by 2.37 per cent by going up from 9,613,000 pairs to 9,841,000 pairs, according to the data.

Among the footwear products, the exports of leather footwear rose by 8.89 per cent as it surged from $63.119 million last year to $68.733 million during the current year. The canvas footwear exports of the country stood at $0.376 million during the current year against $0.210 million during last year, showing an increase of 79.05 per cent.

Likewise, the exports of all other footwear goods increased by 36.32 per cent during the period under review as these went up from $11.955 million last year to $16.297 million during the current fiscal year.

Meanwhile, on a year-on-year basis, the footwear export increased by 20.51 per cent during the month of January 2022 as compared to the same month of last year. The footwear exports during January 2022 were recorded at $12.648 million against the export of $10.495 million in January 2021.

During the period under review, the leather and canvas footwear export also rose by 15.77 and 100 per cent respectively. In addition, the exports of all other footwear commodities increased by 30.66 per cent. TLTP

KP govt, Bank of Khyber sign MoU for Raast Islamic Banking Refinancing scheme The Bank of Khyber and Department of Industries, Commerce & Technical Education, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa signed an MoU related to Raast Islamic Banking Refinancing scheme for modernization and working capital for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Peshawar.

BoK Managing Director & CEO Mr. Muhammad Ali Gulfaraz and Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Shah secretary Industries, Commerce & Technical Education Department signed the said MoU in presence of Mr. Taimur Saleem khan Jhagra, The salient features of shariah compliant government supported subsidized refinance schemes are unique as applicable pricing for Modernization of SMEs is “zero per cent” per annum for first year and two per cent per annum for the remaining four years (for purchase of new local & imported machinery and generator up to 500 kva) while applicable pricing in working capital is “zero per cent” per annum for first year and two per cent per annum for maximum two more years.

Speaking on the occasion Mr.Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra emphasized that the scheme is as per vision of our Honorable Prime Minister Imran Khan and is being done for uplift of SMEs in the province under the able leadership of respected Chief Minister KP Mehmood Khan. Aziz Buneri

09

TaRIn dIRecTs sBP, FBR To Resolve IssUes oF BedsheeTs, UPholsTeRy ManUFacTUReRs islamabad

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ShAhzAd PArAchA

EDERAL Minister on Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin has directed the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to resolve the issues of All Pakistan Bedsheets & Upholstery Manufacturers Associations (APBUMA) on priority basis.

The finance minister on Friday held a meeting with APBUMA led by its chairman Mr. Arif Ehsan Malik, at the Finance Division. Deputy Governor SBP, Member FBR and senior officers also attended the meeting.

Chairman APBUMA briefed the finance minister on the working of APBUMA and informed that as member wise it is the largest association of SMEs in the country. This sector is one of the major contributors in terms of exports and contributes up to $2 billion in revenue.

He further apprised that the association is currently facing various problems especially related to sales tax refund and liquidity crunch.

The Finance Minister Shaukat

Tarin appreciated the contribution of APBUMA in the economic growth of the country. He assured that the government is actively carrying out all measures that could boost the SME

sector. As growth of the SME sector leads to employment generation, export promotion and boost overall business activity in the country.

The finance minister heard all is-

sues keenly and asked SBP and FBR to resolve their issues on priority basis.

Chairman APBUMA thanked the finance minister for providing support and addressing their issues.

HBL selects Temenos to transform its banking services HBL, Pakistan’s largest bank network to adopt the Temenos core banking platform to provide domestic and international operations with a cutting-edge banking experience.

HBL will onboard over 25 million of the Bank’s clients onto Temenos open platform for composable banking. The platform will accelerate the Bank’s services across all segments, markets, and channels. HBL clients will have an enhanced user experience in the form of increased reliability, security and a modern platform that will enhance HBL’s digitalization journey.

The Temenos implementation will include a full suite of client-friendly products and services that will provide end-to-end, technologically advanced solutions to both HBL’s conventional and Islamic banking clients. Faster on boarding and quicker transaction processing will provide a more seamless client experience, enabling HBL to increase its digital footprint across Pakistan and internationally. The new system will also enhance adherence to local banking regulations and improve reporting standards for international markets in China, GCC, Europe and SAARC countries.

