EpaperKHI_20-10-24

Saturday, 24 October, 2020 I 6 Rabi-ul-Awwal, 1442 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XI No 115 I 12 Pages I Karachi Edition

FATF keeps pAkisTAn on grey lisT

ISLAMABAD sTaff rePorT

T

He financial Action task force (fAtf) has decided to keep pakistan on its grey list until februar y 2021 despite complying successfully with 21 out of 27 points of action. the decision was made by the global watchdog for curbing terror financing and money laundering in its virtual plenary session from october 21 to 23. it reviewed pakistan’s progress on the 27-point action plan. fAtf president marcus pleyer announced the decision after the three-day session came to an end on friday. pakistan has been on the watchdog’s grey list since June 2018. federal minister of industries and production Hammad Azhar, in a series of tweets after the decision, said that pakistan has achieved impressive progress on its fAtf action plan. He said that 21 out of 27 action items now stand cleared while remaining six items have been rated as par-

tially complete.

He said that within a year, the government progressed from 5/27 to 21/27 completed items. “fAtf acknowledged that any blacklisting is off the table now,” added the minister of industries and production.

Hammad said that instead of the current action plan, discussions remained focused on how pakistan can be facilitated for its upcoming second evaluation (mer), which is due by the mid of the next year. “i congratulate our federal and provincial teams who have worked day and night even during the pandemic to ensure this turn around,” he added.

Before the decision was announced, foreign minister shah mahmood Qureshi, while talking to the media on friday, said that india’s nefarious designs to push pakistan into the blacklist of the fAtf will fail because the world has recognised pakistan’s measures against terror financing and money laundering. the foreign minister said that out of 27 actionable points, pakistan has shown 100

CoronAvirus in

pAkisTAn

CONFIRMED CASES:

326,216

LAST UPDATED AT 7:24 AM ON OCTOBER 23, 2020

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

13

RECOVERED:

NEW CASES:

736

DEATHS:

309,646 6,715 SINDH:

PUNJAB:

142,917

102,253

KP:

BALOCHISTAN:

AJK/GB:

ISLAMABAD:

38,886

15,767

3,688/4,127 18,578

per cent progress on 21 and progress has also been made to meet the remaining six points. fm Qureshi asked the fAtf forum to positively respond to the significant progress made by pakistan to comply with its action plan. the global financial watchdog had in 2018 placed pakistan on its gray list of countries with inadequate controls over money laundering, a potential source of terror financing, and gave it the action plan to implement. in february this year, the country won a four-month grace period, until June this year, to meet the international anti-terrorism financing norms. that deadline was extended to october due to the coronavirus pandemic. “the fAtf strongly urges pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by June 2020,” the fAtf had said in a statement issued after a meeting in paris in february. “otherwise, should significant and sustainable progress especially in prosecuting and penalising tf (terrorism financing) not be made by the next plenary, the fAtf will take action.” in february, the fAtf had noted that pakistan had delivered on 14 points but missed 13 other targets. on July 28, the government reported to parliament compliance with 14 points of the 27-point action plan and with 10 of the 40 recommendations.

By september 16, however, the joint session of the parliament amended about 15 laws to upgrade its legal system matching international standards as required by the agency. officials have been hopeful of a positive outcome, especially after the recent legislation by parliament on counter-terror financing and money laundering.

However, being placed on the black list would put pakistan in company with iran and north Korea and see it shunned by international financial institutions.

SC declares reference against Justice Isa unconstitutional g

Apex court sAys no ill-intent on pArt of president, prime minister ISLAMABAD TLTP

the judicial reference filed against supreme court (sc) Judge, Justice Qazi faez isa, was filed in complete disregard of the law, the apex court noted in its detailed judgement issued on friday.

However, though the apex court found glaring lapses and procedural irregularities in the filing of the reference, it ruled that there was no ill-intent behind the filing of the reference on the part of the president and the prime minister. the apex court on June 19, dismissed the presidential reference against Justice Qazi faez isa after declaring it ‘invalid’.

An 11-page short order was released by the top court which nullified the presidential reference against Justice isa, besides ordering inland revenue commissioner to issue a notice to the judge’s family members including his wife and children within seven days to seek details of his properties.

“Justice is an article of faith in

Imran says he’ll speak to British PM for Nawaz’s extradition ISLAMABAD sTaff rePorT

prime minister imran Khan has said that he will talk to his British counterpart Boris Johnson, if needed, to bring back pakistan muslim league-nawaz (pml-n) supremo nawaz sharif to the country. in an interview with a private television channel on friday, the prime minister said that nawaz, the convicted former prime minister who was allowed to fly to london for treatment last year, had always enjoyed the support of the establishment and courts. the premier said that the federal government is in talks with the British government for the deportation of nawaz because the extradition process could take time.

“We will bring him [nawaz] back and throw him in jail,” he added.

He also said that he would also visit the united Kingdom “if it is necessary for the repatriation of nawaz sharif”. responding to a question, he said that the opposition is trying to blackmail him but he made it clear that no nro will be given to convicted people. “some of my own party men get worried when they see opposition parties’ politicians staging rallies and doing pressers against the government

our religion, whether that may be against our kith and kin or against the rich or poor,” Justice umar Ata Bandia wrote in opening remarks of the detailed judgement.

“However, justice is an abstract concept attainable only where the scales of justice are held by persons (the Judges) who balance these equitably without regard to their personal desires. indeed, the latter is the duty of the superior Judiciary by virtue of their oath to dispense justice without any fear or favour, affection or ill-will (ref: third schedule to the constitution, oath for Judges of the superior courts). “in fact, an impartial and independent judiciary is universally recognised as a core value of any civilised democracy. this is evidenced by the international conventions that protect this value as a fundamental right of the people (ref: united nations Basic principles on the independence of Judiciary and the (montreal) universal declaration on the independence of Justice),” said the judgement.

more inside

New infections on rise for fifth consecutive day, NCOC says STORY ON PAGE 02

nawaz will be back in Kot lakhpat jail in January: faraz and i even heard some cases were registered against them [opposition politicians] after current rallies but i feel it is wrong, it will be punishing them for crimes they did not commit. protest is their right, their real crime is corruption and for that, i have zero tolerance,” said pm imran.

He said that nawaz’s narrative is supporting india that can damage pakistan’s national interest.

He also alleged that the opposition is working on the “agenda of india and israel” and playing at the hands of enemies of pakistan. the premier said that israeli and indian lobbies are working for the opposition parties. “indian media that is propagating fake

news of civil war in pakistan and my ouster is portraying nawaz sharif as their hero,” he said and further asked as to why their media is presenting nawaz as a hero and criticising the armed forces of the country. pm imran said that even israel is afraid of the pakistan Army as they knew that it is a super power. “Who is attacking personnel of the armed forces, which led to the martyrdom of 22 security personnel in a day, and trying to create a sectarian rift in the country,” the prime minister asked and blamed that both india and israel wanted to destabilise the country.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

STORY ON PAGE 02

Pakistan urges UN to implement its Kashmir resolutions fully STORY ON PAGE 03

israel, sudan agree to normalise ties with us help STORY ON BACK PAGE

02

Saturday, 24 October, 2020

NEWS

NEw iNfECtioNS oN riSE for fifth CoNSECutivE dAy, NCoC SAyS ISLAMABAD

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STAFF REPORT

WO days after the authorities warned of strict measures in the wake of serious increases in coronavirus infections, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Friday revealed the positivity ratio had risen for the fifth consecutive day.

A meeting of the central forum dealing with the outbreak in the country on Wednesday had noted the country was fast approaching a point where movement restrictions would become necessary if the district administrators could not in-

crease the public’s compliance with government-issued guidelines to curb the spread of the disease.

During the Friday session, which reviewed official numbers presented by health officials, the participants noted that the positivity ratio had risen for the fifth consecutive day.

According to a statement, the average positivity rate is 40 per cent higher during the last four days and deaths were also increasing. “It was also noted that Muzaffarabad, Hyderabad, Karachi and Gilgit-Baltistan have a higher positivity ratio along with other areas across the country,” it added.

SC takes notice of prolonged detentions of NAB accused ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday took notice of lengthy detention of accused in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and sought reasons for the delay in trial by the accountability courts. A twomember apex court bench, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, heard the bail plea of former Punjab director food Muhammad Ajmal which stated that keeping the accused in detention would not be fair. The apex court further said that the accused can only be arrested if they pose the danger of influencing the society or the trial.

It added that the accused of a violent and whitecollar crime must be differentiated whereas conduct of the NAB accused can be controlled. The court, while seeking reasons from the Lahore’s accountability court for the delay in the trial, remarked that the statements of all 38 prosecution witnesses should be recorded and the court should be apprised regarding how long NAB cases were usually delayed for. “Other than arresting the accused, passports, bank accounts and property can be controlled,” Justice Umar Ata Bandial said. Abid Saqi, counsel for the accused, prayed that the accountability court had 80 references pending. “The accused was indicted in August 2020, but he has been in NAB’s custody for 14 months,” the lawyer added. Justice Yahya Afridi inquired about the 80 pending cases on which the NAB prosecutor assured the court that the anti-graft body would not delay any reference. TLTP

Ministry says reports of giving immunity to CPEC Authority chairman misleading ISLAMABAD: The government Thursday termed the news report of giving immunity to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority from investigation of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as misleading. “It has been reported in certain sections of press that the new CPEC Authority Bill, 2020 will give immunity to Chairman, CPEC Authority and other officers from investigations of NAB and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), such news report is misleading,” Ministry of Planning said in a press release. It explained that the report probably referred to the “indemnity” clause (Section 23) of the bill, which is a standard clause in many similar laws which indemnify authorities for actions done in good faith, under the respective laws.

The indemnity clause is provided for in Public Procurement Regularity Authority (PPRA) Ordinance 2002 (Section 23), Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) Ordinance 2002 (Section 39), Alternate Energy Development Board (AEDB) Act 2010 (Section 21), Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) Act 2010 (Section 48) and Public Private Partnership Authority (PPPA) Act 2017 (Section 26) and similar other laws. It is further clarified that the clause in question was also a part of the CPEC Authority Ordinance promulgated in October 2019 and is not a new insertion. STAFF REPORT

Hospital admissions are also on the increase particularly in Punjab, the forum was told. There is also an increase in the number of critical patients at hospitals, the statement said.

Punjab Chief Secretary Jawad Rafique Malik shared data on the province’s outbreak during the meeting. “The death ratio in Punjab was 1.6 on September 1 and has now gone up to six. Meanwhile, the province’s positivity ratio has increased from 0.92 to 1.33,” the statement said.

An analysis of the fatality rate showed that Pakistan’s figure stood at 2.06 per cent as compared to the global 2.72pc. “[In Pakistan] Men account for 71pc of

the total deaths. Of these, 76pc are over the age of 50,” the NCOC said.

The increase in Covid-19 indicators comes two days after the NCOC had warned it would close down services once again if the public continued to flout standard operating procedures (SOPs) for curbing the spread of the virus.

Declaring the transport sector, markets, marriage halls, restaurants and public gatherings as high-risk areas, the Centre had advised provinces to focus on them and take steps to prevent the spread of the virus.

Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, who also heads the NCOC, had said on Thursday, “The second wave has started in Pakistan.”

“We are seeing a clear increase in positivity rate in coronavirus cases,” he had said, adding that the virus was once more rapidly spreading because people have stopped taking precautions.

He had urged the public to adopt the guidelines and appealed to the opposition parties not to gather crowds for their antigovernment rallies.

Peace in Afghanistan will benefit both countries: Imran STAFF REPORT The speaker of Afghan Wolesi Jirga, Mir Rahman Rahmani, along with his delegation, met with Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday, and the premier said that peace in Afghanistan would benefit both countries.

PM Imran said that there were “untapped economic synergies” between the countries, and these can be realised in the economic and trade sphere.

He added that the countries can open new avenues for cooperation and enhanced connectivity with the Central

Asian Republics.

The Seminar on Pakistan-Afghanistan Trade and Investment will take place on 26-27 October in Islamabad, and it shows Pakistan’s desire to achieve progress on bilateral economic agenda.

The premier appreciated the fraternal relationship between the two countries and stressed the need to reach a peaceful settlement through negotiations.

PM Imran stressed that there was no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, and reiterated Pakistan’s consistent support to achieve peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Nawaz will be back in Kot Lakhpat jail in January: Faraz LAHORE/ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The government on Friday vowed to bring back deposed prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) supreme leader Nawaz Sharif from London and imprison him in a local jail before January 15.

Sharif has been residing in London since November last year on the pretext of medical treatment. His party insists that despite being summoned by the courts, who declared him a proclaimed offender in the Toshakhana corruption probe, the former premier will only return after the “completion” of his treatment. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Minister for Information Shibli Faraz said, “Nawaz Sharif would be in Kot Lakhpat or some other jail

by Jan. 15.” He further said that Sharif would not be allowed to “escape without answering for his crimes”.

Reiterating that Prime Minister Imran Khan was determined to hold all “corrupt” opposition politicians accountable, the minister said that the opposition’ desires for an end to cases against them “would never be fulfilled”.

“They [opposition] are experts in corruption and looted the nation’s wealth with impunity,” he said and derisively referred to PML-N’s slogan “vote ko izzat do” (honour the vote) as having been used by the party to “respect the money” during their years in power.

Later in the day, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz — while commenting on the arrest of her husband, Safdar Awan, and the manner in which the arrest was carried out — reiterated her claim that the police had barged into her room and “violated her privacy”. The police arrested Safdar from his hotel room early Monday morning for shouting political slogans inside the mausoleum the previous day, a crime punishable by regulations governing the premises.

The arrest was made after a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against him Sunday for breaking the protocol and hurling murder threats at some individuals. The court granted him bail the same day. Breaking the news on her Twitter account, Maryam had claimed the police, who went to take Safdar, broke into her hotel room to make the arrest.

Responding to the claim, Faraz said the CCTV footage of the incident “proved” no door was broken.

“As per the footage, Captain Safdar seemed comfortable in police custody,” he said and added there was no anger on his face and “his body language did not show that he was disturbed”. The video proves the opposition’s allegations

against the federal government were “lies”, he further said.

Responding to Maryam who dismissed the idea of an inquiry into the arrest, Faraz said, “On one hand, Maryam says there is no need for an inquiry. Then she says she will present herself if an inquiry is conducted.” The minister also said that members of the PML-N appear in front of the media every day to spew their lies.

It is in their DNA, he said, adding that this has always been the basis of PML-N’s politics. “They talk about democracy but when they were in government, they were the ones to violate the sanctity of the vote.” They forget about the people when they are in power, he said. Following Safdar’s arrest, reports claiming the kidnapping of Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mushtaq Mahar had emerged. Later in the day, some half a dozen top officials of the provincial police department including Mahar had applied for leave, citing the “manhandling” of their top brass.

Commenting on the episode which rocked the domestic political landscape and invited a plethora of absurd Indian claims of a “civil war” in the port city, Faraz said that the Sindh Police were “entirely” under the control of the provincial government of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and that the federal government had no role in it.

“We [center] did not arrest Captain Safdar. Sindh Police arrested him,” he said and added the opposition parties were “playing politics” and were not “sincere” with each other.

“Bilawal Bhutto likely took revenge for his mother from them [PML-N],” he said, referring to the frequent clashes between the two parties during the 1990s.

‘SAFDAR’S ARREST VINDICATED NAWAZ’S NARRATIVE’: Maryam, who addressed the media earlier in the day, said the Karachi incident had “vindicated” Sharif’s stance that there was a “state above the state” in Pakistan.

“What happened in Karachi has shown who is actually running the government,” she said. “[Prime Minister] Imran Khan is not the government. He is simply a dummy occupying a seat and that dummy has been silent for three days.”

“The Karachi incident has made it clear that Nawaz Sharif’s stance — about ‘state above the state’ and Imran Khan being nothing more than a pawn — is correct. Nawaz Sharif only said it, you [Imran] proved it […] showed the nation what a state above the state is,” she claimed.

When asked about the inquiry into the incident — which both the army chief and Sindh government said would be carried out — Maryam said that in her opinion there was no need for an inquiry as everything was already known.

Nawaz upset with PML-N leaders' secret meetings Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is reportedly upset because of a secret meeting between three senior members of his party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif on the “request” of a senior representative of the establishment. According to a local news outlet, Nawaz was reportedly unhappy because he was told that the top party leaders Khawaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal and Rana Tanvir Hussain met the opposition leader while he was in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). However, PML-N Secretary General Iqbal dismissed the reports, claiming that they had met their party president after informing the former premier. He also denied the notion that establishment had arranged their meeting, adding that they had requested only the antigraft body for the meeting. It is worth mentioning here that Adviser to Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Barrister Shahzad Akbar had recently revealed in a press conference that the opposition leader was holding secret meetings in jail. He, however, refused to reveal any further details. Reportedly, Nawaz had already refused to entertain any messages from the establishment. Citing sources within the establishment, the report stated that Suleman Shehbaz, the son of the former chief minister, had requested the establishment to arrange a meeting with the party leaders.