Muhammad Aurangzeb, President & CEO – HBL, said: “The open technology platform provided

by Temenos is flexible, global-ready and has the breadth of banking services to meet our clients’ fastdeveloping banking needs. This partnership contributes to our goal to become a ‘Technology company with a Banking License’.”

Sagheer Mufti, Chief Operating Officer – HBL,

added: “At HBL, we are always looking at better ways to serve our clients. By adopting this leading platform, we will add to our capability to give clients an improved experience when using our services, now and for many years to come.”

Max Chuard, Chief Executive Officer – Temenos, commented: “HBL is a forward-looking

bank with a pioneering approach to shaping the future of banking. Temenos open platform for composable banking will free the bank from legacy constraints.

To innovate safely at speed, as well as scale its offering and achieve its growth goals. We are proud to support HBL as it delivers on this exciting vision for more than 25 million clients worldwide.” Pr

Finja, Punjab Beverages join hands to promote embedded financial services Finja, Pakistan’s leading digital supply chain financing NBFC, and Punjab Beverages Co. (PBC), one of PepsiCo International’s leading manufacturers & bottlers in Pakistan, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to expand the digital lending and distribution services in the retail (karyana) segment across the country via PBC’s Kharidari App. This is the first embedded financial services offering in the beverages industry that aims in catering thousands of retailers across PBC’s distribution network through digital financing services.

Finja and PBC have been servicing this segment together since the past twelve months through an offline lending program for PBC serviced merchants. During this period, both entities have worked closely in digitally optimizing the complete supply chain from order taking, credit evaluation, fulfillment and collections. Starting from Faisalabad, both institutions collectively enabled thousands of retailers on Finja’s digital lending platform

that facilitated cash-strapped retailers across the city to avail digital credit services, increasing their ability to meet neighborhood purchase demand along with increasing their own profitability. This process also eliminates cashbased transactions between PBC and its merchants that highlights further optimization in the retail supply chain.

Through this collaboration, Finja and PBC have evaluated the utility of digital transformation in a merchant’s order cycle.

With the introduction of PBC’s Kharidari App and Finja’s embedded financial score, both entities are now fully equipped to scale the service across the province.

On this occasion, Founder and CEO Finja, Mr. Qasif Shahid reiterated Finja’s continued commitment in digitally transforming the domestic retail segment through easy-to-avail credit products. He further stressed on Finja’s belief in digital technology complimented by mobility that radically lowers transaction costs in financial services paving way for transparency and efficiency. In order to achieve

this, Finja has partnered with multiple like minded and diverse distribution businesses such as Punjab Beverages who continue to create value in their respective space for the betterment of Pakistan’s financial ecosystem.

Omer Farooq Khan, CEO Punjab Beverages, also emphasized on the “importance of revolutionizing supply chain through technology adoption. Hence, embedded financial services will prove to be a gamechanger for the FMCG industry as it will result in increasing the retailers purchasing power, lead to a reduction in stock shortages, and above all, result in enhanced customer satisfaction. At a macroeconomic level, such supply chain financing will lead to greater velocity of transactions and thereby a direct enhancement of Pakistan GDP. Choosing the right partner who could have taken PBC vision forward was of extreme importance. Therefore, PBC chose Finja as it shared the same values, zeal & passion for realizing the goal: giving back to Pakistan by focusing on value creation

through innovation.”

Finja was founded in 2016 by Qasif Shahid, Monis Rahman and Umer Munawar and is backed by leading global venture capital funds that include Swedish, Vostok

Emerging Finance; Japanese, BeeNext; Quona Capital from the United States of America; Ukraine-based ICU along with Descon and Pakistan’s largest private bank, HBL. Pr

Saturday, 19 February, 2022 | ISLAMABAD

10 FOREIGN NEWS

US challengeS RUSSia to Step back fRom UkRaine attack t

AFP

he United States said Thursday that Russia is on the verge of unleashing a massive military attack against Ukraine, dismissing Moscow’s claim to be pulling forces back, as artillery fire hit a Ukrainian kindergarten.

In a dramatic, previously unscheduled speech to the United Nations in New York, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said intelligence showed Moscow could order an assault on its neighbor in the “coming days.”

With US and other Western governments saying they see no evidence to support Russia’s claim to be withdrawing, Blinken challenged the Kremlin to “announce today with no qualification, equivocation or deflection that Russia will not invade Ukraine. State it clearly. State it plainly to the world.”

“Demonstrate it by sending your troops, your tanks, your planes, back to their barracks and hangers, and sending your diplomats to the negotiating table,” he said.

Russia denies any invasion plans but warned of “military-technical measures” if its far-reaching demands for a US and NATO pullback from eastern europe aren’t satisfied.

President Joe Biden, at the White house, accused Moscow of preparing a “false flag operation” as a pretext for an attack and said this could happen “in the next several days.”

“They have not moved any of their troops out. They’ve moved more troops in,” Biden said. “every indication we have is that they’re prepared to go into Ukraine.” he added, however, that diplomacy is not dead. “There is a path. There is a way through this,” he said.

Russia has massed enormous air, land and sea forces around Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin and officials say they do not plan to invade Ukraine and that the troops are only conducting practice exercises. however, Putin has made clear that the price for removing any threat would be

Ukraine agreeing never to join NATO and for the Western alliance to pull back from a swath of eastern europe, effectively splitting the continent into Cold War-style spheres of influence. Ukraine is far from being ready to join NATO but has set this as part of a broader goal to integrate with the democracies of western europe, making a historic break from Russia’s orbit.

The United States said Thursday that it had received Putin’s response to its offers of a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but did not give any reaction to the contents.

The Russian foreign ministry indicated that there was little to discuss.

“In the absence of will on the American

side to negotiate firm and legally binding guarantees on our security from the United States and its allies, Russia will be forced to respond, including with military-technical measures,” the foreign ministry said.

“We insist on the withdrawal of all US armed forces in Central europe, eastern europe and the Baltics,” it added.

Russia also expelled the number two US diplomat in Moscow, the US State Department said, condemning the “unprovoked” action.

Russia took over Ukraine’s Crimea region and began backing heavily armed separatists in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions in 2014, sparking a war that has al-

ready cost thousands of lives.

Sporadic fighting remains common in the east and the Ukrainian army accused the pro-Russian separatists of 34 ceasefire breaches on Thursday, 28 of them using heavy weapons.

The potentially most serious incident — an example of the kind of spark that many fear could ignite far more intense fighting — was the shelling of a kindergarten in the village of Stanytsia-Luganska. Children were inside but none were hit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted that the attack “by pro-Russian forces is a big provocation.”

Russian news agencies meanwhile

quoted authorities in the separatist Lugansk region saying they blamed Kyiv after the situation on the frontline “escalated significantly.”

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin described Thursday’s reports as “troubling.”

“We’ve said for some time that the Russians might do something like this in order to justify a military conflict. So we’ll be watching this very closely,” Austin told journalists after a meeting with NATO counterparts.

Western capitals say they are also concerned by the Russian parliament’s request that Putin grant unilateral recognition of independence for the separatists in eastern Ukraine, probably ending chances of reuniting the country.

“If this request were accepted, it would… demonstrate a Russian decision to choose a path of confrontation over dialogue,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said. Putin earlier this week claimed with no evidence that Ukraine is committing “genocide” in the eastern region.

Moscow has made several announcements of troop withdrawals this week and on Thursday said that units of the southern and western military districts, including tank units, had begun returning to their bases from near Ukraine.

Defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said some troops had returned to their garrisons in several areas far from the border, including Chechnya and Dagestan in the North Caucasus, and near Nizhny Novgorod, some 300 kilometers (185 miles) east of Moscow. The United States, NATO and Ukraine all said they had seen no evidence of a pullback, with Washington saying Russia had in fact moved 7,000 more troops near the border.

According to US officials, there are now about 150,000 Russian troops arrayed in offensive groupings on the southern, eastern and northern borders of Ukraine.

In hijab row, critics say India’s BJP looking for votes in southern state ReuteRs A series of religious laws promoted by India’s ruling hindu nationalist party in the southern state of Karnataka, including a ban on the wearing of hijabs, is raising concerns the divisive measures will stoke sectarian tensions more prevalent in the country’s north.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently banned wearing the hijab in classrooms in Karnataka, the only one of India’s five southern states it rules. A proposal to make religious conversions largely illegal is being considered by the local legislature.