Speaking to the media outlet, PM’s aide said that the former premier was upset because of the meeting. Akbar, however, did not name the three party leaders with the media, but revealed that they had met the party president to complain about Nawaz’s “aggressive stance”.

He added that upon learning about the meeting, the former premier assumed direct control of his party. NEWS DESK

Balochistan asks PdM to postpone Quetta rally due to terror threat QUETTA: Spokesperson of the Balochistan government, Liaquat Shahwani, has asked the leadership of opposition alliance, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), to postpone its rally in Quetta following the issuance of security alert by National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA). Shahwani told media persons on Friday that PDM is going to organise a public gathering in Quetta which was previously postponed twice by the opposition alliance. “We, on behalf of the Balochistan government, had announced earlier for not having any reservations for the organisation of a public gathering by PDM,” he said. He said that after the issuance of a security alert by NACTA, the provincial government is now considering the matter in a serious manner. “We have raised 28 points regarding the upcoming rally. The government will provide bullet-proof vehicles to PDM leaders. However, the responsibility of PDM leadership has also increased now,” he added. The spokesperson said that many untoward incidents had taken place in the past including the terrorist attack on the chief minister.

He demanded PDM leadership to postpone the rally after the issuance of the security alert by NACTA. Shahwani added that many citizens could also contract novel coronavirus as 70 per cent of the rally’s participants will arrive in Balochistan from other provinces. Earlier on Thursday, NACTA had warned that the Tehrike-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is planning attacks on political and religious leaderships across Quetta and Peshawar in the near future. In light of the PDM gatherings scheduled in the major cities, including Quetta and Peshawar, the NACTA has warned the possible attacks by TTP could target high-profile persons from religious and political parties during these rallies. Earlier, security forces recovered a huge cache of explosive material during an operation conducted in the Qamar Din Karez area against the TTP. Eight fully functional improvised explosive devices (IEDs) weighing six to eight kilograms each and a bag comprising 12 kg to 15 kg IEDs and other accessories including remote controls, detonators, ball bearings and detonating cord were recovered in the operation. STAFF REPORT

Saturday, 24 October, 2020

NEWS

03

At UN, PAkiStAN SAyS fightiNg CorrUPtioN toPS PM iMrAN'S AgeNdA UNITED NATIONS

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STAFF REpORT

AKISTAN told the United Nations (UN) on Thursday that fighting corruption is at the heart of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s agenda, and called for ensuring that there were no “safe havens” for corrupt funds.

“The foundation of ‘Naya’ Pakistan is laid on the vision of promoting a culture of accountability and zero tolerance for corruption,” Pakistani delegate Saad Ahmad Warraich said in a speech to the General Assembly’s Sixth Committee, which deals with legal matters.

Speaking in a debate on ‘The rule of law at the na-

tional and international levels: measures to prevent and combat corruption’, he said his government recognises that a “corruption-free Pakistan” was an essential precursor to ensure rule of law, eradicate poverty, address socio-economic inequalities and achieve inclusive and sustainable development for all.

Warraich, a counsellor at the Pakistan Mission to the UN, said that steps taken to accomplish those goals were already producing results. In his remarks, the Pakistani delegate said that corruption was an “insidious plague” with a wide range of corrosive effects on societies and economies across the world. He underscored that corruption diverted resources from where they were needed most, thereby undermining trust in institutions and ham-

pering the ability of developing countries to mobilize domestic finance.

The volume of wealth stolen due to corrupt practices such as bribery, tax evasion and money laundering were staggering, he noted, pointing out that a significant portion of these funds gets siphoned off to global safe havens as illicit financial flows.

Calling for a comprehensive multidisciplinary and integrated global approach to fight corruption, the Pakistani delegate added that stolen assets, including the proceeds of corruption, bribery and other illicit gains, must be fully returned to developing countries.

Also highlighting various gaps prevailing in existing mechanisms, Warraich called on the international commu-

Dr Zafar Mirza advises govt to ramp up virus testing NEWS DESK Former special assistant to the prime minister on health Dr Zafar Mirza on Friday advised the government to ramp up its testing for early detection of coronavirus clusters.

In an interview with a local television channel, Dr Mirza cautioned against complacency in the war against the highly contagious virus, warning that

Covid-19 could spread in the coming winter season.

Taking stock of the increasing coronavirus cases in the country, he advised the National Command and Control Centre (NCOC) to ramp up its testing for early detection and action.

He also advocated the use of a rapid antigen test for Covid-19, saying that it helps the authorities quickly and accurately detect virus clusters, which along

PPP has asked Centre to revoke islands ordinance: Murad SUKKUR

with the smart lockdown strategy, can help the government prevent the spread of the contagion.

A rapid antigen test is a rapid diagnostic test suitable for point-of-care testing that directly detects the presence or absence of an antigen. This distinguishes it from other medical tests that detect antibodies or nucleic acid, of either laboratory or point of care types.

Over the past few days, Pakistan has

recorded an uptick in Covid-19 infections, igniting speculations about a massive second wave of the epidemic. The government has also hinted that if the situation worsens, it would be forced to take stringent measures to contain the virus spread.

It is worth mentioning here that when active coronavirus cases began declining in the country, the government moved ahead with its decision of allowing a complete reopening of the national economy to protect the people’s livelihood.

Later, schools were also reopened even as Covid-19 infections witnessed a slight increase. However, throughout this time, health experts cautioned against declaring an early victory and urged the public to adopt precautionary measures to avoid another wave of infections.

Pakistan urges UN to implement its Kashmir resolutions fully ISLAMABAD

TLTp

STAFF REpORT

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has asked the federal government to take back the Pakistan Islands Development Authority Ordinance, 2020. Addressing a press conference on Friday, the chief minister said that the Sindh Assembly has passed a resolution against the Islands Ordinance. The CM said that maritime boundaries of the federal government start after 12 nautical miles. Murad said that being a chief minister, it is his duty to satisfy people of the province by serving them. The CM maintained that we are not afraid of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and will continue to face corruption cases against us. Murad said that it has been over a year, PPP leader Khursheed Shah is in jail without any case. The CM further said that the federal government has stopped calling ministers for meetings.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has urged the United Nations (UN) to exercise its legal and political authority to ensure full implementation of its resolutions on Kashmir.The foreign minister said this while addressing a ceremony in connection with the 75th anniversary of the UN on Friday.

He said that it is deplorable that universal ideals of the UN Charter are continuously being violated and defied with impunity nowhere more egregiously than in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).

"Led by 'Hindutva' ideology, the BJP-RSS regime in India is incessantly resorting to aggressive posturing against Pakistan and other neighbouring countries that seriously imperils regional peace and security," he added.Qureshi said, “The UN Day reminds us of our collective responsibility to abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and lends an oppor-

tunity to renew our commitment to the noble ideals enshrined in it.” He reiterated Pakistan's firm and abiding commitment to multilateralism, with the UN playing a central role.

He said that Pakistan's contribution to the UN Peacekeeping is one of the most visible manifestations of our commitment to multilateralism. "Pakistan is one of the longest-serving and largest contributors to the UN peacekeeping. Since 1960, we have contributed over 200,000 peacekeepers to 46 Peacekeeping Missions around the world."Qureshi said Pakistan also continues to co-host one of the oldest Peacekeeping Missions - the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan. He said that Pakistan also continues to host 3 million registered and unregistered Afghan refugees, which remains one of the most protracted refugee crises in the world.While talking about the coronavirus pandemic, the foreign minister said that Pakistan is one of the few countries which have successfully restricted its spread.

3,990 terrorist incidents occurred since Jan 2015, Senate told ISLAMABAD TLTp

The upper house of the Parliament was informed on Friday that 3,990 terrorist incidents took place between January 2015 and September 2020, leaving 3,384 persons martyred and 8,436 others wounded.

The Interior Ministry presented the details before the Senate regarding the martyred and wounded persons in terrorist incidents. In its written response, the ministry detailed that National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) has been compiling data of martyred persons in terrorist incidents since 2015; however, the statistics did not contain details of terrorists killed in different actions. According to details, out of 3,384 martyred persons, 1,457 were personnel of law enforcement agencies, whereas 2,569 security officials and 5,867 other persons were wounded. According to yearwise statistics, 1,139 incidents occurred in 2015 which caused the loss of 838 lives and left 1,706 wounded; 785 incidents took place in 2016 with 804 deaths and 1,914 injured; 668 people were martyred and 2,153 got injured in 741 incidents occurred in 2017; 584 incidents took place in 2018 with 517 martyrdoms and 1,256 wounded; 375 people were martyred and 963 injured in 482 incidents occurred in 2019, and 175 martyrdoms and 446 injuries were reported in 259 incidents in 2020 till September 2020. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan, speaking on the floor of the House, said that there are no specified routes which are used for drug trafficking at Pakistan’s border areas. Responding to a question during Question Hour, Ali Muhammad Khan said that terrain offers many opportunities to traffickers for adopting infrequent routes. He said that 17 federal and 14 provincial agencies are working to control drug smuggling in the country. He also said that the intelligence network of ANF has been expanded inside main cities to locate and hang drug smugglers.

nity to consider the possibility of an additional protocol on asset returns. Mutual legal assistance in the investigation and prosecution of offences was essential to give teeth to global efforts to combat corruption, he said, adding that “there should be no safe havens for the proceeds of corruption”. Countries must impose criminal and financial penalties on financial institutions which enable corruption and bribery, the Pakistani delegate emphasised.

“Enablers of corruption and bribery such as bankers, accountants, lawyers and other intermediaries must be closely regulated, monitored and held accountable,” he said, while stressing the need for a fair, transparent and predictable system of adjudication for investment disputes.

World Bank vows to support Pakistan during Covid-19 crisis ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has said that the government has devised a mechanism for cash transfer to support 16 million deserving families during testing times. He was speaking at a virtual meeting with World Bank Managing Director Axel Van Trotsenburg and Vice President Hartwing Schafer. The finance adviser appreciated the role of World Bank in extending assistance to Pakistan to provide much-needed fiscal space to fight Covid-19 pandemic effectively. The World Bank appreciated reform agenda of the incumbent government and reiterated commitment to support Pakistan through IDA 2020 during Covid-19 crisis. STAFF REpORT

opp stages token walkout from Senate ISLAMABAD: The opposition in Senate staged a token walkout from the House on Friday to protest the non-laying of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority Ordinance, 2019, and ordinance for the development of Bundal and Buddo islands which, according to regulations was obligatory to be laid in the first meeting of Parliament after the promulgation of the ordinances. Responding to oppositions’ point of order, State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan said CPEC is a game-changer project which will expedite the development of the whole region. The government will lay the ordinance within mandatory 120 days and the obligation would be fulfilled within the prescribed timeframe of 120 days.

Criticising the Sindh government, Khan said that the opposition wanted to fan chaos in the country. The Sindh Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution calling upon the federal government to immediately withdraw its presidential ordinance to establish the Pakistan Islands’ Development Authority (PIDA) as it is aimed at unlawful annexation of two islands off Karachi’s coast that are an integral part of Sindh. The session of the assembly was specially convened to consider the federal government’s move to establish the PIDA through a presidential ordinance to develop the two islands off Karachi’s coast into modern cities. The resolution on the issue was presented by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) lawmaker Mahmood Alam Jamot, who represents those coastal areas of Karachi whose fishermen are likely to be affected due to the development of two islands as it would result in phenomenal depletion of the fisheries resources. STAFF REpORT

5 killed in khuzdar bus fire

PESHAWAR: A farmer sprays pesticide on his crops to protect them from insects. ppi

BALOCHISTAN: Five people were killed and three others injured after a passenger bus caught fire on Friday in Khuzdar district of Balochistan province, police said. Women and children were among the killed, according to paramilitary troops in Khuzdar, who said at least three others were critically injured. The bus was on its way to Karachi from Quetta when it caught fire due to a short circuit in the engine on a national highway in Khuzdar. Upon getting the information, rescue teams along with police rushed to the site for rescue and relief activities. Firefighters doused the fire before rescuing the injured and shifting them to a nearby hospital. According to police, DNA tests will be conducted to identify the burnt bodies and then they will be handed over to their relatives. STAFF REpORT

Sindh’s reservations on Islands issue to be addressed, AGP tells SHC KARACHI TLTp

Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Javed Khan has assured the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday that the federal government will address the reservations raised by the Sindh government over Pakistan Islands Development Authority Ordinance, 2020.

During the hearing of the case, the applicant Shahab Usto stated that federal territory in the sea starts after 12 nautical

miles and Bundal and Buddo are the properties of the province as they fall within 12 nautical miles.

The AGP stated that the federal government respects the resolution passed by the Sindh Assembly and the reservations of the provincial government would be resolved. “The federal government is in contact with the provincial government,” he added.

AGP Khan further said that development at the islands would be done only after the consultation of PPP govern-

ment. If necessary, the government will amend the ordinance, he assured the court. Later, the hearing was adjourned till November 13.

On August 30, President Dr Arif Alvi had promulgated the ordinance for establishing Pakistan Islands Development Authority for “development and management of islands in internal and territorial waters of Pakistan.”

However, the Sindh government on Tuesday withdrew its July 6, 2020 letter in which the Land Utilisation De-

partment had consented to the federal government to take custody of both islands.

“That due to this illegal, unconstitutional and malafide act of the federal government, the Sindh cabinet has decided not to engage with the Federal Government for the purpose of developing the Island and consequently the letter dated 06.07.2020 of Government of Sindh, Land Utilization Department is treated as a nullity,” the department said in a letter withdrawing the previous one.

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Saturday, 24 October, 2020

NEWS

PunjaB mullS lOCkdOWn aS COROnaviRuS SituatiOn WORSenS LAHORE

l

sHAHAB OMeR

AW Minister Raja Basharat, during a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Anti-Corona, warned that if the people continued to flout the Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs), the government would be forced to take drastic measures, Pakistan Today learnt on Friday.

“Government departments have repeatedly asked the public to follow the Covid-19 SOPs, but most of the people have ignored the SOPs,” he said.

The meeting took place on Friday in the Chief Min-

ister House, wherein it was considered allowing government employees over the age of 55 and female government employees with children to work from home.

The law minister was also briefed on the steps being taken by the concerned departments to control the Covid19. It is pertinent to mention here that smart lockdown has been imposed in 774 places in Punjab while SOPs have also been formed for marriage halls, educational institutions and markets.

Moreover, in view of the growing number of cases of Covid-19 across the country, the Corona Expert Advisory Group (CEAG) has also started considering suggesting a lockdown to the government.

In a statement issued on behalf of CEAG, Prof Dr Asad Aslam said that Covid-19 are not being implemented by the people across the country.

“In this regard, not only in the markets but also in any other sectors, Covid-19 SOPs are not being implemented. This is the main reason why the chances of the coronavirus spreading again in Pakistan have increased. If the same situation persists, we will once again propose to the federal government to impose smart lockdown,” he said.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Secretary Jawad Rafique Malik has said that the number of Covid-19 patients in Punjab hospitals is increasing. “Once again, the number

of critically ill patients in hospitals has risen due to Covid-19,” he remarked.

The Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Punjab said that the proportion of deaths due to coronavirus in Punjab on September 1 this year was 1.6 per cent, but this number has now reached 6 per cent. Similarly, the percentage of Covid-19 cases in Punjab has increased from 0.92 to 1.33 per cent.

The number of active cases of coronavirus has risen to 9,855 across the country. Moreover, 13 more people have lost their lives due to Covid-19 in the last 24 hours across the country; and the total number of deaths due to the global pandemic has risen to 6,715.

According to the latest data released by the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC), 736 new cases of covid-19 were reported in Pakistan in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases across the country to 326,216 and 309,646 patients have recovered so far.

The total number of patients in Sindh is 142,917 while in Punjab it is 122,253, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) 38,886, in Balochistan 15,767, Islamabad 18,578, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) 3,688 and GilgitBaltistan (GB) 4,127.

1.6m to get jobs through Punjab Rozgar Scheme: Buzdar LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has said that more than 1.6 million needy people will get jobs through Punjab Rozgar Scheme, which is the largest employment scheme worth Rs30 billion. The chief minister said this while chairing the ceremony of signing an agreement of Punjab Rozgar Scheme here at his office on Friday. The agreement was signed between the Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC) and the Bank of Punjab. President of The Bank of Punjab Zafar Masood and MD Punjab Small Industries Corporation Jamil Ahmed Jamil signed the agreement. Provincial Ministers Hashim Jawan Bakht, Fayyazul Hassan Chohan, ACS (Local Govt), Secretary Finance and Secretary Information were also present. Talking on the occasion, the chief minister stated that under the agreement, Punjab Bank will provide soft loans to successful applicants. This scheme will make the youth economically self-reliant and the owners of small and medium scale industries, as well as the traders facing financial crunch due to corona pandemic, will be able to develop their businesses, he added. Giving the details, the CM said loans from Rs100,000 to Rs10 million will be offered to 20 to 50 years old applicants at the very minimal interest rate. Small loans will be provided for 339 sub-sectors of 23 assorted sectors, including 26 sub-sectors of the textile industry. This scheme will promote cottage industry, he added. The government plans to transform individual skills as an investment and this scheme will prove a game-changer initiative in this regard, he further said. The CM was briefed that 9,428 persons have applied for loans but the required fee is not deposited with 6,138 applications while 3,035 applications are submitted along with fee and PSIC has processed 1,619 applications so far. TLTP An eye-catching view of Karakoram Highway in Gilgit-Baltistan. inP

WHO lauds Pakistan for containing Covid-19 ISLAMABAD TLTP

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has appreciated the response of federal and provincial governments of Pakistan in effectively containing the Covid-19 pandemic. The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO) presented their findings at a debriefing session in Islamabad, chaired by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan. The WHO mission, comprising a team of experts, has been on a ten-day visit to Pakistan since 14th of this month, to review lessons learnt from Pakistan’s Covid-19 response and to work with national and provincial health experts. The main area of the review was surveillance, point of entry, risk communication and community engagement, and continuity in essential health services. Dr Faisal Sultan appreciated the efforts of the WHO mission and WHO Country Office in identifying the gaps and recommendations in the suggested areas of the International Health Regulations 2005. He acknowledged that by strengthening the gaps in the identified areas, they can enable the health system to deal with any kind of infectious disease emergency, like Covid-19.

SC adjourns Daniel Pearl murder case for four weeks NEWS DESK The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday adjourned for four weeks the hearing of an appeal from the family of slain journalist Daniel Pearl against the acquittal of a Britishborn Pakistani man convicted over the 2002 beheading of the Wall Street Journal reporter.

The key suspect in Pearl’s slaying, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and three other accomplices were sentenced to life in prison for their role in the plot. But the Sindh High Court (SHC) in April acquitted him, a move that stunned the US government, Pearl’s family and journalism advocacy groups. The acquittal is now being appealed separately by the government and Pearl’s family, a process that under the law could take years. The government has opposed Sheikh’s

release, saying it would endanger the public. He is to remain in custody until the appeals are resolved.

Thursday’s adjournment came due to the absence from the court of Sindh government’s counsel Farooq Naek, who was unwell and following the request of Sheikh’s defence counsel. Faisal Siddiqi, who is representing Pearl’s family, said he was surprised by the four-week adjournment, saying he had asked for an expeditious handling of the case. Pearl, 38, was the South Asia bureau chief for Wall Street Journal when he was abducted in Karachi in January 2002 while researching a story about religious extremists in the city. A graphic video clip showing his decapitation was delivered to the US consulate in the city nearly a month after his abduction. Sheikh was arrested in 2002 and sentenced to death by the trial court.

Do I need to wear a mask if I’m 6 feet away from others?

Do I need to wear a mask if I’m 6 feet away from others?

Health experts recommend wearing masks in public and keeping your distance from others in most cases, but whether you should do both could depend on the situation. “There’s no invisible force field at 6 feet,” said Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease expert at George Mason University.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the spread of the virus beyond 6 feet is uncommon but more likely in poorly ventilated spaces. Some health experts say the virus can spread more easily than the agency indicates, and suggest wearing masks even in prolonged outdoor gatherings when people are more than 6 feet apart.

Other factors could also influence whether it’s best to keep your distance while also wearing a mask. When people raise their voices or pant — such as when they

sing, shout or exercise — they can expel more respiratory droplets or aerosols, and send them traveling farther through the air. The longer you’re in a situation with the potential for exposure to the virus, the greater your risk of infection.

“The reason this stuff is so confusing is people want clear answers, and there’s not a straightforward answer,” said Lisa M. Lee, a public health expert at Virginia Tech.

Since no protective measure is entirely effective, Lee suggests layering safeguards like masks, social distancing and hand washing.

“And your mask is your basic layer,” she said.

Getting in the habit of wearing a mask anytime you leave the house also eliminates having to decide when you should, said Bob Bednarczyk, an expert in infectious diseases at Emory University. “It’s one less thing to worry about,” he said. Agencies

Saturday, 24 October, 2020

JuSIce ISA, wIfe ReveAl TAx, ASSeTS deTAIlS I

NEWS DESK

N response to the demand by the Women’s Action Forum (WAF), which had invoked Article 19A of the Constitution, and the right to information laws to seek the inquiry about Justice Qazi Faez Isa, his wife Safina Isa and children, the Supreme Court (SC) judge’s family voluntarily disclosed their personal assets, the income tax they paid from the year 2018 to 2020 and the privileges he enjoys as a member of the judiciary.

Justice Isa issued a statement saying that he had paid Rs2.2 million as income tax in 2018 on the income of Rs15 million earned that year, Rs1.79 million tax in 2019 on the income of Rs17 million and Rs2.6 million tax in 2020 on the income of Rs21 million.

Along with the Rs41 million in local bank accounts, and Rs4 million in foreign

currency accounts, the judge declared three properties. These were an 800-square-yard plot in Phase 2 of DHA, Karachi, which he had then later built a house upon; another 800-square-yard open plot in DHA, Karachi; a 200-yard-square commercial plot in Phase 5 of DHA, Karachi. All of these had been bought when Justice Isa had been practicing law.

In addition to this, the judge inherited two properties from his late father. Namely, a half share in a plot in Ziarat, Balochistan, next to the Quaid’s Residency, and a 0neKanal house in Phase 1 of DHA, Lahore, which has been rented out.

The statement pointed out that during his time in the Balochistan High Court (BHC) and Supreme Court (SC), he had never applied for a plot; furthermore, he pointed out that he had been offered one, but had refused.

According to his statement, the official perks Justice Isa enjoys are one offi-

Raoof Hasan appointed as SAPM on information

cial residence in Islamabad, which includes two servants provided by the government, one cook, part-time gardener and cleaners, 2017 and 2015 model Honda Civic cars, along with an allowance of up to 600 litres of petrol per month, and free medical treatment at approved hospitals.

Furthermore, Justice Isa said that he was given utilities of 300 free local calls, 2,000 units of electricity and 25 hundred cubic metres of gas per month.

Regarding the judge’s wife, Sabina Isa showed herself as an independent tax filer in both the United Kingdom and Pakistan. She also elected to disclose her personal asset details, wherein it was learned that she paid an income tax of Rs576,540 in 2018, she paid Rs809,970 tax in 2019, and Rs1 million tax in 2020.

She showed Rs15 million in local bank accounts and Rs25 million in foreign currency accounts. Along with this, she

owns Rs21 million in saving certificates.

Sarina further revealed that she owned 2,243 kanals of land, which had been managed by her father until his passing on June 25 this year. Along with this, she also owns a plot in Shah Latif Town, Karachi, which has been encroached upon, and three offshore properties in London.

They do not have dependents, as their daughter and son are 33 and 30 respectively. The former lives in Pakistan and pays taxes in both Pakistan and UK, while the latter works and lives in the UK, and only pays taxes there.

The WAF had in August of last year issued a statement to seek information of the assets of those who held public office, including the justices and judges of the SC and other high courts, as well as highranking military officials such as the army chief, major generals, air chief marshalls, air and navy admirals, and more.

Oil falls $1 per barrel on Libyan output, Covid-19 demand concerns NEW YORK

ISLAMABAD

AGENCIES

STAFF REPORT

Prime Minister Imran Khan has appointed Raoof Hasan as his Special Assistant on Information and Broadcasting. According to a notification issued by the Cabinet Division on Friday, Raoof Hasan has been appointed as special assistant to the prime minister on the information in an honorary capacity.

Rauf Hassan is the brother of former senior bureaucrat and former Principal Secretary to PM Fawad Hassan Fawad. He has been appointed the new SAPM on Information following the resignation of Lt Gen (r) Asim Saleem Bajwa from the post on October 12.

NAB initiates another inquiry against former NBP president KARACHI STAFF REPORT

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has launched another inquiry against former National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) president Saeed Ahmed. A joint investigation team of the anti-corruption watchdog has sought records from the NBP Board of Directors secretary. An investigation is already underway against Saeed Ahmed over illegal appointments and promotions. Ahmed had allegedly appointed blue-eyed persons in the bank on the advice of influential persons in 2017. NAB investigators have also sought details of promotions awarded to OG-III officers to SEVP position, besides approval notes of NBP board of directors. The details of the legal process for making appointments and promotions in NBP were also sought by the investigators. The anti-corruption watchdog asked the NBP management to provide records regarding advertisements for appointments and regulations for finalising salaries of the employees.

Oil fell roughly $1 a barrel on Friday and headed for a weekly drop on rising Libyan crude supply and demand concerns caused by surging coronavirus cases in the United States and Europe.

Crude prices sank after Libya’s National Oil Corp (NOC) said it lifted force majeure on exports from key ports and output would reach 1 million barrels per day in four weeks.

“As soon as that came out, the market cratered,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York.

Brent crude lost 93 cents, or 2.2pc, at $41.53 a barrel by 1:21 p.m. EDT (1721 GMT). US crude shed $1.01 cents, or 2.5pc, at $39.63. Both contracts are on track for a weekly loss.

Italy and several US states reported record daily increases in infections, while France extended curfews for about two thirds of its

NEWS

05

Imran says he’ll speak to British PM for Nawaz’s extradition CONtINuED ON pAgE 01 Premier Imran said that both Nawaz and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, tried to “blackmail” him. “They used the FATF bill as a bargaining chip but when they failed, they are now trying to put pressure on the army,” he added. He further said that the incumbent government is repaying foreign debt which is $10 billion per year while the PML-N government paid $5 billion whereas the PPP government paid $2.5 billion dollars per year. While putting light on the meetings of some PML-N leaders with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the premier revealed that he knew about “these meetings in advance”. “General Bajwa was telling me that they [PML-N] leaders were coming to meet him. I think he should not have met him. What did we gain from this? Now they are using the language of our enemies. We have to decide whether we want to forgive them or not. One thing is clear, even if I am in my grave, I will not give them NRO.” Talking about the Bundle Island issue which has created rift between the province and Centre, PM Imran said that initially the Sindh government granted the federal government permission but later withdrew it. “We did not need it [permission] because the area comes under the federal territory. Despite this, we obtained an NOC from them,” he said. Talking about PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif’s corruption, he said the evidence of Rs23 billion corruption has been found in his two cases. He said that PML-N’s pressure game against the military and judiciary is aimed at demanding NRO from the prime minister. The premier reaffirmed his commitment to uplift the poor segment of the society on the pattern of Riyasat-eMadina (State of Medina). He said, “It is a challenge for our government to make this country independent economically.”

IT export remittances rise 43.5pc to $379m in July-Sept quarter ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

population as the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic sweeps across Europe, raising fears about fuel consumption.

“What’s holding us back is the uncertainty about demand – when we’re going to get a vaccine, when things are going to get back to normal, concerns about more shutdowns,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.

Comments by Russian President

Vladimir Putin on Thursday that Moscow did not rule out extending OPEC+ oil output cuts, but did not go far enough to support prices against the weight of Libyan output and demand fears, analysts said.

OPEC+, a group that includes Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, is due to increase production by 2 million bpd in January 2021 as part of a plan to pump more as demand recovers.

Pakistan Post directed to stop opening new savings accounts, certificates ISLAMABAD SHAHZAD PARACHA

In order to comply with the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a supervisory board has directed the Pakistan Post to stop opening new saving accounts or issuing any kind of saving certificates from November 16, 2020, sources told Pakistan Today.

A meeting of the board was held at the Ministry of Communications to discuss Pakistan Post’s compliance with FATF guidelines against money laundering and terror financing. The board expressed displeasure over the Pakistan Post’s performance in this regard, and directed it to stop opening new saving accounts and issuance of all kinds of saving certificates on its business counters until further notice.

The export remittances of IT & IT-enabled Services (ITeS), comprising computer services and call centers, surged 43.55pc to $379.251 million during the first three months (July-September) of the current fiscal year (FY21) as compared to $264.187 million in the same period of FY20, according to a report issued by the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), an attached department of Ministry of IT and Telecommunication. In a statement issued on Friday, IT and Telecom Minister Syed Aminul Haque said that government was taking all possible steps to ensure long term IT industry growth trajectory and to enhance IT industry exports. He also lauded the IT sector for its contributions to Pakistan, saying that Pakistan's IT industry has reached an important milestone in its journey and it has the potential to be the largest foreign exchange earner for Pakistan.

‘Plan afoot to relaunch tram service in Karachi’ KARACHI: Karachi Administrator Iftikhar Ali Shalwani said on Friday that Turkey has offered to launch tram service in the port city and the administration is working over a plan to relaunch the iconic service in the metropolis. Addressing a ceremony, the administrator said that the route of the expected tram service would be nine kilometers.

“The city government is working over a plan to run tram service in Karachi between Metropole and I I Chundrigar Road,” he added. Shalwani also announced that the Karachi administration will organize a marathon race in Karachi next year. Last month, Turkish Consul General Tolga Ucak had offered to launch tram service in the port city in a meeting with the administrator of Karachi. TLTP

WhatsApp turns to business messaging to generate revenue CALIFORNIA AGENCIES

The world’s most popular messaging service is pushing more aggressively into customer service features, including a pay-to-message option for businesses, and says it’s focusing on enterprise tools, not advertising.

WhatsApp paused plans for targeted advertising late last year, surprising those who thought it would follow in line with its parent company.

“Our focus has been on the business messaging products,” says Matt Idema, WhatsApp’s chief operating officer. He said

WhatsApp still envisions ads inside Status, a feature on the app similar to Facebook’s Stories, at some point.

WhatsApp announced an update aimed at businesses that use its API, the software interface that lets companies manage message threads with their customers outside of the app, like through a third-party dashboard.

WhatsApp currently charges some businesses a small fee – a few cents per message – to send users things like receipts and confirmation reminders through the app instead of email.

Now WhatsApp will offer more API features, including free storage to host a busi-

ness’s messages, in hopes that more of them will sign up for the API. Idema says 175 million of WhatsApp’s 2 billion-plus users interact with a business on the app every day, a sign that WhatsApp is focused on a function people care about. Tens of thousands of businesses use the API, Idema said, though Facebook doesn’t disclose WhatsApp’s revenue.

Part of WhatsApp’s appeal has been its high level of encryption, which means messages are never typically stored on Facebook servers or read by the company. By offering to store a businesses messages if they ask, WhatsApp is also committing to not use them to bolster ad targeting, a spokesman said.

CMYK

The new plan is a combination of commerce and customer service. Charging businesses to send messages through the API is the only way WhatsApp makes money today. But Facebook has invested in a number of international companies, including Jio Platforms in India, to secure partners for WhatsApp as it builds commerce and business features in those markets. In India, for example, many small business owners use WhatsApp in lieu of a website, relying on the service to interact with customers and display product catalogs.

WhatsApp is trying to expand that functionality, too. Retailers can now promote a

Facebook Shop on WhatsApp, a product catalog that works across all of the company’s apps, including Instagram. Idema sees Shops as a graduation of sorts from WhatsApp’s existing catalogs feature, saying it will let retailers manage a digital storefront from all Facebook’s apps instead of just on WhatsApp. The next phase of WhatsApp’s plan will also include payments, enabling customers to buy products directly within the app.

Those plans have hit regulatory snags in a number of countries, including India and Brazil, WhatsApp’s largest markets, adding to the complexity around making money through private messaging.

Saturday, 24 October, 2020

06 COMMENT

Have Pity on Baba

The public perception of NAB

Dragging the Quaid into politics

Fresh references further support it

N

AB has acted in a predictable way. Within days of being goaded by Prime Minister Imran Khan to dispose of mega corruption cases quickly, the NAB Executive Board promptly approved a fresh reference against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Another reference was approved against PML(N) leader Ahsan Iqbal who continues to irritate the government. In April the NAB had assured that it would begin a “comprehensive” investigation on all aspects of the wheat and sugar scandals. there is no sign of any move in the direction despite claims by top government leaders that they had been provided misleading figures about the reserves, leading them to permit the export of the two commodities. there also fresh references against bureaucrats.

Among those named and shamed are a former foreign secretary, a former DG FIA and a former interior secretary. there are cases against dozens of bureaucrats and technocrats from lower down the bureaucratic rung including former officials of the National testing Service, CDA, Nespak, Sports Board Punjab and Punjab Saaf Pani Company. One hopes the NAB has learnt the right lesson from its earlier media trial and humiliation of arrested officers which affected the morale of the bureaucracy and led it to avoid taking decisions. those who caused losses to the exchequer to benefit themselves must be punished but policy decisions taken in good faith leading to unintended results should not lead to prosecution. the continuous delay to implement the SC decision to set up 120 new accountability courts to enable day-to-day hearings could lead to the perception that the government is taking time to ensure that only loyalists are issued appointment letters. NAB Chairman Mr Justice (rtd) Javed Iqbal has claimed that NAB has no affiliation with any political party, groups or individuals, but only with the state of Pakistan. Many think the Bureau is no more than a pliable instrument in the hands of those in power who use it to change loyalties and persecutes those who refuse to become turncoats. the Supreme Court calling the Paragon Housing Society corruption case a “classic example of trampling of fundamental rights, unlawful deprivation of freedom, and liberty and the complete disregard for human dignity as guaranteed by the Constitution” supports the more popular perceptions.