The moves have become an issue of contention involving India’s Muslim minority.

Opposition parties and many political analysts accuse the BJP of fomenting tensions in Karnataka to consolidate its appeal to majority hindus, like they say it has elsewhere in the country.

Modi’s office did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

The BJP has denied that Karnataka’s Feb. 5 hijab ban, a recent bill aimed at mainly preventing conversion of poor hindus to Christianity and Islam, and a 2021 law prohibiting the slaughter of cows – considered sacred in hinduism – were designed to pander to the majority community.

“The hijab controversy started as a very localised issue that could have been nipped in its bud”, said Sandeep Shastri, a political scientist who has taught in Karnataka.

“I’m keeping my fingers crossed as to what would be the repercussions of a verdict on the issue,” Shastri added, referring to a petition in the high court seeking to overturn the hijab ban. “Is it going to further damage the social fabric in the state?”

Karnataka’s capital is the cosmopolitan hub Bengaluru, a city of about 12 million people that is the centre of India’s booming IT industry.

The school ban on the hijab – the traditional covering of the hair and neck worn by Muslim women – fanned protests by some Muslim students and parents around Kar-

nataka earlier in the month. There were some counter protests by hindu students draped in saffron-coloured shawls, usually worn by hindus.

There was no violence but such tensions are a hot-button issue in India, where Muslims account for about 13% of the country’s 1.35 billion people. India has experienced several deadly hindu-Muslim riots since independence in 1947, but hardly any of them in the south.

BJP’s Karnataka spokesperson Ganesh Karnik blamed Muslims for seeking what he called a different identity by insisting on wearing the hijab in class, and said the dispute could unite hindus.

“They look at every issue as a victim,” said Karnik. “If they take a stand, the hindu community will also take a stand. Our young girls and boys will be disturbed (thinking) why are they being given a special privilege?” he said the BJP was confident of retaining power in Karnataka state elections next year and then expanding further in the region.

“We are expanding, we will rule more southern states. If not today, tomorrow, if not tomorrow, the day after,” Karnik said.

In Uttar Pradesh state in the north, home

to more than 200 million people and the bellwether of national politics, a long-running dispute between hindus and Muslims over a religious site has become the central issue in ongoing state elections in which Modi’s BJP is seeking to retain power. read more CatCh them young: Muzaffar Assadi, a political analyst who teaches at Karnataka’s University of Mysore, said the hijab issue targets youth who would be 18 and eligible to vote in time for next year’s state election and the national election, which is due in 2024.

“They are potential voters, so you just rake up the issue, create a wedge and ultimately you have a base for the next election,” said Assadi.

Muslims say the hijab row is another example of their marginalisation since Modi first took office in 2014 on a platform of good governance and a strong hindu identity.

Modi has defended his record and says his economic and social policies benefit all Indians.

Analysts and opposition leaders say the vitiated political environment in Karnataka could dent Bengaluru’s appeal as a favoured destination for migrants and expatriates.

Saturday, 19 February, 2022 | ISLAMABAD

SPORTS 11

HBL PSL: KArAcHi KingS defeAT LAHore QALAndArS By 22 rUnS

K

News Desk

ARACHI Kings defeated Lahore Qalandars by 22 runs in their HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) match on Friday. This was Karachi Kings first victory in the ongoing tournament after they suffered eight consecutive losses — most by any team in a single edition.

Chasing the 150-run target, Qalandars could just make 127 for the loss of nine wickets in 20 overs with the most being scored by Mohammad Hafeez (33).

In order to defend the target, Karachi

bowlers had to do something special against the brilliant batting line-up of Lahore. So they did.

Chris Jordan, Imad Wasim, and Mir Hamza helped them successfully defend the target through their brilliant bowling.

The in-form Fakhar Zaman was removed for one by left-arm pacer Mir Hamza with Lahore’s score of four runs on the board.

Abdullah followed him six runs later when Hamza, who was exceptional with the new ball, took his wicket.

Mohammad Hafeez and Kamran Ghulam held the innings with a 42-run stand

before the latter was out for 13 by Imad Wasim.

Phil Salt and Hafeez were also removed and the game looked out of Lahore’s grasp. It was Harry Brook and David Wiese, who brought Qalandars back into the game.