AskAri rAzA MAlik

I

t was around midnight 23/24 November 1971 when the four of us landed at Karachi on our way to Colombo and onward to the erstwhile East Pakistan. We had about eight hours in Karachi. the options were many, from the cabaret at the Metropole to a walk on the beach. the serenity of the sojourn led us to the mausoleum of the Baba, Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. I humbly presented myself and more humbly submitted, ‘Baba! We are grateful to you for the gift, Pakistan. But we are good children. We are not going to live forever under the burden of your immense favor. We are about to return one half. Pray for us that we keep the other half.’

We were four young majors who had volunteered to join the fighting in the Eastern wing where the chips were already down. Every one of us was leaving a young wife and a toddler or two behind. It was perhaps the second last flight between the two wings joined together by the brotherhood in Islam.

My inauspicious words proved true. We lost the Eastern part. It is another story that we were not defeated by India but a hundred thousand strong young and zealous army of our own brethren, the Mukti Bahini, the Bengali fighters. We also remember, even though we do not wish to be reminded of that, how all the major actors of the drama of the 1971 Secession East Pakistan had met an extremely violent and ignoble end. today, once again I was reminded of Baba in a rather tragic setting. He has been dragged in the petty political squabbles by small minded politicians fighting for their survival against a determined National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Captain Safdar, ex Pakistan Army, had the audacity to babble cheap and meaningless slogans coined by a dimwitted absconder right inside the Quaid’s mausoleum. He brings to mind The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles. those of our age

Bowing to extremism Cancellation of lecture shows disturbing trend

A

Is revitalization of economy possible?

PPARENtLy, there should be no problem with Dr Atif Mian delivering a lecture on ‘Why has economic growth fallen behind in Pakistan?’ at Karachi’s Institute of Business Administration. He is a professor of economics at Princeton University, and specializes in the connections between finance and the macro-economy. there was no ticket involved, for the lecture was to be online. yet the lecture was cancelled, not because the topic was not apt for the Institute or because Dr Mian lacked the required expertise, but because, according to Dr Mian’s own social-media explanation, extremists were threatening the university administration.

It may be noted that extremist threat was strong enough to prevent the university or the Institute from offering an alternate explanation.

Dr Mian has undergone such an experience before. He was initially named to the Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister, but there was an immediate outcry, not because he was unqualified as an economist, but because of his religious faith. He happens to be an Ahmadi. How his religious faith might be related to his economic knowledge was never explained, though some, as ignorant of the tenets of religion as of economic theory and practice, did claim that he would somehow give bad advice which would harm Pakistan’s economy. Everyone has seen how the country has fared deprived of his advice.

It is not a matter of Dr Mian. It is a question of any Ahmadi. Is he or she to be allowed to practice his profession? the circle of forbidden fields seems to be growing. Will extremists refuse treatment from an Ahmadi doctor? Or will they refuse to buy goods from an Ahmadi shopkeeper? Pakistan is not yet free of the problems created by extremists, even though it has poured both blood and treasure into the fight against it. However, the kiling of six military personnel in Razmak only last week indicates that the fight against extremism is far from over. And it should not be forgotten that extremism cannot be countered by a supine acceptance of its demands, no matter how illogical or intellectually lazy.

Life after the pandemic MishAl-e-Noor

S

INCE the advent of covid-19, economic growth has turned sharply negative, pushing the economies into global recession. the pandemic has somehow played the role of a double edged sword: if the lockdown is relaxed, the fear of increase in number of coronavirus cases rises; whereas if a lockdown is strictly imposed, economies tend to bear the repercussions. Economists across world have declared the pandemic a sequel to the Great Depression. Before March, the IMF projected positive per capita income growth for more than 160 countries for 2020, but unlike expectations – six months past covid-19– 170 countries of the world are currently experiencing negative per capita income growth. Livelihood opportunities, especially for daily wage workers, have been squeezed. Not only small and medium enterprises and traders are badly hit, the sudden closures of large industries, ports, airports and transport have also jammed the wheel of the economies across the globe.

Additionally, this cut in economic activity has further scaled down the consumption of petroleum products which has resulted in partial closure of refineries, thereby immensely affecting the petroleum trade. Although philanthropists and donor agencies are actively participating in the provision of essential food items and services to the reachable population, survival in developing countries is yet a global concern.

Speaking of developing countries, Pakistan was already suffering from mild recession prior to covid19. therefore, despite huge global criticism, the government had to ease lockdown at the end of May considering the crawling condition of the economy.

At that time, the number of active coronavirus cases was on an exponential rise to the extent that global health organizations were comparing Pakistan’s trend of increase in active cases with active cases in Italy and China. But unlike expectations, the relaxation of lockdown did not increase number of coronavirus cases. Health experts are yet unaware of the real cause of the switch in trend of active coronavirus cases. However, it is largely believed that the weather

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Comparing Jinnah with his party’s ordinary who are familiar with the romance would agree with me that Safdar’s story is no less romantic. His unit of- thieves is not only a huge profanity, it is sheer lack ficer was selected as ADC to the prime minister of shame in a person who often keeps waffling about (Nawaz Sharif) and told as usual to report forthwith. the sense of shame in others. the Quaid gave his lifethe selected captain was short of a formal dress. So, long hard-earned money and property to the nation. the next recommended, for want of a comparable though he drew only a symbolic one rupee as salary quantity was Captain Safdar. He reported forthwith he had enough money of his own to live in luxury. and started to go about his business in real earnest. He He led a highly austere life regarding his personal wealth also to be the propsoon hooked up a more than erty of his nation. And here willing daughter of his boss, is one of your party chiefs eloped with her and immediwho sends a donation of ately married her to present a fait accompli to his boss who Who will teach Captain Safdar millions of pounds (coming from abroad for the widows had no option but to accede to observe the sanctity of the and the orphans after the and celebrate to make it look earthquake), direct to his like an arranged marriage. tomb of the Father of the personal account to be Safdar, thank God for it, left whisked away to the safety the Army where he claims he Nation?

And who will take of foreign lands. could have risen to be a lieuthe tale of laurels won tenant general. Judging from Khwaja Asif to task for by the bunch of thugs the the sense of proportion discreating an uncalled-for and duo represents is long and played by him in his sacrileabominable. that is beyond gious conduct at the tomb of analogy?

The Supreme unholy the scope of this limited the father of the nation he had already reached the Court of Pakistan might deem piece to recount. But who will show these unimaginaheight of his incompetence it necessary to intervene and tive and uncouth gladiators as a captain. He found his the limits of decency? Who right place in the gang of call upon these rogues to will censure them for the PML(N) stalwarts. blasphemy they seem to the other musketeer offer an unconditional perpetrate without a demur? who has attained notorious apology to the nation. Have Who will teach Captain fame for his silly knavery is Safdar to observe the sancKhwaja Asif. He could not they not committed a graver tity of the tomb of the Fasettle for anyone lesser than ther of the Nation? And the Quaid himself to comoffense in vandalizing the who will take Khwaja Asif pare with a group of comto task for creating an unmon vultures on the radar of founder of Pakistan than called-for and unholy analthe NAB. One thought he contempt of court? ogy? the Supreme Court of was literate enough to know Pakistan might deem it necthat apples are to be comessary to intervene and call pared with apples and so on, upon these rogues to offer and not the highly pedigreed an unconditional apology to horses with mules and donkeys. In his as stupid a twit and height of imagina- the nation. Have they not committed a graver oftion, he brought the Quaid to the NAB court. the fense in vandalizing the founder of Pakistan than court asking Jinnah to justify the acquisition of his contempt of court?

I, as an ardent admirer and a great lover of the huge property when he drew only one Rupee as salary. What an analogy! Even a high school student Quaid, can only plead with the politicians to please will be able to give an account of the Quaid’s wealth have pity on Baba and stop dragging him in your that he had made before he assumed public office. petty wrangles.

Whereas, most of the thugs are being asked to justify The author is a retired Major General of the accumulation of billions stolen out of the public exPakistan Army chequer, a scared trust.

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conditions in Pakistan have barred the country from covid-19. Regardless of the success in dealing with the pandemic naturally, the country has yet to struggle to cope with the loss the initial months of the pandemic brought forth. Pakistan’s economy for the first time in 68 years is projected to contract in the outgoing fiscal year with a negative growth rate of 0.38 percent and is set to face a shrinkage of up to four percent of GDP due to trade disruptions, decline in FDI and remittances, and fluxes in other sectors.

It is evident from the data that Pakistan’s economy has experienced prosperity and recession with no growth interval lasting more than five years. Since 2018, the growth rate was declining and the pandemic aggravated the situation further. the informal sector that accommodated 27.3 million employees prior to pandemic is now either suffering from increase in unemployment or underemployment. In a nutshell, the pandemic made people in the country even vulnerable to poverty and those who were already vulnerable lie below poverty line now.

In order to deal with the socio-economic implications of the covid-19 situation, the government of Pakistan collaborated with different donor agencies. the World Bank has approved a $200 million programme to help Pakistan improve access to quality healthcare, education and support economic opportunities for women to limit the impact of the pandemic. USAID and UNDP have also launched several programmes in different provinces of Pakistan to give revenue-generating activities a push.

Now that the markets have completely restored their operational status and are working in a restric-

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tion-free environment, to expect an upward swing in growth is still unrealistic primarily because of two factors: 1) the weather that worked as shield against the pandemic is on the verge of change and with this, we may see a tendency for coronavirus infections to occur once again. the government’s claim that Pakistan is one of the countries with the highest coronavirus testing is yet unreliable, as a major chunk of the population cannot afford the cost of a coronavirus test, which is Rs 4000 per person. Moreover, if we look at the household structure in Pakistan, a vast majority of households either have sole earners on whom the entire family is financially dependent, or they have minors working to make both ends meet. therefore, affordability of a coronavirus test for an average poverty-ridden household comprising five to six individuals, is quite an issue. therefore, it can be stated that although weather conditions prevented virus spread, a great deal of active cases go unreported. If these unreported cases wander normally in public with this changing weather, a second wave of infection is inevitable. 2) Apart from the pandemic, the foreign debt policy of the government, unprecedented price hike and reduction in exports have also made the economy stutter.

Adding to the misery, the country is prone to face gas shortage for a minimum of next two years, thereby further exerting a negative impact on the staggering performance of industries. In the light of circumstances like these, growth is unlikely to knock at the economy’s door for a while. therefore, it is time for policy makers to be more vigilant in framing policies that can at least minimize the bandwidth of negative growth if not revert it back to positive.

The writer is working as Research Fellow at Institute of Social and Policy Sciences, Islamabad

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Saturday, 24 October, 2020

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

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

Hang the rapists?

Who will win the US presidential election? states which always turn the direction of the graphs as the behaviour of people cannot be estimated or underestimated.

At the present, based on latest poll numbers, funding for the WHO during the pandemic, because it did not support him in blaming China Biden leads 56 percent trump’s 43 percent, for covid-19. it seemed a very insensitive deci- which means Biden enjoys a lead which may sion at a time of emergency. He ended many help him win with a thumping majority. the tough contest is expected to take place pacts such as on environment, the nuclear deal with Iran and influenced Arab countries UAE in Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania and political history and Bahrain to recognize Israel. the situation is changing each passing day makes battlegrounds of these states, since these as Donald trump’s impatience during Presiden- states may change the electoral –college numtial Debate against Joe Biden ruined his popu- bers in favour of either Biden or Donald trump.

In addition to the above swing states, a new larity graph as he interrupted his opponent during responses. the moderator was compelled state that bears watching is Arizona, which can to request him not to interrupt and let Biden also turn the picture topsy turvy and may prove the prediction of various columnists, analysts make clear his viewpoint, but he repeated it.

Both debates earned a higher ranking for and observers wrong with the shocking outcome Biden and even the vice-presidential candidates’ of results as they start pouring in on November debate between Democrat Kamala Harris and 3 and afterwards. there were some rumours that trump may Republican Mike Pence was also hot as Senator Harris talked confidently and openly while Vice- refuse to leave the White House if he loses or President Mike Pence, despite being the incum- may challenge the poll results if they went bent, could not devise a fair response according against his favour. these are just fears and illusions as no such to all commentators, who agreed he did not prothing will happen, vide trump the boost given the strong leghe needed. islative system in place the presidential in the USA. Even polls candidates came up cannot be postponed with clear policies, esThe statistics, predictions, with any executive pecially Biden, to focus surveys and analysis, at the order passed by Presion internal and foreign dents. Even the media policy, the environment, moment are going in Biden’s talks and legal experts the pandemic and rights rejected such claims of black people, as he favour to win the election by and fears owing to chose Kamala Harris for a landslide. All countries are strong constitutional his running mate and so arrangements in place. far, she has proved her watching the US elections to A lot will depend worth remarkably. on Presidential Debates On the other hand, realign their diplomatic and campaigns to contrump has wreaked solidate maximum havoc with foreign polrelations with the USA if votes to get to the icy as the US image Biden makes his way to the White House. was tarnished globally, the pandemic has especially the enmity White House already frightened the with Iran and the medpublic due to its fatal dling in the affairs of nature, putting the US the Middle East such as elections on high risk, Palestine by influencing the policy of “Deal of the century” which but the American people are well educated and failed altogether as it was based on giving a they will vote for their favourite candidate, eilion’s share of territory to Israel against the ther Democrat Joe Biden or Republican Donwishes of Palestinian people. the Palestinian ald trump.

One thing that will surely happen is that the people started protests against the proposed plan.

One credit that will certainly go to trump “Black lives Matter “ campaign started after that he signed a peace deal with the Afghan tal- George Floyd’s brutal killing has already paved iban with the help of Pakistan. Pakistan was re- the way for Joe Biden to win elections since he quested to bring the taliban to the negotiating supports equality, rejects racism and has promtable. though the deal has been signed the ised to legislate on police reforms so that such chances of an inter-Afghan Dialogue are not acts, in future, could be averted but any upset good, as India is prying in the affairs of may steal the show on November 3, the tuesday Afghanistan with its fear of the taliban coming when the US People will either elect Joe Biden into Power as they had threatened India over the 46th President of the United States, or give Kashmir lockdown and unilateral 5 August 2019 trump a second term. the statistics, predictions, surveys and move that had changed the special Status of Indian Occupied Kashmir by repealing Article 370. analysis, at the moment are going in Biden’s the signing of the UAE-Israel deal may also favour to win the election by a landslide. All benefit him in elections but the opinions based countries are watching the US elections to reon his overall performance of four years project align their diplomatic relations with the USA if a bleak picture, diluting his chances of getting Biden makes his way to the White House. re-elected but unlike the 2016 elections, upsets Abdur Rehman Malik is a freelance columnist may take place due to surprise win in the swing

The polls all point the same way Abdur rehMAN MAlik

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S the race for 2020 US Presidential Elections enters a very important phase as the November 3rd polling day approaches, President Donald trump’s fears increase each passing day as his fiasco on domestic as well as foreign fronts will be the sole reason for the bitter defeat the top analysts predict, given his irresponsible statements and aggressive temperament.

President trump has miserably failed to deliver the desired output in his four-year term especially his anti-Afro-American actions, incompetence and lack of seriousness regarding the alarming covid-19 pandemic situation that has already taken thousands of lives of all age groups.

Even, he was noticed making fun of the coronavirus that it will do no harm though the situation became grimmer each passing day. the US death toll has already surpassed 200.000 and millions are still infected, with more causalties feared as the winter sets in. the Infections ratio is likely to go up due to cold weather throughout the northern hemisphere. trump’s flawed pandemic policies cost precious lives but he levelled serious allegations against his arch-rival China for spreading the illness and even terming it a “Wuhan virus”, crossing all the limits of sensibility of understanding the gravity of the issue. His delayed response towards the pandemic made the situation even worse, to the extent that theUSA is ranked highest even in terms of covid-19 cases per day.

It pertinent to mention here that even he himself fell prey to covid-19 and was quarantined for 14 days, but he came out publicly declaring victory over the Infection after medical practitioners declared him healthy.

On the other hand, the Democratic vicepresidential nominee, Kamala Harris. may increase the chances of Joe Biden’s historical win as she represents the Afro-American community and more importantly is a lady. this will further the support of Joe Biden by the large Black community that is already antagonistic towards trump due to his racial comments as well as his sheer violation of human rights, especially of the Afro-American community.

Biden extends full support to the “Black Lives Matter” movement and the campaign for justice for George Floyd, brutally murdered by the police. He even supports the vulnerable immigrant and Muslim communities. the Muslim community has been hardest hit by trump’s immigration policies. trump has played havoc with policies, especially foreign policy, and triggered a trade war with China that prompted him to level accuse China of spreading the virus and banning Chinese telecom giant Huawei. He criticized the Chinese aggressive role in South Asia, especially the standoff with India, and controlling the South China Sea and cancelling the nuclear agreement with Iran.

He was heavily criticized when he cut off

HANG the rapist. Nowadays, this has become a common chant. After every rape case that is reported in the media and becomes famout for a few days, peple’s demands seem to be hanging the rapist and that too publicly. this is an unfortunate line of thinking. What message are we sending this way? Are we saying this to make a deterrent punishmet, or to placate our own guilt for having failed as a society? It is easy to say hang the rapist, it makes one feel like they have done something and the problem will be solved if this one thing happens. But it will not, especially if we refuse to have mature and sensitive conversations not just about rape, but the culture we have in this country and the way we treat our women.

It is incomprehensible why the Pakistanis consider the death penalty the best way to end rape culture in our society. Come to the past, Zaniab rape case is one of the example that we hanged the rapist or the victim of (suspect) the little angel Zaniab. But did it bring any difference? We have tried this method, and it has only proven that the death penalty only appeases those uncomfortable by these ugly truths, and does not actually make this country a safer place for women.

Because the death penalty cannot change the sexually frustrated mindset of our people, there must be a stronger punishment instead of hanging the rapists. the fact is that, in Pakistan people are so sexually frustrated that they consider everyone as an object to complete their sexual frustration. So , there should be much stronger law for the protecting of public instead of hanging or capital punishment.

RAhIM BukSh NooR TuRBAT

Covid-19 in Russia RUSSIA has reported a record high 16,319 new cases of coronavirus, including 4,999 in the capital Moscow on Monday Oct 19, to take the national total to 1,431,635. According to Reuters, authorities reported 269 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking Russia’s official death toll to 24,635.the country reported sixteen thousands cases plus in a single day, which makes it the highest ever in one day for it.the winter session is assisting the virus to spread speedily.Pakistan also has to take urgent measures in order to get rid of the deadly virus’s second wave.thus, I request every Pakistani to please follow the SOPs in order to be saved from Covid-19. hAMMAL NAEEM Bugh

Obesity OBESIty is a common and serious disease all over the world. By this, people are facing many troubles and difficulties. According to the World Health Organization, in 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults,18 years and older, were overweight. Obesity is generally caused by eating too much and walking less. Excess weight may increase the risk for many health problems including, diabetes, high blood pressure, feet pain as well as pregnancy problems. Further, high blood pressure increases the risk of delivery.the main causes of increasing obesity is eating fast foods, no regular exercise and two much calories in the food. Adults obesity rates are highest in the United States, Mexico and New Zealand. People of every country are requested to take care of themselves by eating less, eat too many vegetables and regular exercise to keep themselves away from these problems which are very hazardous.

MEhrullAh A. hAMEEd TurbAT

ILF takes a stand tHE Chairman of International Lawyers Forum (ILF), Nasir Ahmed Advocate has said that the ILF will never accept any conspiracy against Christians in the name of so-called encroachment and development plans.

Government always tries to create panic on the occasions of minorities but neither ILF will accept any action of the government against minorities nor will allow anyone to demolish the homes and worship places of Christian communities situated in Azam Basti, Manzoor Colony and Mehmoodabad but across the country.

A delegation of ILF headed by Chairman Nasir Ahmed Advocate has visited Mehmoodabad and surrounding areas on thursday and assured hundreds of victims including women, children, transgender and other local residents those were gathered parallel areas where the local administration and police threatened and asked them to leave their places, the victims told ILF that the area police and local administration’s officials have demanded heavy money with them if they want to live there otherwise they would not only have to leave their areas but also will have to face criminal cases.

ILF’s Chairman revealed that it’s an international conspiracy against Christian community on the occasion of Christmas traditionally neither any authority nor any other ‘character’ has any authority to snatch the wishes and happiness of Christians as well as Christmas. tehseen Manzoor Rajput Advocate, Jamshed Ali Khowaja Advocate, Barrister Habib Baloch, Syed Jaffer Abbas Advocate, Salman Farhad Advocate, Mrs.Kulsoom Gilgati and other ILF members were present on the occasion.

JAMShEd Ali KhowAJA KArAchi

Money vs humanity It really hurts me to express that yesterday in Karachi on Abo-ul-hassan isfita road a blast occurred due to the leakage of a cylinder which killed 5 persons and left 28 terribly injured. After the blast the injured people were shifted to the nearest hospital for treatment, but the doctors refused to treat them without a high amount of money 50 thousands. It is a really shameful act that nowadays in the country humanity is lost and doctors who are known as the protectors of humanity, are greedy and unable to think about patients’ lives just because of money and they think that money is everything. I would like to say that doctors should kindly think about humans and their precious lives.

SAMEErA hAMzA TurbAT KEch

Saturday, 24 October, 2020

08 WORLD VIEW

ArAb stAtes should Avoid An Arms rAce with irAn THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC’S BELEAGUERED PRESIDENT HASSAN ROUHANI CITED THE EXPIRATION OF THE EMBARGO AS A MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE NUCLEAR AGREEMENT

BLoomBeRg

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husseiN iBish

RAN secured a significant diplomatic victory earlier this month when the United Nations arms embargo, imposed in 2007 over concerns about Tehran’s nuclear program, expired. Efforts by the Trump administration to extend it in the Security Council ended in an embarrassing American failure, as did the effort to invoke the grievance mechanism within the 2015 nuclear deal.

The Islamic Republic’s beleaguered President Hassan Rouhani cited the expiration of the embargo as a major accomplishment of the nuclear agreement. At least in

theory, Iran is now back in the market to buy and sell conventional weapons. Russia and China are eager to supply it with advanced jets, tanks and missiles.

This is alarming for its Gulf Arab neighbors, and especially for its primary adversaries, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. They will be tempted to enter an arms race with Iran, using their deeper pockets — and easy access to American weapons systems — to maintain their substantial technological edge over Tehran. It has been suggested that the UAE’s eagerness to acquire F-35 jets, for instance, anticipates the Iranian purchase of new planes to update its air force.

But the greatest threat to Iran’s neighbors will come, not from any big-ticket spending by Tehran, but from its acquisition of technologies that enhance the its homemade weapons. State-of-the-art targeting and guidance systems for missiles and drones can help Iran inflict more damage than planes and tanks.

If the Russians and Chinese are willing to brave American sanctions — and give a cash-strapped Tehran very generous terms

— it is conceivable that the Iranians will order jets and heavy armor. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hasn’t been able to import advanced hardware in decades.

It may not be possible to prevent Iran from following Turkey in acquiring the Russian S-400 missile-defense system, which would be a significant upgrade from its existing S-300s. Moscow will likely argue that the S-400 is defensive, and therefore represents no threat to Iran’s neighbors.

(The Russians are keen to sell it to Gulf Arab countries, as well.)

But defensive weapons such as missiledefense systems form a part of an overall integrated military structure, and as significant for offensive as defensive actions. Upgrading its capabilities in this area would greatly strengthen Iran’s strategic position. Even more alarming for the Arab states are prospects of Iran acquiring new offensive missiles and drones. Presumably, a great deal of American effort, whether diplomatic or punitive, will be directed at preventing this.

But in the medium-term, the greatest threat would come from relatively small pur-

chases of precision-guidance technology, to greatly upgrade Iran’s domestic production.

Many of Iran’s home-made missiles are based on models acquired from North Korea; these have been significantly altered and, in some cases, improved by Iranian engineers. Iran has also developed substantial drone-making capabilities.

Its enemies have already experienced the potency of these missiles and drones, whether executed by the IRGC or its proxy militias in the Middle East. The most dramatic demonstration came in the missileand-drone swarm attack against Saudi oil installations last year. Now imagine how much more mayhem might be unleashed if those firing off the missiles and drones had better guidance and targeting technology.

In all of this, the first line of defense for the Gulf Arab states will be the U.S. Treasury’s secondary sanctions on companies, and possibly even countries, engaging in major weapons deals with Tehran. But Iran’s neighbors will also want to be forearmed against the new threats.

While the question of F-35 sales to the UAE has made the headlines recently, the

real game-changer in the current proposed package from Washington is the EA-18G Growler, which comes with the latest electronic-warfare technology, including jamming pods and communication countermeasures. This is the kind of weapon Arab states will hope to deploy against more sophisticated Iranian attacks.

But the best way for the Saudis and Emiratis to respond to an Iran armed with more potent conventional weapons to work with the U.S. to create an effective secondary sanctions regime: The Treasury Department will do the heavy lifting, but they can help by refusing to cooperate with entities and individuals that go too far in arming their enemy. They should press China, Russia and former Soviet against providing Tehran with greatly expanded conventional firepower.

They would also be wise to find a way to end their quarrel with Qatar and present a more unified Gulf Arab front. If they’re willing to be more ambitious, they should create a collective Gulf Arab missile-defense system. And, of course, the whole point of a robust military stance is to facilitate effective diplomacy with adversaries. All of this can be achieved without an indiscriminate, wasteful arms race.

Hussein Ibish is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

Narendra Modi’s failings have been Meet the Bidens, the one family who made a fortune in highlighted by coronavirus INDIA IS ON A PATH TO OVERTAKE THE US AS THE WORLD’S MOST INFECTED NATION AND MUCH OF THE BLAME CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO MODI’S BURLY LEADERSHIP AND POOR DECISION MAKING

independent Charlie MitChell

Picture a million people, trudging in the heat for hundreds of miles, from cities that once pulsed with opportunity to the rural villages where they were born. This is India’s great reverse migration. It is a physical and symbolic backwards step of epic proportions.

In recent decades, 140 million rural Indians have flooded into cities in search of work, making Delhi the world’s second largest metropolis, and Mumbai the sixth.

These are the construction workers, guards, drivers, clerks, hospital and hotel workers that power this behemoth.

Narendra Modi, tea-seller turned prime minister, ought to know a thing or two about vulnerable workers. But the suffering that has befallen this group in recent months is an indictment of his Covid19 response, one that has put India on a path to overtake the US as the world’s most infected nation.

At the point of writing, India has recorded 7.6 million cases and 115,000 deaths, leaving hospitals at breaking point. Although new cases have dipped in recent days, the upcoming religious holiday season will likely see a spike. Across the country, restrictions and lockdowns have already been lifted. A recent serological survey, which detects antibodies rather than infections, suggests India’s true caseload could be over 63 million.

The country had recorded fewer than 600 cases in late March when Modi forced 1.35 billion Indians into lockdown. With just four hours to gather supplies, panic ensued. Such swift and opaque action bore all the hallmarks of Modi’s burly leadership.

As the economy crashed, more than 100 million jobs disappeared. Seeing that the lockdown had not flattened the curve

by May, the country gradually eased its lockdown, paving the way for a surge in cases. Millions of jobless urban workers hit the road, on buses, trains and on foot, distributing the virus across the country.

The small state of Bihar alone reportedly

saw 2.2 million people return.

While the arrival of Covid-19 was clearly unavoidable, its impact on the ground has exposed the inequalities of wealth, caste and geography upon which economic and health outcomes are based.

Modi locked down too early, capsizing the economy without reducing cases.

With more clarity and planning, the economic impact could have been reduced, hospitals more prepared and sudden job losses averted – all while bending the curve of infections. His billion-dollar "PM Cares fund", based on donations matched by the government, meanwhile, has attracted controversy for its lack of transparency.

The recent surge is more complex, however. And in his defence, health care in India is usually handled at state level.

After eight months, many have grown tired of mask-wearing and social distancing. The country has a serious problem with misinformation, which has seen outrageous claims that Muslims were vectors for the virus, or that a vegetarian diet could keep Covid at bay, proliferate on social media. Successive governments have failed to democratise healthcare provision, while much of urban India, notably its swollen slums, is apt for the rapid spread of a pathogen.

India also has some of the world’s lowest Covid-19 testing rates.

It will get worse before it gets better, with the mega-festivals of Durga Puja and Diwali nearing. While some experts fear the government is overlooking health risks to appease the faithful, small traders are desperate to flog their wares after months of slender takings. Kerala’s recent Onam festival does not bode well – cases rose fivefold in the state, which had been one of India’s strongest responders. The coming smoggy winter may also exacerbate the virus.

One ray of light is a world-beating recovery rate of 89 per cent and rising, related perhaps to India’s comparatively young population and aggressive testing and tracing in some areas, such as Delhi.

But Covid-19 is simply the latest misery to befall India as it edges towards authoritarianism. If bold economic promises and an everyman image catapulted Modi to power in 2014, identity politics have kept him there.

Following a divisive campaign last year, he was returned with a thumping

majority.

His ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has emboldened Hindu nationalists, who have desecrated mosques and beaten up students. In February, 53 people were killed in the capital during anti-Muslim riots. Modi’s controversial citizenship law, meanwhile, offered amnesty to illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, as long as they are not Muslim, prompting nationwide protests.

The press has been muzzled and local journalists increasingly face criminal charges for unfavourable reporting. That has only increased during the pandemic, with dozens of journalists arrested for doing their jobs, accused of spreading false information about India’s Covid-19 response.

Kashmir, which is also claimed by India's arch-enemy Pakistan, is wellacquainted with lockdowns, having been placed under one on security grounds since August 2019, along with a media and internet blackout. And a bizarre war on foreign-funded NGOs has seen 15,000 shut down, including the Indian branch of Amnesty International last month. Many of these charities would, one imagines, have been on the front line of India’s coronavirus response.

Modi has been busy recently, rushing through a raft of laws, some of them popular, to overhaul India’s byzantine bureaucracy and modernise legislation on farming, education and labour, while the pandemic draws attention elsewhere. The prime minister’s critics are the first to admit that his muscular style gets results.

Still, Covid-19 will leave its mark on Modi’s premiership, by throttling India’s economy and leaving millions wondering what became of his lofty promises.

Experts predict the Indian economy will contract by 9 per cent this year. But rising cases and millions of starving workers reflect a deeper malaise in the world’s largest democracy, where the ruling party's focus for too long has been not on harmony, but division. And minorities have reason to fear an economic downturn, which could see the BJP resort to inflaming intercommunal tensions to win votes.

For millions watching civil liberties crumble and Covid-19 cases climb, Modi’s India is fast becoming a nightmare.

the Obama economy

Washington times Charles hurt

Welcome to the “mute button election.” For more than 200 years now, our fellow countrymen have fought and died for the right to free speech. Now, the most precious and coddled press in the history of the planet fights for silence. Censorship. In their self-absorbed, navel-gazing, illiterate dyslexia, the American political press gets the words all out of order. It’s not “free speech” they back, but “speech-free.”

It’s not the pen that’s mightier than the sword. For these lazy jackals, it’s the eraser that is mightier than the sword. The eraser and the gag. And the mute button.

This is what happens when truth and facts become entirely subservient to rage and posturing. Pick what you like and mute all the rest. The stuff of Cafeteria Journalists. President Trump is certainly an unconventional political figure. In his epic public rants on the campaign stage, Mr. Trump turns Shakespearean. In a two-hour play, he will be coarse, funny, tough, bawdy, mean, heroic, vindictive, sensitive and openly petty. And then he dances.

All chicken wing and foot-shuffling. Literally, he dances like nobody’s watching. Except millions are watching. Sitting at home, some citizens stand up and ape the Bad Orange Man Turkey Jive. If you like Mr. Trump or you happen to be indifferent, this is all very funny. It is also funny if you are bored with decades of dumb politics practiced by stupid, dishonest anti-American political hacks.

Which brings us back to the posturing political media all filled with so much rage.

These are the precious political media who for years have cultivated, encouraged and abetted the decades of anti-American political hackery out of Washington.

They think Mr. Trump’s chicken wing shuffle is an appalling embarrassment. It’s also racist. And probably further proof that Mr. Trump is a Russian stooge, Vladimir Putin’s political puppet. Which brings us back to the mute button.

After four years of peddling crazy conspiracies about Mr. Trump and Russia and

Ukraine, Cafeteria Journalists have finally discovered rigorous standards for peddling tawdry information. Suddenly, they lose all curiosity. They’ve gone entirely blind over the stunning emails that paint a clear portrait of the entire Biden family — led by “the Big Guy” — selling access to the White House to some of America’s most ardent foreign enemies.

It is rather amazing to watch all these Cafeteria Journalists contort themselves into elaborate pretzels to avoid reporting — or even glancing at — the mounting evidence that Hunter Biden was running a massive pay-for-play scheme that funneled millions of dollars to his father Joseph R. Biden, the man who served eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president. And if you think this is bad, just wait for the final presidential debate.

After all the censoring and sudden lack of curiosity, the Cafeteria Journalists inside the Commission on Unpresidential Debates have announced that instead of asking pene-

trating questions about Hunter Biden or his laptop or all the emails suggesting the family runs some kind of political crime syndicate, the Commission has announced it has invented a “mute button” to ensure that the debate doesn’t delve into anything uncomfortable or unpleasant for Mr. Biden.