Harry scored 26 runs, while Wiese was dismissed by Hamza for 31 runs in the 19th over when he was looking dangerous.

In the last over, Lahore needed 25 runs, and Jordan bowled brilliantly as he gave away just two runs and picked two wickets as Karachi finally got their first win of the season.

Earlier, after being invited to field first, the Qalandars bowled out Kings for 149 runs in 19.5 over, courtesy of four wickets each from star leggie Rashid Khan and young pacer Zaman Khan.

Karachi didn’t get a good start to their innings as opener Joe Clarke was removed with 12 runs on the board.

Twelve runs later Sharjeel Khan also followed him when Shaheen Shah got him lbw, while Babar Azam tried to hold the innings together.

Qasim Akram scored 26 runs in 18 balls, while Babar was once again removed

by Rashid Khan for 39 runs on the first ball

of the 11th over as he got him stumped to the outside the off-stump delivery.

Mohammad Nabi and Imad Wasim failed to play a huge knock getting out for eight runs each, while Lewis Gregory’s 28 runs helped Kings reach a total which was enough for them to defend and break their losing streak.

In terms of bowling, the young pacer Zaman Khan continued to show his skills as he picked four wickets for giving away 16 in 3.5 overs. Rashid Khan took four for 17 in four overs and was once again on-target with his line and length. Shaheen was also good with the new ball as he took one scalp.

Teams: lahore Qalandars: Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Kamran Ghulam Mohammad Hafeez, Harry Brook, Phil Salt, Rashid Khan, David Wiese, Shaheen Shah Afridi (c), Haris Rauf, Zaman Khan.

Karachi Kings: Sharjeel Khan, Babar Azam (c), Joe Clarke, Lewis Gregory, Mohammad Nabi, Rohail Nazir, Qasim Akram, Imad Wasim, Chris Jordan, Usman Shinwari, Mir Hamza.

Multan Sultans beat Quetta Gladiators by 117 runs News Desk

Untroubled Australia crush Sri Lanka by six wickets in fourth T20

Multan Sultans defeated Quetta Gladiators by 117 runs in the 25th match of the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2022 at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Friday. Sultans won the toss and decided to bat first before managing to score the second-highest total of the league — 245 for the loss of three wickets.

Openers Mohammad Rizwan and Shan Masood laid a strong foundation for their team. Sultans’ first wicket fell when Masood was given an lbw after a DRS review.

The left-handed opener scored 57 runs while his partner Rizwan remained not out and scored an unbeaten 54-ball 83 to set a big target.

After Shan’s dismissal, Rilee Rossouw took charge and scored a blistering 26-ball 71 to steer the Sultans to a 246-run target. In response, Sarfaraz Ahmed-led Gladiators fired briefly through Jason Roy and Umar Akmal but were unable to sustain such a punishing asking rate while keeping wickets intact.

David Willey struck with his first delivery, a full inswinger that removed Will Smeed – who made 99 in his previous outing – for a duck, and then had Roy caught just beyond the cover ring for 38 from 19 as Gladiators reached 66 for 3 at the end of the powerplay.

Akmal kept coming, clearing the ropes six times on the way to a 22-ball fifty, but once he holed out off Imran Tahir, the Quetta chase fell away.

Willey, Asif Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani and Khushdil Shah each picked up two wickets as Gladiators were dismissed inside 16 overs, having got barely halfway to their target.

Teams:

Quetta gladiators: Jason Roy, Ahsan Ali, Will Smeed, Sarfaraz Ahmed (captain), Iftikhar Ahmed, Umar Akmal, Noor Ahmad, Sohail Tanvir, Naseem Shah, Ghulam Mudassar, Mohammad Irfan.

multan sultans: Mohammad Rizwan (captain), Shan Masood, Rilee Rossouw Tim David, Khushdil Shah, Aamer Azmat, Asif Afridi, Rumman Raees, Imran Tahir, Shahnawaz Dahani, David Willey.

South Africa in trouble as New Zealand’s Henrys dominate 1st Test

ReuteRs Australia eased to a six-wicket victory against Sri Lanka in the fourth Twenty20 international in Melbourne on Friday, barely needing to shift out of first gear as they heaped misery on the tourists who have yet to register a win in the five-game series.