Yes, a mute button — the mightiest censor weapon ever devised to thwart a free press.

Luckily for the free republic, Mr. Trump doesn’t do mute buttons any better than he does debate moderators.

He should practice mouthing the words clearly: “Mr. Biden, just how much money did you and your family rake in during the eight years of the Obama administration?”

Mr. Biden will never answer of course.

But that just means Mr. Trump can spend the rest of the campaign asking voters of every persuasion: “How much money did you and your family make under Obama? Joe Biden refuses to say, which probably means he is one of the few people who actually made a fortune in the Obama economy.”

Charles Hurt is opinion editor of The Washington Times.

Saturday, 24 October, 2020

BUSINESS 09

PM likely to aNNouNCe eNeRgy RelieF FoR iNdustRial seCtoR

corporate corner

ISLAMABAD

KARACHI: Leveraging their existing expertise of telemedicine solutions that comprises E-Health clinics in low income communities and a mobile application for the masses, Sehat Kahani has now introduced Tele-ICU Technology to their platform. PRESS RElEASE

LAHORE: TEVTA Chairperson Ali Salman and The Bank of Punjab President & CEO Zafar Masud signed an agreement for provision of subsidized loans under the Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme & Punjab government’s rozgar scheme. PRESS RElEASE KARACHI: From November, Carrefour’s online shoppers will be able to choose from a wider range of 11,000 products, having previously been given access to 9,000 items, through its mobile application. With the recent expansion in delivery areas in Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Islamabad, customers can expect to receive same-day product deliveries in 350 areas. PRESS RElEASE

a

GHUlAM ABBAS

S the government has added to the industrialists' problems by increasing the power tariff, PM Imran Khan may soon announce a relief in energy prices for the industrial sector.

The PM has assured the business community of a "good news" regarding power tariff, said industrialists who met with the prime minister on Wednesday.

"High energy prices increase the cost of production and makes the country uncompetitive globally. The incumbent government will soon come up with a package of cheap electricity for the industry so as to realise its true potential," Wajid Bukhari, a representative of the steel sector, quoted the prime minister as saying.

STAFF REPORT

Nestlé Pakistan's ninemonth revenue grows to Rs88.7bn despite Covid-19

tricity and gas, and provide a level playing field."

He lamented despite the importance of steel for the economy, the domestic steel industry remained ignored, adding that all previous governments opted the policy of incentivizing the traditional sectors only.

He maintained that the local industry has the potential to meet the domestic demand.

Bukhari gave examples of neighboring countries where export-oriented policies brought them on the map of steel exports. "If the government provides us with the required support, Pakistan has the capacity to export steel to countries like Sri Lanka and Afghanistan."

He said the government needed to take urgent measures to stop the production and sale of substandard steel in

Pakistan, Argentina agree to expand trade, political ties ISLAMABAD

KARACHI: K-Electric recently organised a Sarbulandi Camp in Gilanabad area of Malir, where residents could conveniently apply for new connections, redress their complaints and avail payment solutions. In addition to this, more than 200 applications received for new connections whereas 150 meters were installed in the area on the same day. PRESS RElEASE

During the meeting, which was held to discuss the issues faced by the industrial sector, Imran Khan noted that expensive electricity was a major hurdle in industrial growth, making Pakistan uncompetitive in the regional market.

The meeting was attended by federal ministers Hammad Azhar, Asad Umar and Omer Ayub, advisors to PM Abdul Razak Dawood and Dr Ishrat Hussain, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail and the FBR chairman.

Wajid Bukhari, the secretary general of Pakistan Association of Large Steel Producers, informed the premier that steel was the mother of all industries and a backbone of the country's economy, having potential to attract more investments. To facilitate this industry, the government must ensure ease of doing business, reduce the cost of inputs like raw material, elec-

Pakistan and Argentina have agreed to expand bilateral trade by increasing the level of interaction at multiple levels.

Both countries held the fourth round of bilateral political consultations via video link and discussed a wide range of bilateral, regional and multilateral matters of mutual interest, said a statement issued on Friday.

Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, Additional Secretary (Americas), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, and Ambassador Jose Luis Perez Gabilondo, Undersecretary Foreign Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship of the Argentine Republic, led the consultations.

Speaking on the occasion, the additional secretary underscored that ever since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Argentina in October 1951, the two countries have enjoyed a cordial relationship based on mutual respect and understanding.

He underlined the need to mark the completion of 70 years of diplomatic relations between the two

countries in a befitting manner.

The additional secretary emphasized the importance of expanding the scope of bilateral trade between Pakistan and Argentina by increasing interaction at multiple levels and by holding a virtual meeting of the Joint Trade Committee in the first quarter of 2021.

He also expressed the desire to reactivate Pakistan’s Antarctic Programme, as the country intended to undertake more research expeditions to Antarctica with the collaboration of Argentina.

He highlighted the plight of the people of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK) and underlined that "India continues to unleash a reign of terror in the IIOJK even during the challenging times of the Covid-19 pandemic".

The exchange of views also covered the impact of Covid-19 on the national and global economy and measures to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on the lives of the common people.

The additional secretary reiterated the offer extended by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) to export locally-produced ventilators to Argentina.

The prime minister's 'Global Initiative on Debt Relief' for developing countries and cooperation in the fields of climate change, sports, culture and people-to-people contacts through visa facilitation also came under discussion.

Tirmizi highlighted the importance of parliamentary exchanges between the two countries and mutual cooperation in such fora as the IPU. The two sides also took stock of the under-process bilateral agreements and MOUs. A memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the field of sanitary and phyto-sanitary issues related to bilateral trade between the Ministry of National Food Security and Research of Pakistan and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Argentine Republic was signed in Buenos Aires by the Ambassador of Pakistan in Argentina and the Minister for Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries of Argentina.

The additional secretary, on behalf of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, extended an invitation to the foreign minister of Argentina to visit Pakistan at a mutually convenient date.

NEWS DESK Nestlé Pakistan Limited posted a revenue of Rs88.7 billion for the nine-months period ended September 2020, an increase of 1.9pc compared to the same period last year, despite many difficulties emanating from the Covid-19 crisis. These results were announced following a Board of Directors’ meeting at the company's head office. Dairy and Nutrition products remained the main contributors to this growth as sales of liquid beverage products were negatively impacted by the Covid-19 situation. The company launched several new products including Milkpak Butter, Nescafé Ice 3-in-1, Nescafé Chilled Mocha, Fruita Vitals Kandahari Anaar and Lactogen Essential during the quarter ended September 2020. “The company is adapting to the new normal resulting from challenges brought on by the Covid19 pandemic and will continue to drive efficiencies across the organization and capitalize on R&D capabilities to fulfill the needs of consumers,” Nestle Pakistan stated.

Jazz CEO urges overseas Pakistanis to support local startups NEWS DESK In a message for budding entrepreneurs and investors, Jazz CEO Aamir Ibrahim has stated that Pakistan offers an abundance of opportunities that are linked to the national challenges. The Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs Silicon Valley (OPEN SV) featured Aamir Ibrahim as a guest speaker in its webinar titled ‘Realities of Investing in Pakistan'.

The interactive session was moderated by Asif Aslam, Managing Partner, Arbitrium Technology, with Silicon Valley representatives and young entrepreneurs from other parts of the world in the audience. Aamir spoke at length about the digital ecosystem, financial

access, the art of investing in Pakistan, the country’s scorecard in terms of ease of doing business, and the need for integrated technology.

“For now, our focus is on expanding access to 4G because we have over 80 million telecom users who are not using mobile broadband. This is a challenge and an opportunity in itself. We are working with the government in this regard, so no one is left behind in an increasingly digitized economy,” said Aamir Ibrahim, while answering a question on the future of 5G in Pakistan.

Citing the example of South Korea, Aamir stated that they launched 5G once the country crossed 80pc 4G penetration – at less than 30pc 4G penetration currently, Pakistan needs to do more.

the country, adding that the industry required a long-term roadmap through a National Steel Policy.

He stressed the need structural reforms to make the industry competitive.

During the meeting, various suggestions were considered to overcome the issues faced by the industry, especially high energy prices. The PM called for urgent resolution of energyrelated impediments and ordered the officials concerned to share consider the business community's proposals.

The PM said keeping in mind the losses caused by coronavirus, it was necessary to find solutions to the problems faced by the industrial sector on a priority basis. He appreciated the proposals from the industry and assured that all possible efforts and steps would be taken to promote industrial processes through optimum utilisation of existing capacity.

Foodpanda Pakistan shortlists three agencies for media strategy development BABAR KHAN JAVED As it stands, Foodpanda Pakistan has shortlisted GroupM and Blitz Advertising as potential media agencies to take over its overall media strategy development. Adcom Zenith is the incumbent and has served Foodpanda Pakistan since 2017. The media agency won awards at Effie Pakistan 2020 for its work across Foodpanda Pakistan, P&G, and Reckitt Benckiser. The agency that wins the media remit will work with the brand & media teams of Foodpanda Pakistan to meet a specific cost per rating point (CPRP) target which was based on a desire for media efficiency instead of media effectiveness, according to the brief. The media agency that wins the brief will have to identify a channel mix based on audience analysis and ratings, ensure channelization of budgets based on annual deals, evaluate schedules for ratings, ensure CPRP delivery. Teams dedicated to the Foodpanda Pakistan account will be expected to share analysis of actual airing versus planned in terms of spend, CPRP, and gross rating points. At the behest of Delivery Hero SE, the European multinational online food-delivery service that is its parent company, Foodpanda Pakistan has ramped up its vertical integration to include dark stores, HomeChefs, Pandamart, warehouse as a service (WaaS), and cloud kitchens in Pakistan. With the rise of direct to consumer experimentation by consumer goods businesses in Pakistan, along with COVID-19 forcing the hotel, restaurant, and cafe’s (HoReCa) industry to seek online paths of customer acquisition, the latest business divisions of Foodpanda Pakistan have begun to reap their rewards. The growth brought with it terms and conditions that were reportedly unfavorable to HoReCa businesses, with Foodpanda Pakistan blacklisted for 48 hours in mid-September by The All Pakistan Restaurant Association (APRA), citing unfair practices by the online food delivery marketplace. In Pakistan, Foodpanda competes with Careem, Bykea, Cheetay, Eat Mubarak, Supermeal, and several more delivery companies, as the HoReCa space becomes increasingly commoditized and challenger brands sacrifice margins for growth with penetration pricing. The food delivery space has few points of differentiation, with larger companies such as Foodpanda and Careem accelerating efforts to be exclusive distributors for renowned local brands. The HomeChef initiative

by Foodpanda, which locks in participants in the platform, is one such example of achieving differentiation at scale with a truly localized offering of meals.

PSX lands in green amid cautious trading KARACHI STAFF REPORT

The Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed a choppy session on Friday, as investors preferred to stay on the sidelines ahead of Financial Action Task Force’s announcement on Pakistan’s performance.

Global equity markets mostly showed a positive trend, whereas crude oil prices inched up from the previous close; WTI crude price rising 0.22pc to $40.73 while Brent crude price increasing 0.33pc to $42.60.

"The index moved in a narrow range

today, with the indices swaying both ways owing to mixed expectations regarding FATF announcement (due today at 7pm)," said a report issued by AHL Ltd. "Financial results helped improve the investor sentiment, but persistent selling in banks and exploration & production sectors kept the index in check."

The benchmark KSE-100 Index remained volatile throughout the session, touching its intraday high at 41,383.38 (+184.36 points) and intraday low at 41,064.38 (-134.64 points). It finally settled higher by 66.98 points at 41,266.00. On a

week-on-week basis, the benchmark index recorded an increase of 2.74pc.

Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index gained 299.12 points to close at 65,934.72, while the KSE All Share Index added 72.05 points, ending at 29,118.26.

The overall market volumes contracted from 500.09 million shares in the previous saession to 354 million shares (-29pc). Average traded value also declined by 10pc, from $107.2 million to $96.8 million. Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (MLCF +3.61pc), Pakistan Refinery Ltd (PRL +7.48pc) and Unity Foods Ltd (UNITY -1.93pc) led the volume

CMYK

chart, exchanging 45.76 million, 27.94 million and 24.27 million shares, respectively.

Sectors that kept the benchmark index afloat included cement (+117.06 points), insurance (+21.04 points) and fertilizer (+17.83 points). Among the companies, Lucky Cement Ltd (LUCK +31.03 points), Engro Corporation Ltd (ENGRO +26.23 points) and Cherat Cement Company Ltd (CHCC +23.66 points) remained the top contributors. Adding 3.08pc to its cumulative market capitalization, the cement sector ended as the session’s top performer, with Bestway Cement Ltd (BWCL +4.80pc),

Lucky Cement Ltd (LUCK +1.62pc) and DG Khan Cement Company Ltd (DGKC +1.16pc) posting decent gains.

On the financial side, Murree Brewery Company Ltd (MUREB -0.07pc) declared earnings per share of Rs12.91 for the first quarter of FY21 (Rs13.55 last year); Maple Leaf Cement Factory Ltd (MLCF +3.53pc) recorded an EPS of Rs0.28 (Rs1.87 in 1QFY20); Pak Petroleum Ltd (PPL -1.38pc) announced an EPS Rs5.27 for 1QFY21 (Rs5.23 last year); whereas DG Khan Cement Company Ltd (DGKC +1.45pc) posted an EPS of Rs0.80 for 1QFY21 (Rs3.26 last year).

Saturday, 24 October, 2020

10 FOREIGN NEWS

WaRRing Libya RivaLs sign TRuce buT Tough PoLiTicaL TaLks aheaD GENEVA/TRIPOLI

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AGENCIES

IBYA’s warring factions signed a permanent ceasefire agreement on Friday, but any lasting end to years of chaos and bloodshed will require wider agreement among myriad armed groups and the outside powers that support them.

Acting United Nations envoy Stephanie Williams said the ceasefire would start immediately and all foreign fighters must quit Libya within three months. Forces would withdraw from front lines and a new joint police force would secure those areas.

As a first commercial passenger flight in more than a year crossed front lines from Tripoli to the eastern city of Benghazi on Friday, Williams noted Libya’s “fraught” recent history, one of numerous broken truces and failed political solutions.

“But we shouldn’t let the cynics win,” she said, hailing both sides for their “courage” in agreeing a ceasefire and saying they deserved international support.

Friday’s agreement was reached after the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in June beat back Khalifa Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) from its 14month assault on the capital.

Since then, frontlines have stabilised near the central coastal city of Sirte and the LNA ended its eight-month blockade of Libyan oil output that was strangling state finances on both sides.

However, Turkey, the main backer of the GNA, immediately voiced scepticism that the ceasefire would hold, with President Tayyip Erdogan saying “it does not seem too achievable”.

Turkey, along with the LNA’s main foreign backers Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, has funnelled weapons and fighters into Libya despite a U.N. arms embargo which they all publicly backed.

There was caution inside Libya too.

“We all want to end the war and destruction. But personally I don’t trust those in power,” said Kamal al-Mazoughi, 53, a businessman sitting in a Tripoli cafe.

“If there is no force or mechanism to

Malaysian PM seeks king's nod to declare state of emergency: report KUALA LUMPUR AGENCIES

Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin met the king on Friday to ask him to declare a state of emergency, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said - a move that opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim denounced as an attempt to cling to power. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, did not give the reason for the request.

The proposed emergency would include the suspension of parliament, which is due to reconvene in November, but spare the public additional restrictions beyond the coronavirus curbs currently in place, one of the sources said.

Muhyiddin, who came to power in March with only a two-seat majority, has been under pressure since Anwar’s declaration last month that he had enough votes in parliament to oust the premier. A resurgence in coronavirus cases has also added to Muhyiddin’s troubles. The government is scheduled to propose its 2021 budget on Nov. 6, and there have been questions over whether it can muster a majority in parliament for that. Defeat on the budget would count as a vote of no-confidence in Muhyiddin and could trigger an election.

Emergency rule might mean the budget was not put to a vote at that time. Responding to reports of Muhyiddin’s move, Anwar said: “We have a government which lacks legitimacy and which knows it would fail to demonstrate majority support in parliament, and is using the Covid-19 crisis as an excuse to justify its abuse of power.”

Under the constitution, the king can declare a state of emergency if he is satisfied there is a threat to national security, the economy or public order.

Malaysia last declared a national emergency in 1969, after civil unrest and race riots. The executive would gain powers to make rules and approve the expenditure necessary to ensure public security. The sources did not disclose the full range of measures that Muhyiddin would seek to implement. The state news agency Bernama said Muhyiddin had met with King Al-Sultan Abdullah on Friday afternoon. Muhyiddin’s office and the palace did not immediately respond to requests for comment on what, if anything, had been decided. The prime minister’s office said there would be no announcement on Friday.

apply this on the ground... this deal will only be ink on paper,” said Ahmed Ali, 47, in Benghazi.

‘POSTURING AND POSITIONING’: Key details on implementing the ceasefire, including monitoring the departure of foreign fighters and merging armed groups, has been left to subcommittees in future talks.