Chasing 140, the home side suffered some early jitters before the middle order steadied the ship, cruising to 143-4 with 11 balls to spare courtesy of a 20-ball 40 by Josh Inglis. Bowling with clever variations of pace, Lahiru Kumara (2-22) took the wickets of unconvincing opener Ashton Agar (26 off 31 balls) and captain Aaron Finch (two), who increased his run of scores without a half-century to 12. Inglis, who struck the only two sixes of the innings, partnered Glenn Maxwell (48 not out) at the crease with the side at 49-3 in the ninth over and the duo put on a carefree 71 runs together to put the result beyond doubt. “It looked like (Inglis) was batting on a different wicket,” said Maxwell. “He was really calm out in the middle for just his fourth game of international cricket.” Earlier, fast bowlers Kane Richardson (2-44) and Jhye Richardson (220) combined for a flurry of late wickets to restrict Sri Lanka to 139-8 when a more competitive score could have been achieved – summing up Sri Lanka’s batting woes in Australia. The world champions paid the price early for resting Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, conceding 35-0 in the first four overs while Sri Lanka’s openers took on the long boundaries. Agar induced a false stroke by Danushka Gunathilaka (17) to break the stand though, and a sharp run-out by Maxwell to dismiss Kusal Mendis (27) pegged the visitors back further.

The 23-year-old Pathum Nissanka again showed his potential, anchoring his side’s innings with little support, scoring 46 before being stumped off Adam Zampa. The final match will be played in Mel-

AFP Christchurch: Henry Nicholls and Matt Henry spearheaded a commanding display as New Zealand built a 387-run first-innings lead that left South Africa in deep strife on day two of the first Test on Friday.

At stumps in Christchurch, South Africa were three for 34, with Temba Bavuma on 22 and Rassie van der Dussen on nine, and needing another 353 to make New Zealand bat again.

The record first-innings deficit overhauled for victory is 291 by Australia against Sri Lanka in 1992.

New Zealand were all out in their first innings late on day two for 482 in reply to South Africa’s 95.

The home side’s innings was anchored by Nicholls with 105. Tom Blundell (96) commanded the middle and tail while number 11 batsman Matt Henry added to his seven for 23 with the ball by frustrating the South Africans with an unbeaten 57.

Henry then took one of the three South African second innings wickets to fall.

Nicholls went to the middle with New Zealand at two for 36, and during his 267 minutes stay he shared in partnerships of 75 with Devon Conway (36), 80 with Neil Wagner (49), and 48 with Daryl Mitchell (16).

As the wicket flattened into a more suitable batting strip rather than the green-tinged bowlers’ paradise when the tourists were rolled on the first day, Blundell took advantage of a tiring South African pace attack.

He saw off the second new ball in a 76-run stand with Colin de Grandhomme (45) for the seventh wicket and added 94 for the final wicket with Henry.

Wagner WhirlWind: There were seven New Zealand partnerships better than South Africa’s best of 33 between Zubayr Hamza and Kyle Verreynne.

As New Zealand commanded the crease, South Africa captain Dean Elgar had some reward when he turned to part-time spinner Aiden Markram with the second new ball only 9.4 overs old.

Markram had immediate success with de Grandhomme’s wicket just before tea and immediately after the resumption, he removed Kyle Jamieson for 15 to have New Zealand 368 for eight.

Tim Southee went quickly for four but when South Africa thought the innings end was in sight, Blundell and Henry kept them in the field for a further 101 deliveries.

Nicholls, dropped on five and 24, gave no further chances until he edged Duanne Olivier to second slip to be out for 105.

While the left-hander provided a calming influence at the crease, nightwatchman Wagner was all aggression

in a whirlwind opening hour.

He entertained with seven fours and two sixes as he raced from his overnight two to 49 when he was caught at deep square leg when seeking a further boundary.

He was particularly harsh on debutant Glenton Stuurman with two fours and a six off his first over of the day and another six two overs later.

Despite the pounding from Wagner, Stuurman got his first Test wicket with an outswinger that Mitchell edged to Dean Elgar at first slip.