Both sides have deployed thousands of foreign fighters in Libya, including Syrians, Sudanese, Chadians and European mercenaries brought in by Russia’s Wagner group. Since June they have also entrenched along the Sirte frontlines with new weapons and defensive positions.

Meanwhile, political talks scheduled in Tunisia early next month with an eventual view towards holding national elections, would need to reach agreement on historically elusive issues and overcome widespread mistrust.

“There is still no clear sign that Libyan belligerents are looking at this as anything other than a period of posturing and positioning,” said Tarek Megerisi, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Libya has enjoyed no political stability since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against Muammar Gaddafi and has been split since 2014 between east and west.

Haftar’s assault on Tripoli last year was launched as U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres had arrived in Tripoli to prepare for peace talks.

As that assault collapsed this summer thanks to Turkish backing for the GNA, Egypt threatened to directly intervene, raising the spectre of a bloody regional escalation.

It put Libya’s energy facilities, the biggest prize for both sides in the OPEC member state, on the front line as mercenaries marched into ports and oilfields.

However, the United Nations is also pushing an economic track in the talks to seek agreement between the major factions on the future management of Libya’s wealth and its sovereign institutions.

“What prevails among (Libyan factions) is a desire to re-start the economy,” said Jalel Harchaoui, an analyst working on Libya. “That alignment is frail and temporary,” he warned.

On war anniversary, Xi says China's interests won't be undermined BEIJING AGENCIES

Seventy years after Chinese troops entered the Korean War to fight against U.S. troops, President Xi Jinping said on Friday that China will never allow its sovereignty, security and development interests to be undermined.

Xi did not directly refer to the present-day United States, with which relations have sunk to their lowest in decades over disputes ranging from trade and technology to human rights and the coronavirus. Taiwan has a become a growing point of contention and military tension.

“Let the world know that ‘the people of China are now organised, and are not to be trifled with’,” Xi said at the Great Hall of the People, quoting Mao Zedong, the founding father of

the People’s Republic of China.

Unilateralism, protectionism, and bullying would fail, Xi said on the anniversary of the deployment of Chinese troops to the Korean peninsula to help North Korea fight U.S.-led United Nations and South Korean forces during the 1950-53 conflict.

Xi repeated his call to expedite the modernisation of the country’s defence and armed forces. “Without a strong army, there can be no strong motherland,” he said.

Tensions have risen sharply in recent months over Taiwan, with Washington stepping up sales of military hardware to the democratically-ruled island and sending high-level officials to visit. This week, Washington approved the sale of weapons systems worth up to $1.8 billion, angering China.

China, which considers Taiwan a wayward province, has been applying increasing pressure to accept Beijing’s sovereignty, including flying fighter jets across the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial buffer.

North Korea went to war in 1950 with the South, which was backed by United Nations forces comprising mainly U.S. troops. In October 1950, Chinese troops crossed the Yalu River on the border with North Korea while the Soviets provided air cover.

Over 2 million Chinese troops were deployed.

“After arduous battles, Chinese and Korean troops, armed to their teeth, defeated their opponents, shattering the myth of the invincibility of the U.S. military, and forcing the invaders to sign the armistice agreement on July 27, 1953,” Xi said.

UK, Japan sign free trade deal for post-Brexit era TOKYO AGENCIES

The UK and Japan signed a bilateral free trade deal on Friday in the first such major post-Brexit deal, reducing tariffs on Yorkshire lamb sold in Japan, as well as on auto parts for Japan’s Nissan plant in Britain. “How fitting it is to be in the Land of the Rising Sun to welcome in the dawn of a new era of free trade,” Britain’s international trade secretary Liz Truss said at a signing ceremony in Tokyo.

Appearing with Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Ms Truss called the agreement a “landmark” as the first major trade deal for Britain since it returned as an independent trading nation. The deal, estimated to boost British trade with Japan by £15 billion, will also make it easier for British companies to operate in Japan.

Financial services make up Britain’s biggest export to

Japan, now at 28 per cent. English sparkling wine, made-inBritain coats and shoes, stilton cheese, as well as meat and biscuits from Britain, will become cheaper in Japan.

Mr Motegi said the bilateral deal ensures continuity from the preceding European agreement, while adding new areas for cooperation such as e-commerce and financial services. Japan's existing free trade agreement with the European Union includes Britain only until the end of this year, as it exits the EU. Parliamentary approval is needed in both nations before the agreement takes effect from the beginning of next year.

It’s expected in Japan next week, as the ruling party controls both houses of parliament. Japan already exports about $14bn of goods to Britain, mostly autos, auto parts and other machinery, while importing nearly $9.5bn worth from Britain, including pharmaceuticals, medical products and cars, according to the Japanese foreign ministry.

Trump admin sued over directive to withhold federal dollars NEW YORK AGENCIES

The US cities of New York, Seattle and Portland have filed a federal lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's memorandum which orders federal agencies to withhold federal grant dollars from so-called "anarchist jurisdictions," and the Attorney General's unlawful designation of the cities as "anarchist." "The cities argue the executive branch lacks authority to add conditions to congressionally appropriated funds without congressional authorization, and that the designation was made in an arbitrary and capricious manner based on a set of vague and subjective factors entirely within the U.S. Attorney General's discretion," said a press release issued by New York City government, concerning the memorandum titled "Reviewing Funding to State and Local Government Recipients of Federal Funds That Are Permitting Anarchy, Violence, and Destruction in American Cities." In the lawsuit, the three cities challenged the proposed action on five different grounds, including violation of the Separation of Powers and the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The cities asked the federal court to remove the cities' "anarchist jurisdiction" designations and prohibit the U.S. Department of Justice and Office of Management and Budget from carrying out the administration's scheme, according to the release. "President Trump's attempt to take money from great American cities like New York, Portland and Seattle is not only based on lies, it is unconstitutional," NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio was quoted as saying. "While we have been laser-focused on responding to the Covid19 pandemic, the president is using his budget office to play politics and distract from his own failures as Commander-in-Chief. We are confident the court will agree that the president's attempt to withhold funds is without merit," he added. Seattle Attorney Pete Holmes and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler were also quoted in the release as objecting to the memorandum. The president's memorandum said that "Federal Government provides States and localities with hundreds of billions of dollars every year, which fund a wide array of programs, such as housing, public transportation, job training, and social services," and noted that the "Administration will not allow Federal tax dollars to fund" what it deems "anarchist jurisdictions."

Donors pledge $600m for Rohingya to meet aid shortfall NEW YORK AGENCIES

International donors pledged nearly $600 million to support displaced Rohingya, succeeding in bridging a huge gap in funding for hundreds of thousands of refugees. Britain, the United States and European Union organised the virtual conference along with the United Nations Refugee Agency, aiming to meet a target of US $1 billion in funding for 2020, less than half of which had been raised. The United States, the largest single donor, announced nearly US$200 million in new funds while the EU pledged about US$113 million and Britain about US$60 million. A number of other countries also contributed. "The international community has demonstrated its strong commitment to the humanitarian response with its announcement of funding today totalling US$597 million," UN High Commissioner Filippo Grandi said. More than 730,000 Rohingya, members of a persecuted Muslim minority, fled Myanmar in 2017 for neighbouring Bangladesh following a military crackdown the United Nations has said was carried out with genocidal intent.

Huawei hoarded 5G chips before Trump sanctions SHENZHEN AGENCIES

Huawei Technologies Co quietly spent months racing to stockpile critical radio chips ahead of Trump administration sanctions, ensuring it can keep supplying Chinese carriers in their $170 billion rollout of 5G technology through at least 2021.

Partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co began ramping up output in late 2019 of Huawei’s 7-nanometer Tiangang communications chips, the most crucial element in 5G base stations, people familiar

with the matter said.

The Taiwanese contract manufacturer eventually shipped more than 2 million units at Huawei’s behest ahead of the sanctions cutoff last month, one of the people said, asking not be identified discussing internal matters. The sheer magnitude of orders at one point got TSMC executives wondering whether they had underestimated global demand, the person said.

Huawei’s breakthrough in securing essential supplies underscores the mixed success of a U.S. campaign against China’s largest tech company since 2018. Citing

national security concerns, the White House started by trying to curtail the sale of American software and circuitry to Huawei before finally enacting sweeping restrictions against its suppliers including TSMC. It’s that last salvo, a ban on the sale of ready-made, commercially available semiconductors, that finally knee-capped Huawei’s smartphone business and forced it to curtail device production, the people said. Representatives for Huawei and TSMC declined to comment.

But the Tiangang chip, designed in house by secretive division HiSilicon,

has proven pivotal to keeping the 5G business afloat. Huawei had leaned on TSMC in the months before Washington shut that loophole and it can now continue to supply China Mobile Ltd., China Telecom Corp. and China Unicom — the carrier trio now aggressively building out a nationwide 5G network Beijing considers instrumental to driving the world’s No. 2 economy.

A China Telecom spokesperson said the company will communicate any impact from curbs on Huawei but declined to comment on discussions about chip supply.

“The U.S. has demonstrated an intense will to restrict Huawei’s ability to offer 5G technologies. The U.S. government’s assertions of extraterritoriality have made it more difficult for Huawei to maintain access to critical components,” said Dan Wang, an analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics.

The company has started shipping 5G base stations without American components since at least the end of last year. “We are suffering from the U.S. government’s thirdround ban. This unfair ban,” consumer business chief Richard Yu said during a live-streamed presentation.

Saturday, 24 October, 2020

INdIA SET To kIck-off AuSTRALIA TouR fRom SydNEy SYDNEY

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AGENCIES

YDNEY, and not Brisbane as initially planned, is expected to be India’s first stop on the team’s 70-day tour of Australia following IPL with the New South Wales government giving requisite permissions to allow Indian cricketers to train during quarantine.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the tour will begin with Sydney hosting four of the six limited-overs matches starting November 27. Two matches are to be played in Canberra.

Originally, these matches were scheduled in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, but the Queensland government’s refusal to let India players train during a 14-day quarantine that is mandatory in the state was a major stumbling block. The NSW government cleared Cricket Australia’s

plan within three days of it being lodged, Herald reported.

There was no confirmation yet from Cricket Australia at the time of writing, but the Herald report said officials were confident SCG will have ‘packed houses’ as per its reduced 23,000 capacity under Covid-19 restrictions. The Women’s Big Bash League starting on Sunday will be played entirely in a Sydney hub.

Although BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has confirmed that after the white-ball matches, the Test series will start with the pink-ball match to be played in Adelaide, the final round of talks are still on between the boards, before the itinerary is released.

As per the reworked schedule, the Adelaide day-night Test will start on December 17. Melbourne will stage the Boxing Day Test (starts Dec 26), Sydney will host the New Year’s Test from Jan-

England batsman Jason Roy signs for BBL franchise Perth Scorchers LONDON

uary 7 and Brisbane will hold the final Test from January 15.

Once the tour dates are announced, the national selection committee will meet to name India’s all-format contingent. Test players not featuring in IPL like Cheteshwar Pujara and Hanuma Vihari, and the support staff are waiting to know when they can fly to the UAE where they can start training ahead of the squad’s departure for Australia after the IPL final on November 10.

It’s still being discussed whether players can travel with families, considering it will be a long tour. While many players are keen that families be allowed, some want to know how strict the bio-secure bubble and 14-day quarantine would be for the families before they take a call.

A day-night practice match is also under consideration to prepare for the

Indian cricket legend Kapil Dev suffered ‘heart attack’, ‘stable’ after undergoing angioplasty: hospital MUMBAI

AGENCIES

England’s attacking opening batsman Jason Roy will play in the upcoming season of the Big Bash League when he turns out for the Perth Scorchers.

Roy shared the news with his followers through a video posted on his Twitter handle. “The Perth Scorchers will possess devastating firepower at the top of the order in the upcoming Big Bash League season, with the signing of explosive England opening batsman Jason Roy,” Perth Scorchers said in a statement. “The Scorchers squad looks very strong, I’m excited to be joining the club. I’ve heard the environment of the club is awesome and that it’s a place where everyone wants to help get the best out of each other,” the franchise’s official website quoted Roy as saying. “I can’t wait to get amongst the boys and help contribute to as many wins as possible,” he added. Roy will play alongside another Englishman Liam Livingstone, who will return to the franchise this season too. “Jason Roy is one of the best white-ball batters in the world – that’s a fact,” Livingstone was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au this week. “He’s also a very competitive guy, he hates losing, but he plays cricket in the right way. He’ll be a great addition to the Perth team and to have someone like him and bring him into a batting line-up that’s already stacked with a lot of ability, it’ll be a great addition.

Adelaide Test. It is a demand India skipper Virat Kohli and other senior players made last year. “If it’s the first Test then obviously before it whatever practice game you play should be in that format,” Kohli had said.

India has played only one day-night Test, at home against Bangladesh last November. Playing one with the kookaburra ball will be new for them while Australia enjoy an all-win record, having won all seven pink-ball Tests it has played at home. The last time the teams clashed in a Test series, in 2018, India made history by winning their first Test series in Australia.

India’s tour holds immense significance for Cricket Australia’s finances.

The board, which has trimmed its staff due to the economic crunch, is involved in a dispute with broadcasters Seven, who are demanding a reduction in the media rights fee.

AGENCIES

India’s first World Cup-winning cricket captain Kapil Dev underwent an angioplasty after suffering a heart attack here on Friday but is “well on the road to recovery” and likely to be discharged in the next couple of days.

The 61-year-old, who is based in Delhi’s Sundar Nagar area, complained of chest pain on Thursday following which he was taken to Fortis Escorts Heart Institute emergency department in Okhla.

“Kapil Dev suffered a heart attack. He was evaluated and an emergency coronary angioplasty was performed in the middle of night,” the hospital said in an updated health bulletin after only mentioning chest pain in its initial statement.

“Currently, he is admitted in ICU and under close supervision of Dr Atul Mathur and his team. Kapil Dev is stable now and he is expected to get discharged in a couple of days.” Angioplasty is a procedure to open blocked arteries and restore normal blood flow to the heart.

Later in the day, a short statement on his instagram account expressed gratitude for the concern and support extended to his family.

“Thank you everyone for all the love and concern.

I am overwhelmed with the good wishes and well on the road to recovery,” the statement read.

Veteran cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle took to Twitter to wish Dev a speedy recovery. “Wishing the big-hearted, mighty Kapil Dev a speedy recovery. So much more to do,” he wrote.

Former India coach and Dev’s 1983 World Cupwinning teammate Madan Lal also took to Twitter to inform his fans about the former India captain’s current health condition.

The 1983 World Cup-winning legendary allrounder was wished a speedy recovery by many on social media, including India’s current captain Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar among others. “Praying for your speedy recovery. Get well soon paaji,” Kohli said.

“Take care @therealkapildev! Praying for your quick recovery. Get well soon Paaji,” wished Tendulkar Also wishing him good health were India batsman Shikhar Dhawan and badminton player Saina Nehwal.

Kapil Dev was one of the leading all-rounders in world cricket during his playing career and is considered one of the best to have played the game. He held the world record for the most Test wickets until it was broken by West Indian Courtney Walsh.

He represented India in 131 Tests, picking up 434 wickets and scoring 5248 runs. He also played 225 ODIs, picking 253 wickets and scoring 3783 runs for India.

Kapil was inducted into the International Cricket Council’s Hall of Fame in 2010.

SPORTS 11

England cricket team takes 15 per cent pay cut during pandemic LONDON AGENCIES

The England cricket team agreed to take a 15 per cent pay cut Friday as the sport deals with lost revenue during the coronavirus pandemic.

Players with contracts from the England and Wales Cricket Board will get reduced income in “retainers, match fees and win bonuses” for one year, the governing body said in a statement. The pay cut backdated to October 1 was “in view of the substantial shortfall in the ECB’s revenue as a consequence of the Covid19 pandemic.” England recently hosted tours by the West Indies, Pakistan, Ireland and Australia, playing in mostly empty stadiums.“We need to recognize that our players, led by captains Joe Root and Eoin Morgan, have conducted themselves with great maturity and responsibility throughout this challenging time,” team director Ashley Giles said.

Azhar may not go to New Zealand as Pakistan Test captain: sources LAHORE AGENCIES

Test captain Azhar Ali may lose his job as leader of the side when the team tours New Zealand amidst speculations that either whiteball skipper Babar Azam or Muhammad Rizwan could replace him. Azhar, who is the most Test capped player now in the national team with 81 appearances, is said to have lost favour with a influential member of the cricket committee while the PCB Chairman and CEO are also said to be having second thoughts about retaining him as captain. He was named Test captain last year in October after sacking of Sarfaraz Ahmed as captain and player from all three formats. With just 12 months in the job, Azhar saw the Pakistan team lose two-nil in Australia before securing home Test wins over Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Then they travelled to England where the team lost the three-match Test series 0-1. Wicketkeeperbatsman, Muhammad Rizwan who is right now riding on a wave of popularity and recently led the KPK team to the National T20 Championship title is said to be favourite to replace Azhar.PCB CEO Wasim Khan told a television channel that a meeting could be held on November 11 to decide on Azhar’s future and find a new chief selector as head coach, Misbah ul Haq has relinquished the post. It is not the first time that a captain could lose his job after just a year. Azhar was captain of the One-day side for nearly two years after the 2015 World Cup before he decided to resign himself prompting the board asking Sarfaraz to take over as captain in all three formats.