Olivier was the most successful South African bowler with three for 100 while Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and Aiden Markram took two apiece.

saturday, 19 February, 2022

PRAyeR TimiNgs

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PAkIstAn dEmAnds jUstIcE for vIctIms of sAmjhAUtA ExPrEss blAsts t HE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the fifteenth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Samjhauta Express, which killed 68 innocent passengers, including 44 Pakistanis, stated that the Hindutva fanaticism and “Saffron terror” that drove the barbaric attack 15 years ago had intensified exponentially under India’s present leadership.

The spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that the Indian Charge d’Affaires in Islamabad was invited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and apprised of Pakistan’s grave disappointment with the Indian government’s callous attitude toward the plight of Pakistani nationals’ families who continue to await justice fifteen years later.

“This was another example of the brazen impunity and complete state protection that terrorists enjoy in BJP-ruled India,” stated the FO spokesperson in a statement.

The Charge d’Affaires was urged to convey to the Government of India in the strongest possible terms Pakistan’s condemnation of the heinous conviction

and exoneration of all accused in the heinous terrorist attack, including Swami Aseemanand, an RSS activist who publicly confessed to being the mastermind of the egregious attack, said the Foreign Office statement.

The Charge d’Affaires was also en-

trusted for conveying to the Indian government Pakistan’s desire for a fair trial and the prosecution of those responsible for the Samjhauta Express terrorist attack, its stated, adding that families of innocent Pakistani nationals who were ruthlessly murdered by Hindutva-in-

spired militants need closure, it stated.

The Pakistan’s Foreign Office strongly urged India to cease the use of terrorism as a tool of state policy and to adhere to its duties under the international legal framework controlling terrorism, it was stated. News Desk

Bill Gates confident of wiping out polio virus in Pakistan After paying a brief but productive visit to Pakistan, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who is also the cofounder of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has said that he is confident of wiping the polio virus out of the country soon.

Taking to Twitter a day after his first-ever Pakistan trip, the philanthropist appreciated Pakistan’s commitment to polio eradication and thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan for productive discussions on the country’s efforts for the cause.

“I’m encouraged by the country’s commitment to [polio] eradication and optimistic that if everyone remains vigilant, we can end polio,” Gates wrote.

It is pertinent to mention that Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is the biggest contributor to polio eradication in Pakistan and the rest of the world. The tech billionaire had lauded Pakistan’s polio-eradication campaign during his time in Islamabad on Thursday, noting that despite COVID-19 restrictions, the country has performed “amazingly” in eradicating polio.

Gates had landed in the federal capital early morning and left the same evening after various engagements. He held meetings with senior government officials, including a one-on-one meeting with PM Imran Khan, meeting of the National Task Force on Polio Eradication.

The visiting dignitary also visited National Command and Operation Centre and National Command and

Emergency Centre headquarters on the sidelines of the visit and attended a luncheon with federal ministers, hosted by PM Imran Khan.

Moreover, President Arif Alvi conferred Hilal-e-

Pakistan — the second-highest civil award in the country —upon Gates in recognition of his meritorious services for the people of Pakistan, particularly for the eradication of polio. TLTP

FAJR SUNRISE

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The operation comes around two weeks after a similar attempt to rescue a boy from a Moroccan well gripped the world — but ended with the child found dead.

Haidar’s grandfather, 50-year-old Haji Abdul Hadi, told AFP the boy fell down the well when he was trying to “help” adults dig a borehole in the drought-ravaged village.

Officials said he fell to the bottom of the narrow 25 metre shaft, then was pulled by rope to within about 10 metres of the surface before becoming stuck.

Senior officials from the Taliban’s newly installed government oversaw the rescue operation in Shokak, which was watched by hundreds of villagers — many related to the child.

‘Prayers not enough’: They despatched bulldozers and other earth-moving equipment to the site, as well as one of the country’s few airworthy helicopters in case he required medical evacuation to hospital.

Some Taliban officials posted videos of the tricky operation, saying it showed how the new regime — widely criticised for rights abuses — would spare nothing to care for its citizens.

“Our prayers weren’t enough, but it brought everyone together, and we showed

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Indian court orders death for 38 for deadly 2008 serial bomb blasts AHMEDABAD ReuTeRs

An Indian court on Friday sentenced 38 Muslim men to death and ordered life in prison for 11 others for a series of bomb blasts in 2008 in the city of Ahmedabad that killed more than 50 people, lawyers said. The explosions had badly shaken the western state of Gujarat, where Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002 are believed to have killed thousands, mostly Muslims. A group called the “Indian Mujahideen” had claimed responsibility for the blasts on July 26, 2008. Judge A.R. Patel ordered the punishment after the prosecution pressed for the death sentence describing the incident as a “rarest of rare case” in which innocent lives were lost. A defence lawyer said they would appeal the verdict in a higher court. “We had sought lenient sentences for the convicts as they have already spent more than 13 years in prison,” Khalid Shaikh told Reuters. “But the court awarded death to the majority of them. We will definitely go for appeal.”

UAE, India sign 'milestone' pact to boost economies India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a broad trade and investment pact on Friday that will eventually cut all tariffs on each other's goods and aims to increase annual trade between the two nations to $100 billion within five years. The virtual signing ceremony marks the first trade deal sealed by the Gulf state since it began pursuing such pacts last September in a bid to strengthen its status as a business hub.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UAE de facto ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan witnessed the signing by senior officials from both nations, already major trade partners, during a virtual summit between the leaders. The deal's signing “is a milestone event in our bilateral relations”, the official Emirati news agency WAM quoted Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar as saying. The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), as it is known, is expected to boost annual bilateral non-oil trade from $60 billion to $100bn within the next three to five years, India's Prime Minister's office said.

“There will be a huge flow of trade and investments between both nations and it's going to open the door for more business opportunities,” Emirati Minister State for Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi told Reuters. The agreement, which was not immediately made public, eliminates 80 per cent of tariffs on UAE and India goods, while all tariffs are to be removed within ten years, Al Zeyoudi said. UAE commodities like aluminium, copper and petrochemicals would benefit from the removal of tariffs, he said. The deal also covers services, investments, intellectual property, and a commitment by the UAE to grant 140,000 employment visas to highly skilled workers from India by 2030. India is the second largest trading partner of the UAE, where each year billions of dollars in remittances are sent home by more than three million Indians working in the Gulf state. The UAE economy ministry said by 2030 the CEPA would add $9bn, or 1.7 per cent, to UAE gross domestic product, exports would increase $7.6bn, or 1.5pc, and imports would rise $14.8bn, or 3.8pc. The CEPA is expected to take 1.5-2 years to be implemented. AFP

Afghan boy trapped in well for three days dies minutes after rescue A five-year-old boy trapped for three days down a remote Afghan village well died minutes after being pulled out on Friday, following a rescue effort the country’s new Taliban rulers said showed they would spare nothing for their citizens.

The child, named Haidar, on Tuesday slipped and fell to the bottom of a well being dug in Shokak, a parched village in Zabul province, about 400 kilometres southwest of the capital Kabul.

“With great sorrow, young Haidar is separated from us forever,” said Taliban interior ministry senior adviser Anas Haqqani, in a tweet echoed by several of his colleagues.

“This is another day of mourning and grief for our country.”

Haidar was buried later in the day, his small grave covered by a mound of gravel and marked by a ribbon of white cloth.

Zabul police spokesman Zabiullah Jawhar told AFP Haidar was clinging to life when rescuers reached him.

“In the first minutes after the rescue operation was completed, he was breathing, and the medical team gave him oxygen,” he said. “When the medical team tried to carry him to the helicopter, he lost his life.”

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to everyone that all Afghan lives are precious,” tweeted one Taliban official.

Video shared on Thursday on social media showed the boy wedged in the well but able to move his arms and upper body.

“Are you OK my son?” his father can be heard saying. “Talk with me and don’t cry, we are working to get you out.”

“OK, I’ll keep talking,” the boy replies in a plaintive voice.

The video was obtained by rescuers who lowered a light and camera down the narrow well by rope.

Engineers using bulldozers dug an open slit trench from an angle at the surface to reach the point where Haidar was trapped.

A large rock blocked the final few metres, which workers used pickaxes to break through on Friday morning.

The operation employed similar engineering to the rescue attempt in Morocco earlier this month, when a boy fell down a 32 metre well and was pulled out dead five days later.

The ordeal of “little Rayan” gained global attention and sparked an outpouring of sympathy online, with the Arabic Twitter hashtag #SaveRayan trending. AFP

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