Clasico still biggest game in the world, Says La Liga president PARIS AGENCIES

"The Clasico is still the Clasico," says La Liga president Javier Tebas. "For the league it's another match but for intrigue and international appeal, it's the two biggest clubs in the world going face to face.

It's still the most important club game in the world." On Saturday, Barcelona and Real Madrid go face to face in the biggest football stadium in the world too, but almost all of the 99,000 seats at Camp Nou will be empty.

In sporting terms, it would be hard to find a more dramatic event reduced so dramatically, as clear a demonstration as there could be of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Any football match without fans loses a fundamental part of the game," Tebas says, in an exclusive interview with AFP. "But we've had more than 300 games played without fans and we've seen the players still provide a spectacle on the pitch. In fact the television numbers prove it. People are still watching."

La Liga usually estimates a potential Clasico audience of 650 million worldwide and predicts greater numbers this weekend, given other sports in many countries remain suspended.

"Only the 70,000 who should be in the stadium will be missing," Tebas says.

Yet it is those fans that bring emotion and meaning, with their absence perhaps felt even more keenly at a time when the allure of these teams on the pitch is not what it once was. The decline began before the crisis but it has also been exacerbated by it.

The transfer window was an exercise in cutting costs as Madrid went without a single new signing for the first time in 40 years and although Barca bought, they were more desperate to sell, allowing Luis Suarez to join title rivals Atletico Madrid.

"They showed good judgement," says Tebas. "With the lack of income it would be crazy if they were buying at the same level as before."

'MESSI SHOULD THINK CAREFULLY': Lionel Messi remains the crown jewels for the Clasico and La Liga, and it was no surprise when the Spanish league sided with Barcelona in the dispute over his contract in August.

"We've been lucky to enjoy him for so many years but Messi should think very carefully about what he does next," Tebas says. "If Messi left Barcelona, that reputation he has now and that has worked so well for him would be very damaged.

"It's true he could get a better offer financially but the reputation he has after more than 20 years, I think he has to hold onto that." If Messi leaves next summer when his contract expires, it will most likely be to

Manchester City and the Premier League, another boost for La Liga's rival that has been seemingly immune to the pandemic.

"It wouldn't be a drama," says Tebas.

"Cristiano Ronaldo left, Neymar left. Neymar went to PSG and I haven't seen the French league reaching a super level because of him. "That's the reality. People who think the players are the ones who define a competition are wrong and I'm glad they think that way because they won't grow."

But there is concern about the might of the Premier League, whose spending reached 1.4 billion euros in the summer, dwarfing the 412 million spent by clubs in

CMYK

La Liga. "I was surprised," says Tebas.

"Given the current economic climate it seemed excessive."

Liverpool and Manchester United were also reported on Tuesday to be leading discussions over a new European Premier League, which would involve 18 of the continent's biggest clubs playing each other.

"It's the perfect project to lose money," says Tebas. "Do you know how many people in Spain watched Dinamo Kiev against Juventus? Less than 50,000.

"More than 50,000 watch our second division games. A match between Barca and Eibar will get 1 million. "The national

feeling for football is hugely important, and what happens in that league of stars when someone is 10th or 15th? If Real Madrid are 10th, let's see then who goes to the Bernabeu. "There are many television companies who tell me they wouldn't put one euro into that project because the audiences would drop. It's an idea for dreamers, all theories, no reality."

The more immediate challenge for Tebas is to keep La Liga float, as coronavirus infections continue to rise across Spain.

'DIFFICULT TO HAVE FANS': For the first time since March, limited numbers of Spanish fans returned last weekend to some lower division games, where protocol depends on local health authorities rather than central government. But a return in the top two tiers is not close. "Until there is a vaccine I think it will be very difficult to have fans in stadiums," said Tebas.

"And in the short-term it is not a priority.

The priority is the competition continues. We don't think we should put too much pressure on the government."

Yet there will be pressure from La Liga clubs, who Tebas estimates lost 600 million euros last season and will lose another billion euros if this season ends without fans.

And there is no back-up plan for another suspension. "There are no spare dates," Tebas said. "We have to assume there won't be another stoppage."

saturday, 24 October, 2020

PrAyEr TImINGS

News

ISrael, SUdan agree to normalISe tIeS wIth US help

I

AGENCIES

SRAEL and Sudan agreed on Friday to normalise relations in a deal brokered with the help of the United States, making Sudan the third Arab country to set aside hostilities with Israel in the past two months. US President Donald Trump, seeking re-election on Nov 3, sealed the agreement in a phone call on Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Transitional Council Head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, senior US officials said.

As part of the agreement, Trump took steps to remove Sudan from a US government list of countries promoting terrorism.

A senior US official said Trump signed a document on Air Force One on Thursday night to notify Congress of his intention to remove Sudan from the list.

“The leaders agreed to the normalisation of relations between Sudan and Israel and to end the state of belligerence between their nations,” according to a joint statement issued by the three countries.

Sudan followed a path begun by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in striking deals aimed at normalising relations with Israel.

The agreement was negotiated on the US side by Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner, Middle East envoy Avi Berkowitz, national security adviser Robert O'Brien, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security official

Miguel Correa.

“This is obviously a great breakthrough,” Kushner told Reuters. “This is obviously going to create a big breakthrough peace between Israel and Sudan.

Getting peace agreements done are not as easy as we are making them look right now. They are very hard to do.” A signing ceremony was expected to be held at the White House in coming weeks, the officials said.

The joint statement said the leaders agreed to begin economic and trade relations, with an initial focus on agriculture.

Delegations from each country will meet in the following weeks to negotiate agreements of cooperation in those areas as well as in agriculture technology, avia-

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Iran blacklists US ambassador in Iraq, reciprocating US move DUBAI AGENCIES

Iran on Friday blacklisted the United States ambassador in Iraq and two other diplomats, following a similar move by the US against Iran’s envoy to Baghdad, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said. Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Twitter that ambassador Matthew Tueller “has had a central role in coordinating terrorist acts in Iraq & beyond” including the assassination of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, killed by a US missile strike at Baghdad in January. Iraq is one of the few countries that is allied to both the United States and Iran, which both provided military support in a 2014-2017 campaign against Islamic State.

Iraqis worry that the two countries could use Iraqi territory for a proxy war. On Thursday, the United States blacklisted Iraj Masjedi, Iran’s ambassador to Iraq, saying he has for years overseen the training and support of Iraqi militia groups responsible for attacks on US and coalition forces in Iraq.

tion, migration issues and other areas, the statement said. The statement said Sudan's transitional government has “demonstrated its courage and commitment to combating terrorism, building its democratic institutions, and improving its relations with its neighbors.”

As a result, “the United States and Israel agreed to partner with Sudan in its new start and ensure that it is fully integrated into the international community,” the statement said.

Kushner called the normalisation deals the start of a “paradigm shift” in the Middle East. He said Sudan's decision was symbolically significant because it was in Khartoum in 1967 that the Arab League decided not to recognize Israel's right to exist.

Trump calls India's air Pompeo steps up 'filthy' as New Delhi efforts to end Nagorno-Karabakh fighting chokes on pollution WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON AGENCIES

Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces clashed in several parts of Nagorno-Karabakh on Friday, as talks began in Washington to try to end the deadliest fighting in the mountain enclave for over a quarter of a century.

Pompeo holds talks over Nagorno-Karabakh crisis U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is meeting separately with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in a new attempt to end nearly a month of bloodshed in which Russian President Vladimir Putin said 5,000 people may have been killed.

The collapse of two Russia-brokered ceasefires has dimmed hopes of a quick end to fighting that broke out on Sept. 27 over Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway territory which is within Azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic Armenians. A handful of protesters from both sides, holding Armenian and Azeri flags and banners, chanted outside the State Department on Friday.

Azeri Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov met with Pompeo for about 40 minutes. Moments after he left, Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan arrived for his meeting.

World powers want to prevent a wider war that draws in Turkey, which has voiced strong support for Azerbaijan, and Russia, which has a defence pact with Armenia.

Shortly before the Washington talks were due to start, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul that he hoped Moscow and Ankara could work together on resolving the conflict.

Reiterating demands for a Turkish role in mediation which has long been led by the United States, Russia and France, he said: “Turkey believes it has just as much right as Russia to be involved here for peace.”

Washington, Paris and Moscow have ignored such calls, and differences over the conflict have further strained relations between Ankara and its NATO allies, with Pompeo accusing Turkey of fuelling the conflict by arming the Azeri side. Ankara has denied the charge. [nL8N2H66HU] In the latest clashes, Azerbaijan’s defence ministry reported fighting in areas including territories close to the line of contact that divides the sides.

Armenia’s defence ministry also reported fighting in several areas and said the town of Martuni in NagornoKarabakh was shelled during the night. Azerbaijan denied this.

Azerbaijan has expressed concern about the security of pipelines close to the fighting that carry Azeri oil and gas through the South Caucasus to world markets, but none has been damaged.

‘RIGHT PATH FORWARD’: Pompeo said this week he hoped the “right path forward” could be found at the talks, but Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said he saw no diplomatic resolution of the long-running conflict at this stage.

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev has described the prospects of reaching a peace settlement as “very remote”, and demanded promises that Azerbaijan will be handed back control of Nagorno-Karabakh.

About 30,000 people were killed in a 1991-94 war over Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenians regard the territory as part of their historic homeland and accuse Azerbaijan of making a land grab in the recent fighting.

Azeri forces say they have made territorial gains, including full control over the border with Iran, which Armenia denies. Nagorno-Karabakh says its forces have repeatedly repulsed attacks and have the situation under control.

AGENCIES

New Delhi was blanketed in noxious haze on Friday as air pollution levels in parts of the city soared to “severe” levels, hours after US President Donald Trump described the air in the vast nation as “filthy”.

Smoke from agricultural burning, vehicle fumes and industrial emissions — combined with cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds that trap pollutants over the city — turns air in the Indian capital into a toxic soup every winter.

The air quality index at Delhi’s 36 pollution monitoring sites — which monitor tiny PM2.5 and PM10 particles that get into the bloodstream and vital organs — was between 282 and 446, pushing levels into the “severe” category, the Central Pollution Control Board said. The “good” category is between 0-50, the government’s environmental watchdog added.

A “significant increase in stubble fire count” to 1,213 in Haryana and Punjab states was the highest of this season and made up 17 per cent of Delhi’s PM2.5 levels, the state-run System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research added on Friday.

“Further deterioration of (air quality) is expected for the two days,” SAFAR said.

This season’s burning started earlier because of advanced sowing and harvesting by farmers amid fears of labour shortages during the coronavirus pandemic, officials said. The worsening conditions came as Trump complained that action on climate change was unfair to the US. “Look at China, how filthy it is. Look at Russia, look at India — it’s filthy. The air is filthy,” Trump said at his presidential debate with Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Soon after the US president’s comments, ‘filthy’

and ‘Howdy! Modi’ — a reference to the massive rally held in Houston last year where the two leaders shared a stage — started trending on Twitter, the BBC reported.

Kapil Sibal, a senior leader of India’s Congress party, asked if Trump’s remark was the “fruits of friendship” between the two leaders and Howdy!

Modi, the report said.

Meanwhile, Shekhar Gupta, editor-in-chief of The Print, added there was “no point in being outraged”.

“Every year about 15 of the 20 cities with the filthiest air in the world are in India. We’ve also done little to address this,” Gupta posted on Twitter. “Our air is an awful global embarrassment.”

Scientists warned this year’s pollution season would make Delhi’s 20 million residents more vulnerable to the coronavirus.

“Air pollution increases the risk of noncommunicable diseases — the same underlying conditions that make people more likely to experience severe illness or death from Covid-19,” epidemiologist Sumi Mehta from global non-profit Vital Strategies told AFP. Healthcare systems, stretched by the pandemic, could be further stressed by more hospitalisations from pollution-related illnesses, researchers added.

“There are serious worries that during winter when higher air pollution levels, in any case, worsens respiratory illness and increases hospitalisation, the vulnerability to Covid-19 may be further enhanced,” Anumita Roy Chowdhury of the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment told AFP. The chief medical officer of Gurugram city near New Delhi, Virender Yadav, told The Times of India on Thursday some recovering Covid-19 patients were experiencing a recurrence of respiratory conditions triggered by the heightened air pollution.

Trump and Biden clash on pandemic, trade personal jabs at final debate NASHVILLE AGENCIES

Democrat Joe Biden renewed his attacks on US President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic at Thursday’s final debate before the Nov 3 election, while Trump leveled unfounded corruption accusations at Biden and his family.

Trump, a Republican, initially adopted a more restrained tone than he did during their first presidential debate in September, which was quickly derailed by his constant interruptions. But Thursday’s clash still featured plenty of personal attacks between two men who evince little respect for each other.

The televised encounter in Nashville, Tennessee, represented one of Trump’s last remaining opportunities to reshape a campaign dominated by a pandemic that has killed more than 221,000 people in the United States. Opinion polls show Trump is trailing Biden, though the contest is tighter in some battleground states likely to decide the election.

“Anyone who’s responsible for that many deaths should not remain president of

the United States of America,” Biden said.

Trump defended his approach to the outbreak and claimed the worst of the pandemic was in the past.

“We’re rounding the corner,” said Trump, who has played down the virus for months. “It’s going away.”

Trump also claimed that a vaccine was potentially “weeks” away. Most experts, including administration officials, have said a vaccine is unlikely to be widely available until mid-2021. Several US states, including the election swing state of Ohio, reported record single-day increases in Covid-19 infections on Thursday, evidence the pandemic is accelerating anew.

After an opening segment on the pandemic, Thursday’s clash pivoted to rapid-fire exchanges over whether either candidate had improper foreign entanglements.

Trump repeated his accusations that Biden and his son Hunter engaged in unethical practices in China and Ukraine. No evidence has been verified to support the allegations, and Biden called them false and discredited.

Trump’s effort to uncover dirt on Hunter

Biden’s Ukraine business ties led to the president’s impeachment. The president and his children have been accused of conflicts of interest of their own since he entered the White House in 2017, most involving the family’s international real estate and hotel businesses.

‘MALARKEY’: Biden defended his family and said unequivocally that he had never made “a single penny” from a foreign country, before pivoting to accuse Trump of trying to distract Americans.

“There’s a reason why he’s bringing up all this malarkey,” Biden said, looking directly into the camera. “It’s not about his family and my family. It’s about your family, and your family’s hurting badly.”

He also accused Trump of skirting his taxes, citing a New York Times investigation that reported Trump’s tax returns show he paid almost no federal income tax over more than 20 years.

“Release your tax returns or stop talking about corruption,” Biden said.

Trump, who has broken with decades of precedent in refusing to release his tax returns, said he had paid “millions.” He again

said he would release his returns only once a longstanding audit was completed.

The candidates clashed over healthcare, China policy and — after months of antiracism protests — race relations with Biden saying Trump was “one of the most racist presidents” in history.

“He pours fuel on every single racist fire,” Biden said. “This guy has a dog whistle as big as a foghorn.” Trump responded by criticizing Biden’s authorship of a 1994 crime bill that increased incarceration of minority defendants while asserting that he had done more for Black Americans than any president with the “possible” exception of Abraham Lincoln in the 1860s.

AT ODDS OVER HEALTHCARE: Biden criticized Trump’s effort to persuade the US Supreme Court to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, the sweeping healthcare reform passed when Biden was a vice president in President Barack Obama’s administration.

“People deserve to have affordable healthcare, period,” Biden said, noting that the law prevented insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

Trump said he wanted to replace the ACA with something “much better” that would offer the same protections, even though the administration has yet to propose a comprehensive healthcare plan despite a promise to do so for years.

Relatively few voters have yet to make up their minds, and Trump’s window to influence the outcome may be closing. A record 47 million Americans already have cast ballots, eclipsing total early voting from the 2016 election. The contentious first debate, when the two men traded insults, was watched by at least 73 million viewers.

Trump passed up another planned debate last week after it was switched to a virtual format following his Covid-19 diagnosis.

On Thursday, the commission that oversees the debate removed plexiglass barriers separating the candidates after Trump provided proof he had tested negative for Covid-19, a source familiar with the matter said. The commission also muted the candidates’ microphones to allow each to deliver two-minute statements on each new topic before turning them back on, in an effort to avoid the chaos of the first debate.

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot No 66-C, 1st Floor, 21st Commercial Street, Phase-II (Extension), DHA Karachi and printed at Ibn-e-Hassan Printing Press, Hockey Stadium, Karachi, for PT Print (Pvt) Limited. Ph: 021-35381208-9. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk