EpaperKHI_22-1-31

Monday, 31 January, 2022 I 27 Jamadi-al-Sani, 1443 I Rs 40.00 I Vol XII No 213 I 48 Pages I Karachi Edition

Pakistan, afghanistan agree to form committee to address border issues Qureshi urges SC to take note of Rana Sana’s ‘irresponsible statement’ about judiciary MULTAN Special correSpondent

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AkISTAN and Afghanistan Sunday agreed to form a high-level committee to address border issues as National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf concluded a twoday visit to kabul.

The development comes weeks after videos circulated on social media purportedly showing Taliban fighters uprooting a portion of the fence along the Pak-Afghan border.

During the visit, the NSA — who also heads the Afghanistan Inter-Ministerial Coordination Cell (AICC) — called on Afghanistan Acting Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi and Acting Foreign Minister Amir khan Muttaqi to “discuss the current situation in Afghanistan and strengthening of bilateral relations between the two countries”, an official statement said.

“Both sides agreed to establish a national-level coordination mechanism for enhancing facilitation at border crossing points and to expedite ongoing negotiations to con-

clude a new trade agreement,” the statement said which was shared on Twitter by Pakistan’s ambassador in kabul, Mansoor khan.

The 2010 Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) expired on February 11, but both sides have not yet reached a new agreement.

The statement went on to say that the objective of the visit was to discuss with the Afghan leadership the humanitarian requirements of the country and “Pakistan’s proposals for deepening economic engagement to overcome the current challenges Afghanistan is facing”.

“The visit yielded substantive outcomes in terms of forward movement on trade facilitation and social sector support,” said a statement issued by the government on Sunday.

Both sides also reiterated their commitment to the early completion of three major connectivity projects, CASA- 1000, TAPI, and the Trans-Afghan Rail project.

“Both sides agreed to establish a

national level coordination mechanism for enhancing facilitation at border crossing points. They also agreed to initiate barter trade, modalities for which will be worked out immediately,” it said.

Special Envoy for Afghanistan Ambassador Muhammad Sadiq and senior officials from relevant ministries were part of the delegation.

Dr Moeed Yusuf also held delegation-level meetings with other relevant Afghan ministers and senior officials dealing with humanitarian and economic issues.

During the visit, Pakistan offered Afghanistan capacity building and training support in multiple sectors including health, education, banking, customs, railways and aviation among others.

Afghanistan and Pakistan emphasised their commitment to ensuring peace and stability in both countries.

Dr Yusuf thanked the interim Afghan government for their warm hospitality. Staff report

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Sunday that the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) should take notice of the “irresponsible statement” issued by PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah regarding laying a siege around the court in case of any verdict given against Shahbaz Sharif.

Talking to the media in Multan, the foreign minister termed the irresponsible statement by Sanaullah an “attack on the independence of the judiciary.”

“It is meant to exert pressure on courts,” opined Qureshi, adding that the apex court should take suo moto notice in this regard.

Qureshi further said that PML-N wanted to “seek verdicts of its own choice by putting pressure on courts.”

“The PML N has also attacked the supreme court in the past,” the foreign minister maintained.

Responding to a question about the absence of the Opposition Leader in Senate Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani from the House on the occasion of the passage of SBP (Amendment) Bill-2022, Qureshi stated that the “government was thankful to Yusuf Raza Gilani.”

“Gilani could have reached the Senate session in five hours only. We have maintained confidentiality about the manner in

which Gilani was elected as a senator,” he maintained.

About the South Punjab province, Qureshi, once again, invited the leadership of PML-N and PPP to make important amendments for the region in order to benefit the 35 million people living there.

Qureshi stated that the PTI government was also ready to share the credit of South Punjab province with both parties.

Answering another question about the State Bank of Pakistan, the foreign minister stated that legislation was meant to provide autonomy to the bank so that it would work independently, without the influence of the government’s policies.

He, however, clarified that the State Bank would be accountable to the Parliament. Similarly, the prime minister will appoint its Board of Governors.

Qureshi recalled that PPP and PML N had also introduced some reforms in State Bank during their respective regimes.

Qureshi also stated the parties in the Opposition lacked confidence in one another.

“The PML N is levelling allegations against the PPP and the JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has also questioned the absence of senators of other parties of Opposition in the recent session of the Senate,” he said.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

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Monday, 31 January, 2022 | KARACHI

NEWS

PakistaN eyes $3b LoaN froM ChiNa

Pti would launch rally against sindh local govt law on feb 26: asad Umar APP Federal Planning Minister Asad Umar on Sunday announced that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has decided to launch rally against the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Act 2021. Umar while addressing a presser in Karachi, stated that the Sindh local government law was in contrast to Article 140 of the constitution, while adding that as per Article 140, the Karachi local government is supposed to be autonomous. He further stated that “we will form the government in Sindh in 2023” Speaking about the PTI Sindh’s meeting today, the minister said the sole purpose of this gathering was to launch a campaign to oust the PPP government in a coordinated manner. He said despite the federal government’s offers for assistance, the Sindh government refused to do anything to provide healthcare to the people. He said the PPP government has dampened the hope of the youth of Sindh, adding that jobs are given in the province on the basis of “parchi”.

As a part of its protest drive, the PTI will take out a rally from Ghotki to Karachi on Feb 26 in which the central leadership of the ruling party will participate as well, said Umar, adding that the PTI will end the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) rule in Sindh. In order to ramp up momentum ahead of the march, Umar stressed the need to increase contact with the people. He also urged corner meetings across Sindh. The small-scale farmers have no access to water, Umar said. He further stated that to provide water to the residents of Karachi, the federal government will give approval to the K-IV project on Tuesday after which the work on the project will kickoff. The Sindh government is to blame for the delay in the project, he said, adding that the PTI will do all the development work in Karachi that the PPP couldn’t do.

Pastor gunned down in Peshawar NEws DEsk At least one Christian pastor was shot dead while another sustained injuries in a gun attack near Peshawar’s Madina Market on Sunday. According to police, the incident took place within the jurisdiction of Gulbahar police station. The police revealed the details of the incident by stating that William Siraj was a pastor at a local church that fell within the jurisdiction of Chamkani police station in the provincial capital. They said the pastors were attacked on the Ring Road when they were travelling in a van to run a personal errand.

The Lady Reading Hospital spokesperson also confirmed the death of Pastor Siraj. The spokesperson added that another person named Patrick was slightly wounded and was in a stable condition. As per the details, heavy contingent of police has arrived on the murder scene. According to the police, they have started a search operation in the area. They added that entry and exit points were also under surveillance to nab any suspicious person. The cameras installed in the nearby market will also be examined by the investigation team.

The dead body has been handed over to the family of the pastor while the injured person was being treated accordingly, the hospital administration stated.

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NEws DEsk

AKISTAN has set its sight on a loan to the tune of $3 billion from China to stabilise its dwindling foreign exchange reserves and also seeks an investment bonanza in half a dozen sectors during the visit of PM Imran Khan to Beijing next week.

In addition to political engagement, the premier would also seek Chinese support in areas of finance, trade and investment. As per sources, the PM will depart for Beijing on February 3 and attend the inaugural session of the Winter Olympics there.

A final meeting to shape the agenda of the visit would take place on Tuesday — two days before the scheduled visit, the sources added. A senior finance ministry official said the government was considering requesting China to approve another loan to the tune of $3 billion in China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange, known as SAFE deposits. It is pertinent to note that China has already placed around $11 billion with Pakistan in the shape of commercial loans and foreign exchange reserves support initiatives, including $4 billion in SAFE deposits. The Chinese money is part of the country’s current official foreign exchange reserves recorded at $16.1 billion.

In the last fiscal year, the country had paid over Rs26 billion in interest cost to China only for using a $4.5 billion Chinese trade finance facility to repay the maturing debt.

Last month, Pakistan also received a Saudi loan of $3 billion, which the country has consumed. The foreign exchange reserves that before the Saudi injection stood at $15.9 billion have already fallen to $16 billion by January 21. The government would also seek Chinese investment in six priority sectors by highlighting the competitive advantages that the country has in areas of cheap but skilled labour, access

to the two richest continents of the world and tax exemptions.

“We will market textile, footwear, pharmaceutical, furniture, agriculture, automobile and information technology sectors for Chinese investment,” said Azfar Ahsan, the chairman of the Board of Investment.

The government is expected to tell the 75 Chinese companies that it provided access to trade routes to the Middle East, Africa and the rest of the world – offering greater incentive in shape of reduction in freight cost.

“Unlike in the past when we would only talk about Pak-Sino friendship being higher than the Himalayas and sweeter than honey, this time we are going prepared to China with a structured approach,” Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar told The Express Tribune.

He added that with the involvement of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority, the government had selected those sectors for foreign investment where there was evidence of huge benefits

Pakistan likely to import 500,000 tonnes of petrol next month NEws DEsk Pakistan is likely to import over 500,000 tonnes of petrol and around 250,000 tonnes of diesel to meet the local consumption demand next month.

The demand of furnace oil for the coming month is expected to reach 161,000 tonnes, the approximations calculated by the domestic industry revealed.

It is pertinent to note that Pakistan relies almost 80 percent on imported oil as the local production is not enough to meet the surging demand. Domestic prices are around their highest in the country’s history due to a swell in global oil prices, which puts more burden on the local consumers as rupee has massively devalued against dollar.

The country would be importing diesel and petrol for local consumption as local supply from the refineries would not be enough to meet demand.

However, no import of furnace oil would be made as local refineries were overflowing with this fuel owing to almost zero demand from independent power producers, the major consumers of furnace oil.

Estimates of the local oil industry put the demand for petrol at 712,500 tonnes in February 2022 and that of diesel at 647,500 tonnes.

The demand for oil products is on the rise in the country as oil sales in the calendar year 2021 jumped 19.5 percent to 21 million tonnes from 17.41 million tonnes in 2020. Petrol sales hit the highest ever in 2021 with 8.64 million tonnes, up 13.4 percent from 7.62 million tonnes in 2020. During first half of fiscal year 2021-22, consumption of petroleum products also increased as overall sales of these products rose 14 percent to 11 million tonnes, despite seven percent drop in December 2021 sales.

During the first half of this fiscal year, the import,

APP

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Sunday sought the role of judiciary and legal fraternity for implementing ‘Criminal Law and Justice Reforms’ launched by Prime Minister Imran Khan recently.

The initiative was a big leap forward towards implementation of the rule of law in letter and spirit, he said while apprising delegations of tehsil, districts, and high court bar associations of Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Mansehra, Havelian and Abbottabad about the reforms here.

Fawad assured the bar representatives of the government’s full cooperation in

in terms of value, of refined petroleum products surged to over $5 billion compared to $2.168 billion in the same period last year, registering a massive increase of 133 percent. High spending on petroleum imports has contributed significantly to a widening trade gap, which further increased current account deficit to over $9 billion in the first half of the current fiscal.

Petrol sales climbed 10 percent to 4.5 million tonnes in IHFY22, followed by 17 percent and 16 percent rise in the offtake of furnace oil and high speed diesel to 1.9 million tonnes and 4.3 million tonnes respectively.

In December 2021, furnace oil and high speed diesel sales dropped 53 percent and 2 percent to 112,000 tonnes and 612,000 tonnes from 240,000 tonnes and 622,000 tonnes in December 2020. Petrol sales inched up 4 percent to 700,000 tonnes in December 2021 from 673,000 tonnes in December 2020.

Start-ups bringing Pakistan’s farming into digital age LAHORE AFP

Agriculture entrepreneurs are bringing the digital age to farmers, helping them plan crops better and distribute their produce when the time is right.

Until recently, “the most modern machine we had was the tractor”, Aamer Hayat Bhandara, a farmer and local councillor behind one such project, told AFP in Chak 26, a village in the agricultural heartland of Punjab.

Even making mobile phone calls can be difficult in many parts of Pakistan, but since October, farmers in Chak 26 and pilot projects elsewhere have been given free access to the Internet — and it is revolutionising the way they work.

Agriculture is the mainstay of Pakistan’s economy, accounting for nearly 20 per cent of gross domestic product

(GDP) and around 40 per cent of the workforce.

It is estimated to be the world’s fifth-largest producer of sugarcane, seventh-largest of wheat and tenth-biggest rice grower — but it mostly relies on human labour and lags other big farming nations on mechanisation. Cows and donkeys rest near a muddy road leading to a pavilion in Chak 26, which is connected to a network via a small satellite dish.

This is the “Digital Dera” — or meeting place — and six local farmers have come to see the computers and tablets that provide accurate weather forecasts, as well as the latest market prices and farming tips.

“I’ve never seen a tablet before,” said Mr Munir Ahmed, 45, who grows maize, potatoes and wheat. “Before, we relied on the experience of our ancestors or our own, but it wasn’t very accurate,” added Mr Amjad Nasir, another farmer, who hopes the project “will bring more prosperity”.

Fawad seeks role of judiciary, legal fraternity for implementing criminal law and justice reforms IsLAMABAD

for Chinese investors.

“The study of selected locations shows substantial benefits in transportation times via CPEC.” Sea freight charges often contribute 2% to 10% of unit cost depending on the product. Pakistan offers substantially better and lower sea freight rates to two of the largest import destinations, according to the CPEC Authority officials.

If imported from Pakistan, the freight costs 4,000 Euros per large container to EU destinations compared with 15,000 Euros from China. Similarly, these rates are 6,700 Euros in case of the US East coast against 12,500 Euros from Chinese port to the US. These rates were also less when compared with India, Bangladesh and Cambodia.

Cost savings on sea freight can materially reduce costs for transacting parties, make product pricing competitive.

Similarly, Pakistani authorities believe that its labour is two times cheaper than that of China. This offers a greater opportunity for relocation of the dying Chinese industries.

However, all these areas and the competitive advantages are already known to the investors but they remain reluctant to bring in “big money” to Pakistan because of its inconsistent fiscal and energy policies.

China has decided to move into more sophisticated and high-tech-driven textile and apparel industry and engage in more value-added functions under its 202125 plan.

The government officials claimed that the electricity tariffs were competitive to the regional peers, 9 cents per unit electricity cost compared with 7.1 cents in Indian Punjab and 7.3 cents per unit in Vietnam. They added that there was 100% exemption on income tax for 10 years, duty-free import of all plant, machinery and equipment and customs and other duty exemptions available for export-oriented raw material.

resolving their issues on priority.

“The Federal Government is aware of their (lawyers) problems. Young lawyers will be given soft loans under the Kamyab Jawan Programme for constructing their chambers,” the minister said.

He said it was heartening that young lawyers were representing the bars associations in a large number.

Fawad said better facilities would be ensured for the lawyer community of Mansehra, Abbottabad and Havelian.

About the development of Jhelum, he said multiple projects worth Rs1 trillion were approved by the government during the past three years.

The district was now being linked to the Motorway, he added.

The minister said work was underway on the Jalalpur Canal project being executed at a cost of Rs 44 billion, while another two-way Lilla to Jhelum road project was initiated.

He said Sanghoi to Misri Morr and Lilla to Pind Dadan Khan road would be completed by June this year. Work on the project was commenced after 55 years, said Fawad.

President District Bar Council Rawalpindi Arshad Majeed Malik, President District Bar Jhelum Chaudhry Abdul Latif, President High court Bar Abbottabad Haji Sabir Hussain Tanoli, President District Bar Mansehra Bilal Khan and President Tehsil Bar Havelian Raees Khan were among the delegation.

PML-N holds govt responsible for urea shortage LAHORE StAFF RePoRt

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb on Sunday held Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government responsible for the urea shortage in the country Marriyum Aurangzeb in a statement wondered how would the farmers be able to meet the wheat production target when they did not have urea with them. “The shortage of urea is due to the ‘corruption’ of ‘Imran mafia’,” she added. Marriyum further claimed that the price of urea had now far exceeded Rs10,000, which under the last PML-N government was available at Rs2,400, She also slammed the PTI government for failing to control the hoarding of the medicine prescribed for the treatment of fever of the coronavirus patients. “It is a matter of great shame that when cases of the pandemic are on the rise in the country, the drug has suddenly disappeared from the market,” she regretted. “There are no jobs for the masses, no medicines for the patients, no urea for the farmers, no flour to eat and no sugar to sweeten drinks under the PTI government,” the PML-N spokesperson said, adding it is extremely shameful. She was of the view that actually it was the present government that must leave now since ‘the selected’ Prime Minister Imran Khan by creating gas, electricity and other crises had only filled the pockets of his favourites.

Monday, 31 January, 2022 | KARACHI

ChiNese efforts to hoLd WiNter oLyMPiCs aMid Covid-19 adMirabLe: iMraN

t

MONItORINg REPORt

HE efforts China has made to successfully hold Winter Olympics are admirable at a time when “sporting events all over the world have been affected” by the Covid-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Imran Khan said.

During an interview with Chinese media, the prime minister said he is looking forward to visiting China and attending the February 4 opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. As a former cricket legend, Khan had a remarkable sports career, one of whose highlights is that he captained the national team to win the Cricket World Cup in 1992. “For almost 20 years of my life, I was an international sportsman […] I look forward [to Beijing 2022] because as a sportsman, apart from our relationship, a close relationship between the two countries, it will be very interesting for me to see a competition,” he added.

Lauding China’s significant progress in sports including winter sports, Khan said that “during the last two or three Olympics, China’s performance has been very impressive,” which shows that the country is putting a lot of effort into developing sports and fitness.

Noting that some areas in Pakistan are ideal for skiing, the prime minister said the country expects to

fM felicitates NPC’s new officials

enhance collaboration, connection and interaction with China in the field of sports.

Talking about bilateral relations between Pakistan and China, Khan noted that the two countries are good neighbours and always stand with each other in the hour of need, adding that the relationship has grown stronger during the last seven decades. The construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative, has helped Pakistan to break the bottlenecks in electricity supply and transport infrastructure, which had impeded Pakistan’s development, he said.

In the new phase of high-quality development of

PTI’s Ali Zaidi says ‘Asif Zardari must be expelled for Karachi rebuild’

IsLAMABAD StAFF RePoRt

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Sunday congratulated the newly elected office bearers of National Press Club in Islamabad. In a message, the foreign minister congratulated President Anwar Raza, Secretary Khalil Raja, Finance Secretary Nayyar Ali and others. He said the press was the fourth pillar of the state, expressing the hope the newly elected body would exploit its potential for the welfare of journalists.

Cousin of PPP MP among three dead in sujawal accident kARACHI StAFF RePoRt

Three people were killed in a road accident on the highway connecting Mithi and Karachi near the Sujawal district in Sindh on Sunday.

According to rescue officials, a vehicle going to Mithi from Karachi collided with a tractortrolley head-on, resulting in the death of three passengers and critical wounds to as many. The dead were identified as Dr Om Joshi, a cousin of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MP Mahesh Kumar Malani and his two grandsons. Joshi was going to Mithi tehsil of Tharparkar district to attend a wedding ceremony. The bodies and the wounded have been shifted to a nearby hospital. Malani, a longtime PPP stalwart and a member of the National Assembly since August 2018, is the first Hindu to win a general seat of the Lower House of Parliament.

NEws DEsk Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi announced a march against the PPP government in Sindh next month on Sunday, stating that the PTI was now spearheading efforts for economic revival of the province, especially Karachi, and for that, “the expulsion of Asif Ali Zardari from power is imperative”.

“The expulsion of dacoit, which is Asif Ali Zardari, is inevitable now for Karachi to rebuild and Pakistan to prosper,” he stated while adding that the port city will not flourish till the PPP was in power.

Zaidi further stated that the joint opposition in Sindh

will begin a march from Ghotki on Feb 26 — a day before PPP’s planned long march to Islamabad — to “bring about much-needed change” in the province.

He fired a broadside at the PPP government in Sindh, saying it always ran away from accountability “and that is the reason it did not nominate a single member from the opposition to the Public Accounts Committee.”

He went on to add that the parties taking a part in the protest would unveil their demands at the end of the march that will culminate in Karachi.

Zaidi claimed his party would dethrone the PPP in the next general elections, saying “our ascension to power is inevitable given the dismal performance of the PPP-led government in Sindh for years.”

Asad Umar, while speaking on the occasion stated that the people in Sindh had been suffering under the PPP rule for 13 years as they had been “deprived of basic rights” of health and education.

“This is impossible in 2023 to let these robbers rule the province. We have now devised a strategy to tackle this problem, which will be visible soon,” he stated.

The PTI minister while criticizing the passage of amended local government bill from the Sindh Assembly, stated that the recent promulgation of a “black law” had revealed the plans of the PPP, saying a full-fledged campaign will be launched soon to counter the measures taken by the provincial government.

Alvi expresses condolences over death of civil servant

flights cancelled as fog descends on Punjab LAHORE StAFF RePoRt

Heavy fog across Punjab caused traffic disruption on Sunday morning and five flights were cancelled at Allama Iqbal Airport in Lahore due to low visibility. The flights which were cancelled include: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) 204 returning from Dubai, Serene Air ER-522 coming from Karachi, ER525 traveling to Karachi, PIA 306 coming from Karachi and PK-307 going to Karachi.

The operations however were resumed soon after following the improvement in visibility at the runway. Hundreds of passengers were stranded at Allama Iqbal Airport, which was forced to cancel the flights because of low visibility. Many flights were also delayed or diverted as fog shrouded the provincial capital, causing poor visibility.

CPEC, Pakistan expects to deepen its cooperation with China in the fields of industrial zones, information technology and agriculture, Khan added.

“In agriculture, we want China’s help to improve our productivity because, in China, the productivity is much higher in agriculture and livestock yields compared to Pakistan … China has grown these drought-resistance cotton varieties. We have large tracts of land in Pakistan where these varieties of cotton can be grown. So that’s where we are going to get help from China.”

He noted that through constant and sustainable economic development, the lives of the Chinese people have been greatly improved, and China’s achievements in poverty alleviation “never happened in human history before.”

Calling China’s whole-process democracy a model in the world, the prime minister said that “it was an inclusive growth in China. When China grew, the whole population grew with China. It was, unfortunately, like a lot of the rest of the world, where the rich get richer and the poor, in fact, get poorer.”

He said that economic development is a focus of his government and Pakistan will continue to learn from China’s experience in poverty alleviation, inclusive growth and megacity management.

IsLAMABAD StAFF RePoRt

President Dr Arif Alvi Sunday offered condolences on the death of Tasneem Siddiqui, a former Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) civil servant revered for his social work.

In a tweet, the president also lauded the services of the former Sindh chief secretary.

“Tasneem Siddiqui, outstanding hero [and] bureaucrat passes away. My condolences to the family, that includes all who live in katchi abadis (slums), the poor, landless [and] homeless for whom

he had ideas [and] compassion [and] whom he served. A great man indeed,” he tweeted.

Siddiqui, 82, died in Karachi on Saturday of cardiac arrest. He left behind his wife, Kishwar Sultana, two sons and a daughter.

He was most celebrated for his conceptualisation of Khuda Ki Basti, a low-cost housing scheme for low-income groups, in Hyderabad and the reinvigoration of the Sindh Katchi Abadis Authority.

The incremental housing development was first tested in 1986 and has been accepted as a successful model to solve the shelter problem of the urban poor. The scheme was developed by Saibaan — an NGO of which Siddiqui was the chief — on 100 acres acquired from Malir Development Authority (MDA).

“Housing facilities for the lowincome groups in urban areas, particularly in the cosmopolitan cities, are next to nil while thousands of acres of state land are being occupied by land grabbers to plunder the poor on count of low-cost housing schemes,” he once observed.

Siddiqui’s services as a civil servant were acknowledged by the Philippines government which honoured him with the Ramon Magsaysay Award. He was also awarded a Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 1999.

NEWS

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Gandhi street in karachi offers walk through pre-Partition memories kARACHI AnAdolu Agency

While there has been a name-changing spree in India, a street in Karachi is still named after Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the neighbour’s founding father, keeping a window open into pre-Partition memories. On the occasion of the 74th death anniversary of Gandhi, known worldwide as Mahatma Gandhi, residents vow to protect the historical identity of their neighbourhood.

Gandhi, a towering figure of South Asian politics, was assassinated on January 30, 1948, by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist Nathuram Godse, who objected to his stand against the communal riots that gripped India after the Partition in 1947. Located in the Karachi South district, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi street, commonly known as Mohan Road, is a 500-meter thoroughfare currently serving as a bustling market visited by thousands of customers each day. Its eastern entrance, which touches the noisy M.A. Jinnah Road, is commonly known as Tire Market because of several small and large tire shops. Whereas, the western mouth of the street opens towards the famous Burns Road and is dotted with dozens of bookshops. This portion is known as the Urdu bazaar, or the Book Market. In between lie several colonial-era buildings, with most still named after their original builders, like the Aruan Building, Mukhi Mansion, and Momanath Building. Aluminium-embossed pictures of Gandhi can be spotted even from a distance on the balconies of several buildings, reminding visitors of the neighbourhood’s historic value. Most of the buildings, nonetheless, currently present a picture of apathy, not only due to the ravages of time, but also neglect of their supposed benefactors. In many cases, neither occupants nor owners worry about the maintenance of these old-styled buildings dating back to the 1930s, due to rental disputes.

NO MORE NAME-CHANGING: In the middle of the road, it is bisected by Temple Road, named for its Hindu temple, along with the Sikh temple Ratan Talao Gurdwara, another pre-Partition building that is also in ruins nowadays. Hunched on a plastic chair, Mohammad Feroz, who has been running a tire shop at Gandhi street for over 40 years, wants the government to protect the historical value of the neighbourhood. “You may disagree with his (Gandhi) political philosophy, but he undoubtedly is a historic figure. It’s either Quaid-i-Azam or Gandhi, they should be treated with respect in both countries,” Feroz told Anadolu Agency, referring to some Hindu radical groups demanding the removal of Jinnah’s statue from Aligarh Muslim University in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. A plaque reading “Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Street,” which only a few years ago had stood at the eastern entrance of the street, is no longer there. Officially, however, it is still named after Gandhi in the city’s municipal records. “We will never want this name to be changed,” Rab Nawaz, who runs a small mechanical shop in the area, told Anadolu Agency.

“It’s Mohan Road and will remain the same for us. We have no issue with that,” Nawaz, whose father started the business here in 1955, went on to say. Feroz Ali, another elderly resident, demanded that the plaque be returned, highlighting the street’s name on both entrances. “Not only this, but no other names should be changed. If a hospital or educational institution is built by a Hindu or a Sikh, it should remain after his or her name,” he told Anadolu Agency.

Monday, 31 January, 2022 | karachi

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newS

RiSinG oil pRiceS coulD flaRe-up inflation fuRtheR ISLAMABAD

p

staff RepoRt

AKISTAN is reeling under multifaceted problems; hence, no respite in the back-breaking inflation is expected in near future amid the sharp surge in crude oil price globally.

The last time double-digit the consumer price index (CPI) was recorded in April 2021 (11.1% YoY), afterward it hit a low of 8.4% in July 2021 during the current fiscal year. However, later inflation started resurging and reached 12.3% in December 2021, a 22-month high, driven by the higher food index.

At present, keeping in view the constant rise in the crude oil price- which contributes the most to inflationary pressure globally, there are no signs of easing Pakistan’s yearly inflation anytime soon to a single digit, leaving worries about its dampening effect on economic growth and common man’s purchasing power.

Cascading impact of an increase in energy tariff being stipulated by the authorities to overcome cross-subsidies and circular debt, higher fuel rates and quarterly house rent adjustment, will be visible in the January inflation print.

Going by the projections, the headline inflation will settle around 12.7%13.4% with an average annualized estimate of 13.03% for January when CPI is released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) today (Monday) while the monthly rate is expected to be 0.53%.

This will bring 7MFY22 average inflation to 10.3% as against 8.2% YoY in the corresponding period last year.

According to the monthly Economic Outlook for January 2022 released by the Finance Ministry, CPI on year-on-year (YoY) is expected to remain in double digits in the coming month.

The report noted that the YoY increase in the CPI index was, to a large extent, a backward-looking indicator and is not only determined by current

N. Korea conducts largest missile test since 2017 SEOUL ReuteRs

North Korea conducted its largest missile test since 2017 on Sunday, sending a suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile soaring into space, seen as taking the nuclear-armed country a step closer to resuming longrange testing.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that a projectile believed to be a single ballistic missile was launched about 7:52 am (2252 GMT) from North Korea’s Jagang Province toward the ocean off its east coast.

South Korea’s National Security Council (NSC), which convened a rare emergency meeting presided over by President Moon Jae-in, said the test appeared to involve an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), which North Korea has not tested since 2017.

The launch takes North Korea a step closer to fully scrapping a self-imposed moratorium on testing its longest-range

intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), Moon said.

He noted that this month’s flurry of missile tests was reminiscent of the heightened tensions in 2017, when North Korea conducted multiple nuclear tests and launched its largest missiles, including some that flew over Japan.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said he is no longer bound by that moratorium, which included a stop to nuclear weapons tests and was announced in 2018 amid a flurry of diplomacy and summits with then-US President Donald Trump.

North Korea’s rulers suggested this month they could restart those testing activities because the United States and its allies had shown no sign of dropping their “hostile policies.”

“The United States condemns these actions and calls on (North Korea) to refrain from further destabilizing acts,” the US military’s Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement after Sunday’s launch.

price movements, but also by what happened 12 months ago, when international commodity prices are at the lower areas of their current price cycles, whereas now they are at the upper levels of these cycles.

It highlighted the importance of monitoring future month-on-month (MoM) price movements as containing these price dynamics will determine further developments in the consumer’s cost of living. If these future MoM price movements were stabilized, the YoY inflation will automatically fall back to levels that are suited for supporting Pakistan’s economic development.

On a sequential basis, pursuant to the justifications provided by these research houses, inflation is expected to flare up again on the back of higher petroleum prices, quarterly house rent adjustment and energy tariff hike as required by IMF. On the flip side, the food index is expected to ease primarily led by a drop in prices of vegetables, mainly tomatoes

and potatoes, thanks to the arrival of seasonal perishable vegetables in the local markets.

On the other hand, the YoY uptick in CPI will likely be led by food, clothing & footwear, alcoholic beverages & tobacco, housing, household equipment and miscellaneous.

Going forward, inflation is likely to remain in check on account of adjustments in electricity price (base tariff hike-which is expected in a phased manner), any increase in prices of petroleum products owing to higher international oil prices and surge in prices of perishable and nonperishable food items in the month of Ramadan, said Sana Tawfik, a senior analyst at Arif Habib Limited.

The market participants widely believe that average inflation for FY22 will remain double-digit, around 11% YoY. It is pertinent to mention here that Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin said on Wednesday last said no decline in the price-hike for the next three months.

FBR seeks income tax proposals for new budget ISLAMABAD staff RepoRt

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has sought income tax proposals for the Finance Bill 2022 from all the stakeholders.

“To benefit from the collective wisdom of all the stakeholders for improvement of tax policy, proposals are invited for the upcoming budget 2022-23,” said FBR in a notification while seeking income tax proposals for budget 2022-23.

The FBR has requested that the proposals may be provided by 25th February, 2022. The proposals may also be emailed in MS Word/Excel format, the FBR added. Earlier, the FBR had issued a letter to all Chambers of Commerce and Industry seeking customs-related budget proposals for 2022-23.

According to the FBR, the Board invites customs-related budget proposals for the year 2022-23. These proposals may cover three areas i.e. changes in Customs Tariff rates, Rules/Procedures and Customs Act, 1969.

The FBR has directed that input/suggestions in the following policy areas shall be highly appreciated in broadening the tax base for a wider participation in revenue generation efforts and taxation of real Income on progressive basis. The recommendations

should be related to the phasing out of tax concessions and exemptions and removal of tax distortions and anomalies.

The FBR has suggested that while formulating the proposals, provision of the existing customs tariff rates/law may carefully be studied/consulted.

Wherever required the proposal may be supported with the statistical data etc, so that it is not dropped on account of any such infirmity.

The federal government would present the annual budget for next fiscal year 2022-23 in the first week of June.

The ministries and divisions have been asked to submit proposed budget estimates of current and development expenditure by 15th March, 2022, whereas, budget review committee’ meetings will begin their process in the last week of March, 2022.

Six Gwadar uplift projects in the offing ISLAMABAD staff RepoRt

Six Gwadar development projects are in the offing and with the onset of 2022, China Overseas Port Holding Company (COPHC) has shifted Gwadar development into high gear. In this regard, COPHC officials held a concrete meeting with Secretary Planning and Development Mr. Abdul Aziz Uqaili at CBC Gwadar. Deputy General Manager of Gwadar Free Zone Company Jia Yong Hui presented a comprehensive briefing on the potential of Gwadar port and Free Zone and the planned projects to be undertaken by COPHC in the pursuit of development of Gwadar. Six proposed projects include establishment of 1.2 MGD desalination plant for Gwadar City, enhancing agricultural research in collaboration with tissue culture lab to augment Gwadar’s agricultural potential. Other projects are proposed including allocation of 10 acres of land in North Free Zone for cultivation of specific vegetation for commercial purpose, organization of Expo-2022, establishment of fish processing plants in South Free Zone to boost local production capacity. It will help raise their living standards, and development and industrialization of the North Free Zone, stimulating job creation for the locals, the report added.

Bhasha Dam: 267meter cableway bridge completes ISLAMABAD staff RepoRt

The construction of a 267-meter long temporary cableway bridge has been completed which will expedite the transportation of heavy machinery and construction materials across the Indus River to the Diamer Bhasha Dam Project (DBDP). According to the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), the bridge, which was completed the other day and will be officially inaugurated for transport shortly, can bear 80 tonnes of weight. “The cableway bridge on River Indus downstream will be used for the transportation from the left bank to the right bank for acceleration of construction activities on the Project,” according to WAPDA. Before the 267-meter long Cableway Bridge on River Indus downstream, three Cableway Bridges, upstream of Main Dam, are already operational for the transportation of heavy machinery and building materials. In April 2021, the dam’s cableway bridge-2 was made operational; the 205meter long Bridge-2 bridge is capable of carrying a total weight of 80 tons. In March 2021, the cableway bridge-3 on the Indus River was inaugurated for the transportation of construction materials and machinery. The contract for consultancy services for the project was awarded to Diamer Basha Consultants Group (DBCG). The DBCG’s JV comprises 12 top-ranked national and foreign consulting firms, including China Water Resources Beifang Investigation, Design and Research Company (China). These firms have a vast experience of providing consultancy services for mega water projects the world over.

The Diamer Basha Dam Project is being constructed on River Indus, which is scheduled to be completed in 2028-29.

Ban on govt borrowing from SBP to create difficulties: experts ISLAMABAD staff RepoRt

Pakistan’s top economic experts are of the view that prohibition on the government’s borrowing from the central bank under the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Amendment Bill 2021 will create practical difficulties.

However, they said the bill is a step in the right direction because the SBP should have full independence in the formation of monetary policy and exchange rate adjustments to avoid economic losses.

Noted economist Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan told the media that lawmakers should play their role in the improvement of the bill.

He said, “Our country is running on deficits due to a big gap between revenue and expenditure. We collect less revenue than our expenditure. So, we are in deficit every month. In these circumstances, if the government will not be able to borrow from the SBP then it will be forced to borrow from the commercial banks.”

Due to this factor, commercial banks will not lend to the private sector which will suffer as a consequence,” he said.

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However, Dr. Sajid Amin Javed, Chief of the Policy Lab from Sustainable Development Institute (SDPI), said that the bill is a step in the right direction but pushing it through legislation under the pressure of IMF conditions will distort its effectiveness.

“It will hurt the credibility of the central bank and monetary policy further. Therefore, a broad-based debate on the bill is required,” he said.

He added that SBP should be free from any political influence and it should have full independence in the formation of monetary policy and exchange rate adjustments because the government’s intervention causes economic losses.

The government has successfully managed to get the bill passed from the National Assembly. The bill will now be taken up by the Senate of Pakistan for further consideration before its final vote.

According to the contents of the bill, the SBP shall not extend any direct credits to or guarantee any obligations of the government, or any government-owned entity or any other public entity. The SBP shall not purchase se-

curities issued by the government or any government-owned entity or any other public entity on the primary market.

While highlighting the potential impacts of the bill, senior economist Dr. Kaiser Bengali said in a statement that after these amendments, banks (mostly foreign) will make windfall profits, government debt servicing will be further burdened by expensive private loans and people will be further crushed by inflation and unemployment.

The Ministry of Finance in its brief on the bill said that the amendments being proposed are in line with international best practices and also take into account the ground realities in Pakistan.

It said that by facilitating domestic economic stability, the amendments will help support sustainable growth and avoid repeated booms and busts that have characterised Pakistan’s past and led to painful consequences in terms of higher inflation, higher poverty and slow growth. Overall, the amendments balance the provision of necessary operational and financial autonomy to the bank with new mechanisms for enhancing transparency and strengthening accountability.

Monday, 31 January, 2022 | KARACHI

NEWS Qureshi urges SC to take note of Rana Sana’s ‘irresponsible statement’ about judiciary continued from page 01 About recent incidents of terrorism, the foreign minister said the Afghan government clearly stated that its soil would not be used for terrorism. He, however, observed that some spoilers wanted to create instability in the region. About PM Imran Khan’s visit to China, Qureshi informed that a delegation led by Prime Minister Imran Khan would visit China to express solidarity with the Chinese government for the winter Olympics as some countries boycotted the mega event. “Pakistan is a strategic partner of China, said FM. “China has a very clear viewpoint and always supported Pakistan on the Kashmir issue,” he said.

Commenting on the Sindh government’s local bodies legislation, Qureshi stated that all the political parties — including PDM and Opposition — were not satisfied with the amendments made by PPP’s Sindh government.

15 Pakistani start-ups among 40 firms to participate in Saudi LEAP iSLamaBad staff report

Forty Pakistani companies including 15 start-ups will exhibit their potential at a global technology conference, LEAP, being organised by Saudi Arabia from February 1-3 in Riyadh.

Azhar Ali Dahar, minister (trade and investment) at the Pakistan Embassy in Riyadh, said this on Sunday, adding, “This is the first time Pakistani companies will be arriving in Saudi Arabia in a big way since the focus of these firms has traditionally remained on Europe, the United States and Canada.” He said that the Pakistani trade mission in Riyadh will set up two pavilions at the event in collaboration with the Pakistan Software Houses Association, Pakistan Software Export Board, Ministry of IT & Telecom and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan. He said the trade mission wants Pakistani companies to explore huge opportunities in the information technology sector of the kingdom which was poised to experience huge growth under Saudi Vision 2030. “We have been seeking Pakistani companies, other than those selling food and traditional items, to target the Saudi market and information technology was always considered to be one of the potential sectors,” Dahar said. “We are confident that Pakistani IT firms will benefit from Saudi Vision 2030 which will allow the kingdom to invest more than $400 billion in various sectors.” He said the Pakistani portion of the exhibition would be inaugurated by the Ambassador to the Saudi Arabia Lt Gen (retd) Bilal Akbar. The trade mission is also planning to organise a networking meet-up at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce in collaboration for Pakistani and Saudi companies, industry leaders and investors to engage in information exchange and business matchmaking.

Ignite CEO Asim Shahryar Husain, talking about the event last week, said, “It is a proud moment for Pakistan, MoITT, Ignite and our NICs that 12 NIC startups will be participating in LEAP 2022. It will provide a global platform to Pakistani startups to pitch their business ideas and products to foreign investors. 2021 was a great year for Pakistan startups where investment grew by 5 times over 2020 and 2022 looks even better.”

One NIC startup named “MyTM” had participated in a similar event at GITEX 2021 and had won the first prize in the “Creative Economy” category of Supernova challenge. This opened new networking opportunities for MyTM to expand further and to raise investment from foreign investors. “This is the benefit of participation in international events because it provides exposure to our startups and creates new networking and investment opportunities for them” said the CEO. The 12 NIC startups which will be participating in LEAP from 1st to 3rd February include ExpertFlow (Healthtech), Mapalytics (AR/VR), Stech (AI), Exbid (Shared economy), Student1stop (Edtech), TB-AI (Healthtech), BizB (Ecommerce), Smart Helmet (Cleantech), Asani.io (AI/Big data), Hukum Janab (Services), Mytm (Fintech), and Arm Rehab Technologies (Healthtech).

As many as 350 speakers from 80 countries, as well as 700 innovators and start-ups from around the world with 40,000 local and international visitors will participate in the conference.

PSP AnnounCES SiT-in AgAinST SinDh’S Lg LAW AfTER Ji ConCLuDES PRoTEST

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HE Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) on Saturday announced to stage a sit-in against the Sindh Local Government Act 2021, two days after the JI had ended its 29 day-long protest over the same law.

PSP Chairman Mustafa Kamal made the announcement during a rally, which he had called against the controversial law. Scores of party workers and supporters had reached Fawara Chowk on his call.

“We have decided to not stage a protest outside the Chief Minister House. We will now stage a sit-in here.

I will continue the sit-in even if I am left alone,” Kamal said, who has also served as Karachi’s mayor in the past.

Kamal claimed a Sindh govern-

ment delegation had accepted 70% of his demands a week earlier, but it was not enough. “This is not a matter of my ego, this is an issue of right and

wrong.”

The PSP chairman said he would “force the Sindh government to accept all the lawful demands which would

PPP lawmakers call for punishment of disloyal senators A number of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) lawmakers want their leadership to take action against these senators who had supported Yousuf Raza Gilani at the time of his nomination as the opposition leader and caused a rift within the opposition’s alliance, after getting “ditched” for a second time in less than three months by a “group of six independents” sitting on the opposition benches in the Senate.

“The parties in the opposition must carry out a purge of the soft-atheart members and those senators who sit on the opposition benches but vote for the treasury,” said PPP Senator Raza Rabbani in a statement on Saturday, a day after the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government narrowly managed to get the crucial State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill passed from the opposition-controlled Senate.

“Yesterday (Friday) was a collective day of shame for the parliament, in particular the Senate, when it passed a document of surrender, a document which financially makes Pakistan a colony of the international donors and imperialists,” said Mr Rabbani.

“The history and future generations of Pakistan will not forgive us — the parliamentarians for this act,” he said.

According to Mr Rabbani, it was also a sad day as it once again saw the opposition in the Senate crumbled, despite having a majority.

“This joke has gone far enough,” he said in an apparent reference to the six independent senators led by Dilawar Khan, who had been sitting on the opposition benches, but always voted for the government.

Despite having a clear majority in the 100-member Senate, the opposition on Friday failed to prevent the passage of the controversial SBP bill which was passed with a

mere one-vote majority. At least eight opposition senators, including opposition leader Yusuf Raza Gilani, skipped the session, while at least four members of the Dilawar Khan-group voted in favour of the government bill.

The opposition had earlier faced a similar defeat on four bills in the Senate on November 19 when members of the same independents’ group had voted in support of the government.

The six independent senators elected in 2018 had been sitting on the treasury benches before Senate elections in March last year and all of a sudden they submitted an application to the Senate chairman seeking allocation of seats on the opposition benches.

They later through a letter to the Senate chairman supported Mr Gilani for the opposition leader’s office for which the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had already nominated Azam Nazeer Tarar.

Five members of this group were enjoying privileges as chairmen of various committees which they got on the opposition’s quota as a reward for their support to Mr Gilani.

Interestingly, all these independents had voted for Mr Sanjrani in the elections, only days before their decision to sit on the opposition benches.

Other members of the independents’ group are Ahmed Khan, Kauda Babar and Naseebullah Bazai from Balochistan and Hidayatullah Khan and Hilalur Rehman from the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

During a heated exchange of arguments with PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in the National Assembly on June 30 last year, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had stated that it was the government which through its

six men had helped Mr Gilani get the opposition leader’s slot.

A number of PPP leaders now admit that it was a wrong decision of their leadership to get the support of the six independents and then facilitating the appointment of five of them as chairmen of the committees.

When other PPP lawmakers are expressing their views in their private conversations, outspoken Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar is the only party leader who is saying it openly that the party leadership should review its decision of seeking support of these senators.

The PPP leaders agree that the party cannot take any disciplinary action against these six independents as they are not bound to follow their directives, but the PPP leaders are unanimous in their demand that the opposition leader should at least write to the Senate chairman to allocate the chairmanship of the committees to these independents from the government quota so that the opposition could get the chairmanship of some more committees as per its share.

Opposition Leader Yousuf Raza Gilani, while commenting on the situation, had previously stated that the decision to seek the support of these independents had been made by the party with a “majority vote” and that any decision about the future relationship with these independents would also be made by the leadership.

Commenting on the opposition’s defeat in the Senate, Mr Khokhar regretted that there was a group of people who sat on the opposition benches but they never voted for the opposition on crucial occasions. He said these people came to the opposition-fold when they were to get some benefits and then they voted for the government to get benefits from it as well. News Desk

benefit the masses and the country.”

He told the rally’s participants that they would have to continue the sit-in “till the government meets their demands” and told them he brought his pillow and mattress along with him.

After this, he spread his mattress and sat on it; turning the rally into a protest.

The sit-in has been staged near Fawara Chowk.

According to the traffic police, Din Muhammad Wafai Road has been closed for traffic due to the sit-in.

The JI had on Friday announced to call off the sit-in after almost a month in Karachi as the negotiations with the Sindh government bore fruit in connection with the law governing the local governments. News Desk

Work on Kurram Tangi Dam expedited

iSLamaBad staff report

The construction work on the Kurram Tangi, a multipurpose dam under construction on the Kaitu River in North Waziristan, has been expedited to finish

by June 2023.

The dam would control floodwater and irrigate barren 35,000-acre land, and make the province self-sufficient in agricultural production.

According to an official of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), the dam would generate 84 megawatts of electricity and help to ensure food security by increasing agricultural production in the border region.

He said at present, water scarcity was the main problem in the area and this dam would bring a positive revolution in the life of millions of natives.

He said with the construction of the dam and utilisation of water, the share of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would not be affected.

The construction of the Kurram Tangi Dam is considered an important step towards the development of the agriculture sector in the province.

The water storage and seepage from the dam will also recharge the groundwater reservoirs and increase the groundwater level.

The project will bring socio-economic uplift of the people in the area by creating employment and business opportunities as it would greatly increase the development of fisheries in the area.

KP expedite action against unvaccinated people, violators of COVID SOPs KP’s district administration officials paid a surprise visit to different public places, including business centres, inter-district transport bus stops, as well as wedding halls to scrutinise people’s vaccination certificates.

In a bid to contain the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the province, the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has launched a crackdown against unvaccinated people as well as those found violating COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs).

The team also administered the second dose of the vaccine to partially vaccinated people, depending upon eligibility, at public transport terminals and markets.

As per the report, administrative officials visited wedding venues on Peshawar’s Ring Road to check the number of guests attending wedding functions was abiding by the orders of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

05

The district administrations also convinced the public to get booster doses to make themselves safe from the possible attack of Omicron, the new variant of coronavirus, the report said.

It is pertinent to note that Pakistan’s active COVID-19 case count stayed over the 100,000 mark for the second consecutive day, NCOC’s data showed Sunday morning, as the country’s positivity rate is again on the rise after a slight decline.

The stats issued by the NCOC suggested that 7,978 new infections were detected overnight after 64,016 diagnostic tests were conducted across Pakistan.

The new cases pushed the countrywide positivity ratio to 12.46% and the current number of active cases stand at 100,005.

Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases reported so far jumped to 1,417,991.

The first time Pakistan’s active case

count crossed the hundred thousand mark was on Saturday, when the country logged 104,095 cases, as per the NCOC. However, the tally was lowered as 12,019 patients suffering from COVID-19 recuperated overnight.

Meanwhile, 29 patients succumbed to coronavirus during the last 24 hours, taking the country’s COVID-19 death toll to 29,248.

The NCOC has extended coronavirus curbs in the country from January 31 till February 15, as thousands continue to contract the infection amid a spread of the Omicron variant.

The NCOC had imposed non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on January 19, which were to be reviewed on January 27 in light of the COVID-19 situation in the country.

The restrictions for the wedding sector were already imposed till Feb 15. News Desk

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06-07 Comments - 31st January 2022_Layout 1 1/30/2022 10:53 PM Page 1

Monday, 31 January, 2022

06 COMMENT

Inequality, economic recovery, and the pandemic

Qazi Faiz Isa case judgment Strictures passed on Law Minister deserve PM’s attention

T

HE majority judgment in the Justice Qazi Faez Isa case made clear once again the view that there could be no independence of judiciary without judges being protected from extraneous pressures. It was also stressed that the making available of the judge’s wife’s and children’s tax records to the Assets recovery unit was illegal. However, the strictures passed by Mr Justice Yahya Afridi, who wrote a separate concurring note, on PM’s Accountability Adviser Shehzad Akbar, and Law Minister Farogh Nasim, should give the Prime Minister reason to think hard. The Prime Minister has laid himself open to criticism by retaining these two. While Mr Akbar resigned a matter of days before the judgment was declared, Senator Nasim continues to occupy the office of Law Minister.

The purpose of the Assets recovery unit, which was Mr Akbar’s pet project, was highlighted, and its legality shown to be dubious, and outright non-existent, as far as its right to command tax records. The entire accountability process of the government, which has concentrated on opposition figures, some bureaucrats and some businessmen, but to no avail, has been thrown into doubt. Mr Justice Isa was subjected to the investigation, which included Supreme Judicial Council proceedings, after he had authored a judgment on the Faizabad dharna which had questioned the role of certain institutions.

However, though the government had come down on him very strongly, the initial judgment on the Supreme Court was followed by a review petition, which had initially given him relief, but in which the detailed judgment has now been issued.

Mr Akbar has already departed from the government, and now it is the turn of Mr Naseem. However, he is not a member of the Cabinet as Mr Khan’s party-man, but as a representative of an ally, the MQM (P). Some form of consultation before he was sacked would be required.

However, while the judgment does not call for action, it is difficult to see Mr Naseem continuing in office much longer. If Mr Khan has to retain him, he may find it expedient for him to move to another portfolio, for the Law Ministry to have enough interaction with the Supreme Court to make it untenable for the Minister in-charge to continue after the remarks passed. He himself should do the honorable thing even if Mr Khan has any coalition scruples.

Rich countries have exploited their positions

Dr Omer JaveD

‘O

ur malaise is inequality. Inequality of income is now a stronger indicator of whether you will die from COVID-19 than age. In 2021, millions of people died in poorer countries with scant access to vaccines as pharmaceutical monopolies, protected by rich countries, throttled their supply. We minted new vaccine billionaires on the backs of denying billions of people access to vaccines.’ – Excerpt from a recent Al Jazeera published article ‘The pandemic is birthing billionaires and killing the poor’ On the health side, inequality of access to vaccines on one side has led to inordinate inoculation levels between rich, advanced countries and developing countries, where the latter have received much less vaccines, while on the other, it has allowed new, and more potent covid mutations to appear. As a result, on the economic side, similar divergence has also followed, where rich, advanced countries, with much higher levels of inoculation, and at the back significantly greater level of stimulus injections, have fared far better in terms of economic recovery than the developing countries.

Having said that, the world as a whole continues to suffer at the back of both new virus mutations, and the bottlenecks it creates in smooth return to normal of demand and supply forces on the economic side. The recently released Global Economic Outlook (GEO) by International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised down its global growth forecast it made in its October 2021 report of GEO, for 2022 by 0.5 percent to 4.4 percent.

An argument that can rebound Comparing Kashmir and Xinjiang may not be the wisest thing

P

rIME MINISTEr Imran Khan’s comparison of the West’s reaction to the Indian treatment of Kashmiris and to the Chinese treatment of uighurs was probably not the wisest thing to do, for it merely showed how his government was behaving the same way.

He said that the West was ignoring Indian oppression of Kashmiris because of economic interests, while criticizing China for its treatment of the uighurs. It could be argued that while speaking about the plight of Kashmiris because of an animosity against India, he was whitewashing China for its treatment of uighurs because Pakistan too had economic interests it wanted to follow with China.

It is true that the West has maintained a silence over Kashmir while vociferously condemning China for its treatment of the uighurs of Xinjiang, but it cannot obscure the fact that the Chinese excesses in Xinjiang are well and copiously documented. Mr Khan in previous interviews has denied knowing about events in Xinjiang, but this is the first time he has actually tried denying that there is anything out of the ordinary in Xinjiang.

Mr Khan is a self-proclaimed champion of the Kashmir cause, and should realize that he is coding it no service by undermining his own credibility. If he insists on palpable untruths about Xinjiang, why should he expect to be believed about Kashmir? While Indian atrocities in Occupied Kashmir must be accepted by the whole world, including the West, Chinese excesses in Xinjiang must also be accepted by all, including Pakistan.

Otherwise, the charge that Pakistan is turning a nelson’s eye to what China is doing in Xinjiang, will not only stick, but be used to further strengthen India’s case for illegal occupation. This attempt to curry favour with China will be exploited by India as it tries to justify its own illegal occupation of Kashmir. Mr Khan may find his statement not just backfiring, but blowing up in his face.

A new tool lets the young make their presence felt KaLeemULLaH

S

INCE the dawn of the fourth industrial revolution, civilizations across the globe have come under the strain of complexities owing to a glaring phenomenon popularly known to the masses, especially to the youth bulge, as social media. With the whopping ratio of its carriers (users), particularly on account of the age from 12 to 30, this phenomenon is making the youth bulge angrier, meaner, and more aggressive.

Not only just that, but it has, in other words, become a pile of garbage. By this, is meant those with fake identities, bots, and the likes. It is vital to mention that the utilization of social media, so far, has not ended up bearing productive gifts for the masses. It has, however, made the identity of individuals vulnerable.

It may not bother someone if someone wills to modify the fourth industrial revolution with the digital revolution – which currently is in full swing. After the advent of tech-giants, mainly Facebook and Twitter, the dynamics of struggle as well as resistance against oppression, brutalization, injustice, and violence have dramatically changed. It is pertinent to point out that struggle and resistance have been part of civilizations before the invention of social media, but the form in which they were carried out was by paper or document, if one was to consider the media used. One must pay fervent gratitude to the Chinese for that. unlike previous societies’ struggle in the form of protests, where the role of men was prominent, the struggle of today is predominantly youth-driven. This segment of society across the globe belongs mostly to the middle class. This stratum knows full well how to channelize its potential to get its voice heard by the authorities concerned. Owing to this phenomenon, social media makes for an easy medium to hunt authorities and highlight issues of minuscule and gargantuan nature.

The wielding of this sword has become a commonplace against political intrigues, political patronage, judicial pitfalls, social and economic discrimination, religious fanaticism, human rights

Arif Nizami (Late) Founding Editor

Yousaf Nizami M. A. Niazi

Umar Aziz

Joint Editor

Joint Editor

Executive Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965

The writer holds PhD in Economics degree from the University of Barcelona, and previously worked at International Monetary Fund.Prior to this, he did MSc. in Economics from the University of York (United Kingdom), and worked at the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Statistics (Pakistan), among other places. He is author of Springer published book (2016) ‘The economic impact of International Monetary Fund programmes: institutional quality, macroeconomic stabilization and economic growth’.He tweets @omerjaved7

Social Media and youth protests

Dedicated to the legacy of late Hameed Nizami

Editor Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

The January 2022 update of GEO cited the following reasons for this downgrade: ‘The global economy enters 2022 in a weaker position than previously expected. As the new Omicron COVID-19 variant spreads, countries have reimposed mobility restrictions. rising energy prices and supply disruptions have resulted in higher and more broad-based inflation than anticipated, notably in the united States and many emerging market and developing economies. The ongoing retrenchment of China’s real estate sector and slower-than-expected recovery of private consumption also have limited growth prospects.’

A world suffering from rising inequality as a whole during many decades of Neoliberalism, has only seen it exacerbate during the pandemic, at the back of vaccine nationalism, strong extractive institutional designs in general in countries, and weak multilateral response, especially by World Trade Organization (WTO) in terms of inability to wave off Covid related intellectual property rights (IPrs).

Citing the recently released report by Oxfam ‘Inequality kills: the unparalleled action needed to combat unprecedented inequality in the wake of Covid-19’, the same ‘Al Jazeera’ article highlighted the consequences of inequality that resulted from the already perpetuated neoliberal world over many decades, as follows: ‘Billionaire wealth, for example, has risen more since the pandemic began than in the previous 14 years combined. The IMF, World Bank, Crédit Suisse, and World Economic Forum (WEF) all project a spike in inequality within countries. The super-rich are having a great pandemic. So much of the trillions of dollars, pumped by central banks into financial markets to save economies, have ended up in the pockets of billionaires riding a stock market boom, while the surge in monopoly power, growing privatisation, the erosion of workers’ rights and wealth and corporate tax rate and labour market liberalisation have continued in full speed. In parallel, billions of people face the impact of deepening inequality. In some countries, the poorest people have been nearly four times more likely to die from COVID-19 than the richest.’

Inequality seems to also have increased the incidence of corruption in many developing countries, which continue to suffer from the ravages of lack of vaccine supply, and high levels of inflation. Discussing the recently released report by Transparency International titled ‘Corruption Perceptions Index 2021’, an Economist article ‘Corruption is getting worse in many poor countries’ pointed out in this regard as follows: ‘Most of the world scores poorly in Transparency In-

ternational’s annual corruption index. … In the latest ranking, released on January 25th, almost 70% of countries score below 50 [where a score of 100 indicates ‘very clean’]. Poor countries tend to do worse than rich ones, partly because poverty makes corruption worse and partly because corruption makes poverty worse.’

Oxfam’s report on inequality pointed out in this regard that ‘The wealth of the world’s 10 richest men has doubled since the pandemic began. The incomes of 99% of humanity are worse off because of COVID-19.

Widening economic, gender, and racial inequalities – as well as the inequality that exists between countries—are tearing our world apart. This is not by chance, but choice: “economic violence” is perpetrated when structural policy choices are made for the richest and most powerful people. This causes direct harm to us all, and to the poorest people, women and girls, and racialized groups most. Inequality contributes to the death of at least one person every four seconds.’

And reducing inequality is not only important for the current pandemic, but others that God forbid may follow. With regard to this a recent article ‘Bill Gates warns of pandemics potentially far worse than Covid’ in Financial Times (FT) pointed out ‘Bill Gates has issued a warning of pandemics far worse than Covid-19 as he called on governments to contribute billions of dollars to prepare for the next global outbreak. The philanthropist said that while the Omicron and Delta variants of coronavirus were some of the most transmissive viruses ever seen, the world could have had to face a pathogen causing a far higher rate of fatalities or severe disease.’

It is, therefore, important that unduly appeasing domestic voter base is avoided, and the element of greed does not dictate profit margins, if the world has to reduce the dire consequences of inequality. Moreover, a far better multilateral spirit needs to be cultivated, along with formulating a financial architecture and meaningful government intervention/regulation regime, to overall reduce inequality, and in turn reach greater inclusivity, and sustainability, both in terms of health consequences, economic recovery, and political stability.

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Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

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abuses, child abuse, domestic violence, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, land mafia, tribal scuffles, structural embezzlement, interstate conflicts, and discriminatory and oppressive laws.

Startling it may seem, but there are some examples deemed fit to the aforementioned menaces. In the pattern of citing examples, stands the Arab Spring first.

At the fag end of the 21st century’s first decade, Tarik Al-Tayeb, a Tunisian citizen, set himself on fire upon being wrongly jailed by the Tunisian police and beaten for no earthly reason in the very least. This sparked wide protests in Yemen, Syria, Egypt, and Libya with the hope to topple oppressive regimes. It was social media that helped the movement gain global attention.

The majority of protestors were youth. Starting from Tunisia, the movement ended with the toppling of Ghadafi, Morsi, and Ben Ali. It was the youth who challenged the authorities, and thanks to social media the movement came to fruition at last for some nations.

The second in the list of examples is the popular Chilean women protest in 2019 against sexual harassment. The movement started off in Chile and reached the far corners of Berlin, London, Mexico, New York, Paris, and Barcelona. With the help of social media, the movement became global. The young women demonstrated for their fellows in Chile and stood in solidarity with them.

The third in the list of examples is Pulwama Attack in Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan and by the Indian Air Force in February 2019. In the aftermath of the attacks, social media was engulfed with jingoism for a limited nuclear war. The youth on either side of the border were engaged in jingoistic conversation for a month over the intrusion. Youth in war situations are an extremely vicious lot. Patriotism indubitably knows no boundary between ethics and law.

The fourth in the list of examples is recently organized protests in Gwadar, Balochistan. The onemonth-long protest, unfortunately, did not get any national mainstream coverage. There were civil society organizations, human rights activists, and youth activists who took the mantle for the cause of Gwadar via social media and, at last, the CM of Balochistan bothered to tend to the wounds of the masses.

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

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In a few exceptional cases, the youth bulge is prone to political manipulation in the form of reciprocal altruism. This practice occurs when the elections are near. under the garb of reciprocal altruism, the youth bulge is abysmally exploited. This section is told to launch a social media campaign by politicians against their rivals in elections. This way they are clouded by uncertainty.

The above have chalked out two aspects of social media and youth protest behaviour as per historical and contemporary case studies. Now let’s critically analyze what is pounded out above.

Social Media is undoubtedly a gigantic platform with numerous dribs and drabs attached. If it is associated with youth and protest behaviour, it becomes convoluted. Psychologically, studies have discovered that humans are driven by emotions rather than by logic and rationality. On account of social media and the youth protest behaviour, it is critically important that the individual (user) ought to be media-literate and must have knowledge about human behaviour. With both secured, the youth can sift through situations rationally and develop their independent protest behaviour Had Pakistanis and Indians been media literate and well-equipped with certain traits of ethics, they would not have acted out of jingoism for military solutions. It is essential to point out that political chicanery spoils youth protest behaviour. By using cyber tactics, politicians threaten theyouth bulge with multiple threats owing to their and family security. The youth bulge can churn out productive outcomes in relation to protest behaviour regarding political, social, economic, mental, problems across the globe if managed and sensitized properly and rationally.

Chronicles in comparison with social media and the youth behaviour paints a sorry picture of their relation. Like a wedding couple, they experience fortnight scuffles from time to time. After some time, they make up and the placid environment prevails. But if it keeps going on like that, they might divorce one another in the end. Long story short, understanding either of the elements critically and logically will make their relation prosperous. In other words, the youth bulge will have to understand the nature and potential of social media in order to conform with it thereof.

The writer can be contacted khosokalimullah2016@gmail.com

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

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06-07 Comments - 31st January 2022_Layout 1 1/30/2022 10:53 PM Page 2

Monday, 31 January, 2022

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

National Disaster Management Authority A report has been given on the traumatic death of 23 citizens, who died stranded on a snow-covered road in a habited area of Murree, where thousands of state employees, both civil and uniformed are posted, equipped with the paraphernalia required at hill station where snowfall, rains, landslides and tree uprooting etc. occurs every year. The report seems to be an eyewash because it fails to identify whether the 2 km road adjacent to Kuldina, where citizens were stranded in their vehicles was under civil administration or cantonment executive board. It also fails to point out the role of NDMA created to provide relief and rescue in such disasters, in coordination with PDMA and all other state institutions.

Giving Murree the status of a Tehsil or District or even a division will only provide jobs for a few, but will not serve any other purpose.

It was an avoidable tragedy if all the state-funded organisations, based there had coordinated to prevent a disaster that occurred because of the sheer incompetence and arrogance of those responsible to serve and protect people whose taxes fund their salaries, perks etc.

The snow removing equipment existed but was either unserviceable or did not have fuel and drivers required to operate them. The NDMA was established in 2007 to formulate policies for crisis management and provide relief and rescue in disaster-stricken areas all over the country, instead of being reduced to another state organisation providing jobs to retired personnel who cannot be held accountable. rescue and relief Operations are specialized skills that can be acquired by recruiting qualified personnel given extensive training. An audit must be carried out. unless those responsible for criminal negligence are given exemplary punishments, dismissed from service, followed by imprisonment after a judicial process, such disasters will continue to occur.

ALI MALIK TARIQ LAHORE

Why China will face hurdles to surpass the US hegemony The USA has still got a lot of advantages

Kawsar UDDin maHmUD

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HILE ukraine is envisaging a ‘very likely’ invasion BY russia, and Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific countries are experiencing a dire threat from China’s expansionist drive, it is very arduous to draw a line in defending the uS’ hegemony.

In retrospect, since the 1970s, depending on the revolutionary reformations of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, China has been competent to substantiate its economic prowess. It has given rise to a ‘hope’ in Xi Jinping’s TENurE to taste the palatable crown of a world hegemonic role. Though this impetuous economic elevation happened, in contrast, facts exhibit China is still far behind in this race while the uS’ maturity of the hegemonic role is well-palpable.

In the race of ‘Hare and Tortoise’, despite the win of Tortoise that makes people believe in his competency, it is rare to discern people petting a tortoise in their homes like rabbits or hares. The uS hegemony is worldwide accepted for its outward-looking and transparent structure based on open government, open economic system and transparent administrative procedures and foreign policy.

It is more democratic and people enjoy a total right of participation in the policy formulation that usually attracts other countries to get engaged with it. While the Eastern lion is fully based on a closed governmental system, less participant, less democratic and dubious foreign policy, the Western lion is more open and reliable. The case of Hambantota port in Sri Lanka proved that China is still lacking the competency of gaining others’ fidelity.

The People’s Liberation Army intends to intensify the military capacity and increase the weight of numbers but the uSA has diversified financial and technological advantages. Although the PLA is taking different measurements and is in the function of making its armours and warheads intelligent, using modern

technology, the uSA is far ahead of China. In the South China Sea, the uSA is ramping up support for Taiwan that would cause a ticklish defeat for China to the cutting-edge uS technology and military advancement.

By far, the uSA is the world’s biggest spender on its military. In the 2020 fiscal year, according to Stockholm International Peace research Institute, the uS military expenditure is estimated at $778 billion, accounting for 39 percent of global military expenditure, while China’s is estimated at $252 billion securing the second position in this race. A recent study shows, the uSA’s military expenditure for the 2021 fiscal year is estimated at $705 billion while China’s is $209 billion.

The Eastern lion, however, has more manpower, ground forces and naval power in numbers but they are extensively lacking cutting-edge intelligent capabilities. Considering the airpower, nuclear warheads and missiles, the uSA having the lead in modern information technology is still the nonpareil.

Engaging China in the WTO and abrogating all the trade barriers are deemed remarkable failures of the Bill Clinton government, in the present context. Trump and Biden were astute enough to keep sanctions up in continuity of the trade war since 2018. However, having no suspicion, China’s economy is one of the robust economies in the world. Scholars reckon China will be the world’s largest economy surpassing the uSA, by 2029 to 2033.

According to the estimate of the World Bank, in 1960, China’s total GDP was approximately 11 percent of the uSA’s, which, in 2019, is surprisingly 67 percent . By 2010, China had become the world’s second-largest economy.

IMF data exhibits the uS as a persistently unrivalled competitor in the nominal GDP. The uSA’s nominal GDP in 2021 is $20.49 trillion while China’s is $13.4 trillion. In PPP estimates, China is securing a potent position in the list.

Despite China’s PPP success and remarkable persuasion of the BrI project in recent years, it could not have attained reliable trust from the others; rather it has given rise to fear and volatility among the correlated countries. The more China’s entrance into the WTO was applauded, the more its BrI and debt trap was criticized. This vague economic politics has been a conundrum for the Asian and other countries after Sri Lanka envisaged a dodgy economic debt trap in the Hambantota port issue.

For many scholars, BrI is a new tool of imperialism that will let China lose its acceptance to a considerable extent.

Providing international students with lucrative scholarships and monetary aid is on+e of the uSA’s ideological successes so far. When the meritorious students from the developing countries face a situation of ‘after meat comes mustard,’ their merits get stuck with uncertainty for the future. In this respect, the uSA has a long legacy of aiding and gaining the merits of international students. To be said rhetorically, the

Honouring Dr Parveen Rehman

uSA sells arms but buys merit.

A study of the Fulbright Commission shows, beyond scholarships to the internal students, more than 600 American universities offer scholarships to international students that are worth $20,000 or more. According to the OECD, in 2019, the uSA has spent more than $612 billion in r&D expenditure while China spent $514 billion. In the 2021 fiscal year, the uAS invested $142.2 billion in Federal r&D insisting on the development of Science, Technology, artificial intelligence, and so on.

Despite both countries’ considerable spending in r&D being neck and neck, the uSA’s ideological gain from the scholarship is more robust than any other country. The uSA, however, got competent to establish its capitalist reign in the developing countries through the soft power of scholarship to which China is still aspiring.

Since the early phase of organizational emergence in the Western hemisphere during the 19th and 20th centuries, the uSA has been the epicentre of all key roles. The significant role of the uSA in international organisations had begun to be palpable after the Fourteen Points, an idealist approach of Woodrow Wilson on the framework of bringing peace and organizing international institutions, made in 1918. Even at this contemporary time, the key roles of the uS dominance in the uN, World Bank, WTO, WHO, IMF, ILO and many other organisations, was noticed. All are widely known for Americentrism.

China, however, strived to strengthen its influence in global governance through the strategic roles in the BrICS and ADB despite their limited persuasion and the net of regionalism. This Eastern lion is extremely struggling in the race of acquiring sturdy supremacy. The uSA, in this case, is incomparably dominating the world.

To conclude, despite China’s shortcomings in these core areas, it is weighed as the most peer competitor to the uSA. China is notably appearing as the biggest rival of the uSA and giving rise to fear in the minds of American think tanks of losing dominance. The fear of loss seems to be indomitable from several perspectives since the uSA, at the same time, is worried about ukraine and Taiwan (Indo-Pacific). Therefore, China and russia have been reckoned as the closest likely allies against the uSA in the upcoming days.

The potential of the uSA in tackling diverse political pressures single-handedly is wellknown throughout the world. The only thing that can make the uS lose its dominance in the race is its internal turmoil. To this respect, the Capitol Hill issue hinted at the gruesome tiding of a military coup. Who could augur that?

Along with the covid-19 management issue, the internal threat of the right-wing uproar and a national debt of $28.9 trillion, the Biden administration will face a dire mass disquiet about confronting China through the Indo-Pacific Strategy and russia over the ukraine issue.

The writer can Kawsarduir@gmail.com

be

reached

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GOOGLE Doodle has honoured Dr Parveen rehman on her 65th birthday.

She was a lady of courage, bravery and a brilliant architect and urban planner. She was born on 22 January 1957 in Dhaka, East Pakistan now Bangladesh. She belonged to a Bihari family, which moved to Karachi in 1971 during the civil war in East Pakistan following a debacle of Dhaka.

Parveen rehman joined the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) in 1983 as a joint director and after its split, she became the director of OPP in 1988.

Her efforts are countless in research and training, education, youth training, water supply and secure housing. Dr rehman also worked as a social activist and in 1989 she founded an NGO; urban resource Centre.

She had a number of publications and works on some critical subjects of concern- including community working, katchi abadis and their smooth functioning, issues in water supply and managed urbanization. Her notable work is with prominent architect Mr Arif Hussain in 2008 named as “Lessons from Karachi”. She was honoured with Sitara-i-Shujaat conferred by then President of Pakistan Mr Asif Ali Zardari on 23 March 2013. She raised a strong voice against the mafia of the city and her works are commendable for the betterment of the crippled infrastructure of Karachi. She was assassinated on 13 March 2013 in Karachi. Dr rehman was considered as a sign of deterrence for mafias- land, water, and for their political bigwigs. Verily, she was a lady of knowledge and her tireless efforts are laudable, which will have been remembered always.

ENGR ASAD JABBAR HYDERABAD

Ban earphones EArS are a big blessing from Allah Almighty but we are destroying them by the excessive usage of wired earphones or wireless earphones. Wireless earphones are more dangerous because they consist of rays that can affect our ear and internal organs. Hearing songs loudly using earphones is damaging to our hearing capacity. Youth nowadays have damaged hearing capacity and when they get older they might have a chance to lose their remaining hearing capacity. Our grandfathers and grandmothers had sharp hearing capacities because they don’t use earphones excessively. Earphones not only reduce our hearing capacity but also our mind gets used to it. We did not enjoy hearing the songs on loudspeakers through earphones. As we get used to earphones we play songs with high volume when we use speakers because the low volume doesn’t give us the same feelings as that of earphones. The government should spread awareness of the drawbacks of using earphones, especially among the youth so that our youth will enjoy the real taste of the blessing things given by Allah Almighty.

MOHAMMAD ABDULLAH ISLAMABAD

Austerity THE word “austerity” refers to moderate economic conditions created by the government to reduce public expenditure. The first austerity measures were introduced in the uK in late 2008.

Pakistan is a developing country where the dire need for austerity cannot be overemphasized. Austerity measures act like contractionary fiscal policy. It slows down the economic growth which makes it even more difficult to raise revenue which is needed to pay off sovereign debt.

The austerity measures circular issued following the Federal Budget for the financial year 2020-21 is pretty short. It bans the purchase of new cars, motorcycles and other vehicles, it also uses paper on both sides to maximize the usage of official stationery.

Neither there are restrictions, nor actions taken against antagonists to austerity measures who are leading corridors of power at national and provincial levels. While talking about austerity measures none other but PTI chairman/Prime Minister Imran Khan following a free, fair and transparent general elections in July 2018 vowed to set an example of austerity in the utilization of public funds by the Prime Minister’s house and Prime Minister’s office. Pakistan is already under a heavy dose of inflation where low economic growth and internal state affair have been posing threat to its prosperity. Adoption of austerity measures may solely cause economical catastrophe that surely will invest in poverty.

SAJID ALI NAICH KHAIRPUR

08 WORLD VIEW 31st January 22_Layout 1 1/30/2022 9:59 PM Page 1

Monday, 31 January, 2022

08 WORLD VIEW

WheN DeBTs BecoMe uNpayaBle, They shoulD Be foRgIveN FOR CENTURIES, DEBT AND INDEBTEDNESS HAVE HAD PROFOUNDLY DESTABILIZING EFFECTS ON HUMAN SOCIETIES. IN THE ANCIENT WORLD, RULERS AND THEIR SUBJECTS HAD A SOLUTION: KNOWN AS A DEBT JUBILEE, IT INVOLVED A PERIODIC, UNCONDITIONAL WIPING OUT OF DEBT

JacobIN MagazINe bRAnko mARcetic

BM: You make the case that our modern relationship with and understanding of debt is unique when you look at the full scope of human history.

What was ancient societies’ relationship to debt and how did they keep it in check?

MH: Almost all debt, in really ancient society, was interpersonal, what the Europeans called weregild-type debt. If you injured somebody, if you break an arm, or if you kill them, there are two choices ancient society had: either you had a feud, and your family would fight his family, or he’d make restitution, and you would settle the conflict. gradually, the payment of the weregild, whether it was in money — or if it was really serious, it would be in slave girls or cattle — came to be the word for debt, and for the offense, or the word for “sin.”

So the original meaning of the Lord’s Prayer in hebrew and greek was, “Forgive us our debts.”

In Mesopotamia, an agrarian economy, most debts began to be owed to the palace or the temples. obligations were paid throughout the year. In the third millennium Sumer, or second millennium Babylonia, if you go to a bar during the crop year, you’d run up a tab to the alehouse, and to the palace for advances of animals, water, or agricultural inputs, and everything was done by credit. the debts would all be paid on the threshing floor, in grain, and a unit of grain was equal to a unit of silver.

But sometimes, you would have a crop failure, or war, or drought, and you couldn’t pay. And at that time, like in the laws of hammurabi, you’d say, “If the storm god, hadad, comes and ruins the crops, then the debts don’t have to be paid.” this is how society worked, basically, in the third, second, and even into the first millennium. When a new ruler took the throne, or when there were other reasons — a war was over, or there was any reason for a debt cancellation — you’d cancel the debts, you’d liberate the debt servants to go back to their families, you’d give them back the pledges that they’d made. Because what would happen if you hadn’t wiped out the debts? All of a sudden all these people that owed debts would become the servants of the person who they owed them to, a wealthy person.

BM: You also make the case that this matter is at the heart of the Biblical stories we think we’re familiar with.

MH: that was what the first sermon of Jesus was all about. When he went to the synagogue and unrolled the scroll of Isaiah the prophet and said, “I’ve come to proclaim the year of the Lord,” which was the debt cancellation — the Jubilee year — that was brought in from

Babylonia into Judaism, as it was done all through the Near East. People who translated the Bible didn’t really know what these words meant. What does it mean, “year of the Lord?” What does it mean, “deror?,” which was debt cancellation.

It was only after Assyriologists began to find out how all of Near Eastern society had debt cancellation, just like anthropologists were finding that all the way from the Native American Indians to European realms, you’d have this practice of restoring balance. the idea was, how do we prevent society from destabilizing and polarizing? You cancel the debts.

BM: How did this attitude to debt and debt cancellation change?

MH: there was no concept of interest in in the West, in all of the Linear B documents of greece, from about 1600 to 1200 BC. Around the eighth century BC, the idea of interest-bearing debt appeared for the first time, and local chieftains all of a sudden became what a number of historians call mafia families. they found a way of just monopolizing the land, until about the seventh and sixth centuries. there were revolutions all over by reformers, all over greece, and Italy, and reformers later were called “tyrants.” the whole fight of every early society was: how do you prevent the population from falling into bondage? the palaces had a reason for doing this. If you would have the taxpaying small cultivators owing their crop to the creditor and having to go to work on the creditor’s land instead of working as a corvee, building palace walls and digging ditches for irrigation — if you would have these people fall in debt to the creditors, they wouldn’t be able to pay this crop surplus and labor surplus to the palace anymore. the creditors would take over. rulers throughout the Near East, all the way into probably the early kings of rome, said, “the one thing we’ve got to do is prevent the creditor class from becoming an independent oligarchy. Because if it becomes independent of us, and it gets the economic surplus, they’re going to use this labor to hire an army, they’re going to overthrow us, and they’re going to become the state.”

So you always had a struggle between the state protecting society from the creditor class — the oligarchy — and the oligarchy wanting to be independent, wanting not to have a debt cancellation. And this was a fight that went on for four centuries before Jesus’s time. the early Christians were basically advocates of the Jubilee year, trying to cancel debt.

BM: How did debt and the rising power of creditors figure in the tumult of Roman history?

MH: In rome, the wrong kings were overthrown in about 509 BC by an oligarchy, who essentially wanted to reduce the rest of the roman population to serfdom. the whole republic was a long set of one revolt after another after another, wanting a debt cancellation and redistribution of land. All of this was called a democracy.

A democracy to the oligarchy means all the creditors are equal, and therefore liberty is the liberty to enslave the rest of the population.

Democracy throughout antiquity meant serfdom for most of the population. Aristotle was very clear on this. he said, “Many cities have constitutions that appear to be democracies, but they’re really oligarchies.” And in fact, every democracy, Aristotle wrote, tends to turn into an oligarchy, as wealthy people get rich, and then the oligarchy makes itself into a hereditary aristocracy, and lords it over the rest of society.

You had this whole background that led to the modern world, which had stopped the tradition of debt cancellation that had liberated populations from debt bondage, and what became serfdom. And it was on the idea that the law is inexorable. the historians now say, “Well, boy, the roman Empire wasn’t all that bad — look at how rich it got.” But the richness was all concentrated in the 1 percent of the population and the 99 percent ended up being tied down to the land. If you read the late books of the New testament, all the way through to the book of revelation, it’s all about, “We’re living in the end times, it’s terrible, rome is the beast, there’s no hope here. We can’t reform land. We can’t cancel the debts ever because of the greed of the rich. there’s nothing to do but become martyrs and die and hope that in the next world, things are going to be better, and maybe Jesus is going to come back.” the whole idea was anti-roman.

Every economy is going to be planned by someone. the question is, is it going to be planned by the creditors, as it has happened today? or are you going to have a government, a ruler, that is going to say, “My job is to keep society stable, and to prevent it from polarizing so that we can survive and be resilient and go forward?” the creditors don’t care about resilience. their time frame is rather short.

BM: What are the implications of this for the post-pandemic recovery, given we live in such highly indebted societies?

MH: the tendency of any economy that has an interest-bearing debt is the debt growing faster than the

‘No-go’ Muslim areas aren’t real – but Islamophobia is

INdepeNdeNt

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AishA Rimi

t’S another day and another reminder that Islamophobia is rife in this country. A university of Birmingham survey published earlier this week revealed that not only are Muslims the third least-liked group in the uK, after the gypsy and Irish traveller communities, but also that more than one in four – and nearly half of Conservative and Leave voters – hold conspiratorial views about Sharia “no-go areas”.

Now, I was hardly surprised that Muslims like myself make up one of the least popular communities in the uK – the only surprise being that we didn’t take the number-one spot. But this idea that “Sharia nogo areas” exist in this country is a narrative that needs to come to a swift end.

It’s not the first time the idea of these

insidious no-go zones for non-Muslims in the uK has been a part of public discussion. Just last year, the Daily Mail published an online article claiming that “parts of Blackburn are ‘no-go areas’ for white men, while ultra-orthodox parents in Bradford make children live under taliban-like rules”.

In the same article, areas of Didsbury, Bradford and Dewsbury were also described as places where white people lived in fear, afraid they would experience racial violence from the supposed overwhelming Muslim population.

Just to clarify, the 2011 census showed that Didsbury West was 84.1 per cent white and 5.8 per cent Muslim, while Didsbury East was 77.9 per cent white and 9.18 per cent Muslim. So make of those claims what you will. the Daily Mail ran another similar story in 2014, where the chief inspector of constabulary said that “parts of the uK are becoming no-go areas for police because minority communities are operating their own justice systems”.

Statements like these are what fuels negative views about Islam and Muslims.

I know there are also plenty of other factors, but to see such stories continuously perpetuated and to see the effects of it on our society’s thinking is worrying.

Sharia law is widely misunderstood in this country – for starters, it isn’t really a “law”, more a code of conduct for how Muslims should live an Islamic life, de-

rived from the Quran and the rulings of Islamic scholars.

Sharia councils do exist in the uK and have done so since the early 1980s, but they exist mostly to guide couples through marriage problems and to deal with divorce and inheritance issues. however, the councils do not have the ability to override uK law. one teaching under Sharia law is that we must obey the law of the land in which we live – so Muslims trying to impose our own Islamic “laws” in the uK would simply go against our beliefs. the problem is, we don’t take the miseducation about Islam seriously in this country. Ludicrous statements run on our front pages, but there continues to be a lack of government response to such claims.

Keeping quiet on issues of Islamophobia and not taking any real stand shows me and the rest of the British Muslim population that our elected leaders do not take threats to our religion seriously. otherwise, why not debunk these factual errors that keep popping up year on year? there is nowhere in the uK that operates under Sharia law.

Britain’s three million Muslims make up 5.6 per cent of the uK population.

Very few parts of the country have large Muslim populations, and if some people are fearful of entering areas that we occupy, that says more about them and their prejudice towards Muslims rather than the Muslim population itself.

Michael Hudson is a former economist for Chase Manhattan Bank and advisor to various governments, including Washington. He wrote the highly influential Super Imperialism, explaining how the emergence of an international monetary system based on the dollar in the postwar era ended up helping the US finance limitless military spending.

economy as a whole. You have exponential debt doubling every so many years and economies have never been able to keep up with it. the tendency of debt for any family, any corporation, any economy, is to grow faster than the ability to pay, until there’s a crash. And when you can’t pay, either you lose the property, or you become in one way or another, a servant to your creditor, in terms of having to pay labor, having to pay whatever you produce. You have a concentration of property ownership in the hands of the creditors, if you don’t write off the debts, which ancient society did, and which used to be the core of ancient religion.

Every economy that has interest-bearing debt has to restructure at some point, or else all of the economy will end up being owned by just a teeny group of people at the top, like you had in rome. that’s how the roman republic ended up in the roman Empire. It becomes centralized. the tendency of any financialized economy is to centralize. Not only wealth, but by centralizing wealth, you centralize political power, and decision-making, and ultimately, military force in the hands of the financial class.

Branko Marcetic is a Jacobin staff writer and the author of Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden.

He lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Does Biden’s presidency hang on the crisis with Russia?

New Yorker

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Robin WRight

hroughout Joe Biden’s life, America’s place in the world has been determined, more often than not, by Washington’s relationship with Moscow. he was born in 1942, just months after the united States and the Soviet union, with Britain, agreed to collaborate against the Axis powers to insure their mutual survival during the Second World War. It didn’t last. When Biden was three, george F. Kennan, the legendary u.S. chargé d’affaires in Moscow, sent the historic eight-thousand-word cable warning about Soviet expansionism and urging Washington to move to contain Moscow.

Biden was a kid when President harry truman issued an ultimatum to Joseph Stalin demanding that he withdraw Soviet forces from a huge swath of Iran—the first crisis of the Cold War. Biden graduated from high school in 1961, the year that Moscow built the Berlin Wall. Biden turned twenty a

month after President John F. Kennedy blockaded Cuba to prevent the delivery of more Soviet missiles a hundred miles from American shores. In 1979, as a member of the Senate Foreign relations Committee, Biden led a Senate delegation to Moscow to help persuade reluctant senators to ratify the salt II nuclear-arms treaty. Four months later, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and President Jimmy Carter requested that the Senate delay action on salt II. After the Soviet union collapsed, in 1991, Biden ran Senate hearings on how to consolidate democracy in russia. In words that may haunt him today, he worried that Washington would not do enough to aid russia’s political and economic transformation—and that he would someday have to explain the failure to his grandchildren. “I want at the very least to be able to say that the united States did all it reasonably could to help this great attempt in democracy building.” (three decades later, he has seven grandchildren.) In 2008, Biden chaired the Senate Foreign relations Committee when russia, under Vladimir Putin, who used russia’s political and economic chaos to gain power, invaded the former Soviet republic of georgia. And he was Vice-President when Putin invaded ukraine and annexed the strategic Crimea, in 2014. President Barack obama tasked Biden to orchestrate u.S. strategy in supporting ukraine.

Robin Wright, a contributing writer and columnist, has written for The New Yorker since 1988. She is the author of “Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World.”

Monday, 31 January, 2022 | KARACHI

NEWS

corporate corner AIOU announces financial support to needy students ISLAMABAD: Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) has invited applications to provide concession in admission fee to poor and deserving students in the ongoing admissions of spring semester 2022. The students who had availed this facility in the previous semester are not required to apply again and they will be provided financial assistance in accordance to previously determined ratio. Besides this, AIOU also provided free matriculation education to the students of Gilgit Baltistan, Baluchistan and former FATA. The students of these areas have also been directed to apply for availing the facility. In this regard, Directorate of Students Affairs has notified the regional directors not to collect fresh applications from the students of the previous semester for spring 2022 semester. They are required to inform such students via any medium to download challan form of zero percent fee (in case of full fee concession) or whatever ratio of fee concession is applicable to them whether 35 or 50 percent and deposit the fee. These students are required to submit challan from of deposited fee in their respective regional offices for the record. Assessment committees have been established at the regional offices to process applications for fee concession. University will provide fee concession in accordance with the recommendations given by these fee concession assessment committees.

The deadline for the submission of fee concession applications via online mode is February 8, 2022. The students who will be granted fee concession will be able to generate fee challan from till February 12 while deadline for remaining fee submission is February 14. It is pertinent to mention here that the deadline to submit admission application form for the programs offered in spring 2022 semester including BS, MSc, M Phil/MS and PhD is February 14 whereas February 22 is the deadline for the submission of admission application form for matriculation, intermediate and ICom programs. pr

4,097 bikers fined during ongoing month for riding without helmets ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) issued 4,097 fine tickets to motorcyclists driving their bikes without helmets. A police spokesman said that ITP is endeavoring to maintain exemplary traffic system in the city and check those involved in negligence on roads. He said that 4,097 fine tickets were issued to motorcyclists driving their bikes without helmets. SSP (Traffic) Rai Mazhar Iqbal has appreciated this performance and said that vigorous campaign of ITP had been launched as per directions of IGP Islamabad Muhammad Ahsan Younis to create awareness among citizens about traffic rules. As per directions of IGP Islamabad Muhammad Ahsan Younis , he said that ITP personnel has been directed to ensure implementation on traffic rules and regulation irrespective of status and rank and demonstrate patience and politeness while issuing traffic violation tickets to the road users. He said that ITP is utilizing all available resources to facilitate the general public. He has appealed the parents not to allow their children to drive bikes or cars till age of maturity. The personnel of the force issue traffic violation tickets not as a punitive measure but the purpose is to ensure safe road environment in the Capital and secure the lives of the people, the SSP (Traffic) maintained. He appealed the parents not to allow their underage children to drive bikes. pr

Chief Executive IESCO will hold online Katchery Implementation of customer friendly policies is the top priority of any public utility institution which leads towards quality services and timely redressal of valuable customer complaints. By following same Chief Executive IESCO Dr. Muhammad Amjad Khan will hold online Katchary today (Monday) from 10:30 AM to 12:30 AM. Valuable IESCO customers related to all Operation Circles i.e. Islamabad, Rawalpindi City, Rawalpindi Cantt, Attock, Jhelum, Chakwal and surroundings are requested to participate in said Katchary by calling on telephone number 051-9253105 for immediate redressal of their electricity related issues or for their valuable suggestion according to given schedule. pr

CrUdE OIl PrICES SUrgE by 2.43PC FOr SIXth wEEK ISLAMABAD

C

staff report

RUDE oil prices surged up to 2.43 percent for the sixth straight week, hitting the seven-year highs last week.

The global oil prices were lifted by Russia-Ukraine tension, supply concerns and easing concerns over the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant. In the previous five weeks, the global crude oil prices surged up to 2.13 percent, 5.27pc, 8.85pc, 2.15pc, and 4.13pc, respectively.

During the last week, the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) reached $86.82 from $85.14, up by 1.97 percent. The lowest closing for the week, $83.31, remained on Monday while the highest closing for the week was on Wednesday at $87.35.

Similarly, Brent, the international benchmark for two-thirds of the world’s oil, increased 2.43 percent during the week to reach $90.03 from $87.89 a barrel. The lowest closing for

the week was $86.27 on Monday while the highest closing was observed on Friday at $90.03.

The price for Opec Basket surged 1.86 percent from $88.55 to $90.20 a barrel, Arab Light price increased 2.93 percent to reach $89.18 from $86.64 and the price of Russian Sokol jumped 2.33 percent to $90.89 from $88.82 a barrel during the last week.

KARACHI Rupee edged 0.3 percent (53 paisas) lower for the second consecutive week against the US dollar, with a near-term stable outlook.

The local unit depreciated 0.1 percent (17 paisas) against the US dollar in the preceding week. Overall, the rupee struggled in seven out of eight last weeks on a weekon-week basis against the US dollar.

The rupee slipped from 176.24 to 176.77 against the American currency last week. The local unit has been strug-

As tensions between Russia and Ukraine grow, so does the risk that it spills over into global commodity markets. Keeping this factor in view, crude oil prices could soar if the RussiaUkraine crisis escalates. With much of Europe captivated by the prolonged Russia-Ukraine standoff, speculation that Russian oil might be embargoed from the market added another geopo-

LNG supplies to Europe 110pc up as energy crisis deepens

LONDON staff report

The amount of liquefied natural gas (LNG) running from entry terminals to the European gas transmission system has reportedly set a new monthly record in January, hitting the highest for this month since records began in 2011.

Some 405 million cubic meters of gas were delivered to Europe as of January 28, marking an enormous increase of 110% compared to the annual average for this date over the past five years, according to data from the Gas Infrastructure Europe trade group, as quoted by TASS. The capacities of re-gasification of LNG and further injections of the fuel into pipelines in Europe are currently loaded at

67.4% of the maximum, the group’s data shows.LNG stocks in European gas storage tanks are 5% above the five-year average, which is thought to be quite high for the end of January.

Earlier this week, the WSJ reported that more than twodozen tankers loaded with LNG were en route from the US to Europe, lured by high prices in the region, with another 33 ships also likely to head to the EU. The European energy crunch, which has sent gas and power prices soaring, was exacerbated when storage tanks in the EU dropped to their lowest seasonal levels in more than ten years. The decline was attributed to longerthan-usual maintenance at Norwegian fields and to Russia restocking its own inventories.

Rupee’s woes seem to be over staff report

09

gling against the dollar since December last; however, it has put a brake on its free-fall spree that was witnessed in preceding months.

The rupee started last week on the back foot and depreciated on the first three days of the week. It devalued by 25 paisas (-0.14 percent) on Monday, 23 paisas (-0.13 percent) on Tuesday, and 26 paisas (-0.15 percent) on Wednesday. The lowest level of the rupee against the dollar during the week under review was recorded at 176.98 on Wednesday. However, the rupee remained firm for the next two days and closed flat

on Thursday and strengthened by 21 paisas on Friday, which eroded some of the losses of the week.

The local currency struggled during the first half of the week due to uncertainty over the sixth review of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the $6 billion extended fund facility (EFF) programme. The IMF on Wednesday postponed for the second time its meeting to review Pakistan’s case from January 28 to February 2. The main reason behind the delay was that the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill was not passed by the both houses of the

On January 27, the loading levels of gas reserves in underground storage facilities in Europe dropped to 39.22%, which is 15.6% less than the annual average for this date over the past five years. The storage tanks currently contain 42.34 billion cubic meters, 15.7 billion cubic meters less than in 2021.

Additionally, the latest speculation over probable military conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues fueling concerns about the supply of Russian gas. The US and Western allies have pledged to impose a new series of anti-Russian sanctions in the event of an invasion, the very idea of which has been repeatedly rejected by Moscow. The sanctions, reportedly, may target Russian energy sales.

litical premium to prices.

The oil markets have also been taking comfort from a boost in demand optimism, as World Health Organisation (WHO) noted that Omicron cases are levelling off in the US, suggesting the US is approaching its infection peak. The WHO director general also said that cases are on the decline in South Africa, which is also good news for the oil industry.

Other factors that have pushed the oil prices to seven-year high include low inventories, as the US commercial stocks just fell for the third time in a row.

Simultaneously, supply scarcity remains a global worry as the Opec+ is not willing to increase output more than it is supposed to do under the terms of its agreement. Things are looking very bullish for oil markets indeed under these circumstances.

Again, the weather forecast indicates colder weather to come and this will keep demand high in Europe, giving another stimulus to the oil prices to maintain the rally.

Expectations from IMF, financial results may keep PSX green KARACHI: After closing in the green with a gain of 60 points (0.13 percent) during the rollover week, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is likely to rally in the week starting today (Monday) on the back of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board meeting scheduled for Wednesday as well as ongoing result season. The IMF board is expected to revive the Pakistan programme, which will certainly have a positive impact on the market. The government has met all key conditions of the IMF, with the last one fulfilled with the passage of the State Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2021 from the parliament. If the IMF board meeting clears the review, it will bode well not only for the national economy but also for the bourse. However, the surging crude oil prices, geopolitical situation, Russia-Ukraine tension, and increasing number of the Omicron cases in the country may dent the investors’ confidence. The PSX started last week on a negative note and the benchmark KSE100 Index shed 94.37 points on Monday as investors were worried about a hike in the policy rate by the central bank. Though the market hailed the central bank’s decision to keep the interest rate unchanged, it shed 36.14 points on Tuesday too. The main reasons behind the fall were a rise of international oil prices to a seven-year high as well as the rollover week. On Wednesday and Thursday, the market gained 67.28 points and 127.99 points respectively, as cut-off yields in the treasury-bill auction significantly declined which were in accordance with the latest monetary policy announcement. The sentiment was further fuelled as SBP Governor Dr Reza Baqir showed confidence over the revival of the $6 billion extended fund facility of the International Monetary Fund. On the last day of the week, the stock market welcomed the legislation on the central bank’s autonomy, which will result in the disbursement of $1 billion after getting the final nod of approval from the IMF’s executive board in its meeting. As a result, the benchmark index closed at 45,078 points after gaining 60 points on a week-on-week basis. During the week under review, foreign selling remained $4 million against a net sell of $2.09 million in the preceding week. Selling was witnessed in technology and communication ($2.4 million), cement ($1.3 million) and other sectors. On the domestic front, major buying was reported by companies ($19.5 million), followed by mutual funds ($4.8 million). staff report

parliament by then.

However, the government managed to get the SBP bill passed from the Senate on Thursday, which earlier sailed through the National Assembly in the preceding week.

The bill will award greater autonomy to the central bank, once it is signed into act with the signature of the president of the country, which is now just a formality.

The rupee is likely to remain stable against the US dollar as the revival of the IMF programme in the coming week seems imminent because the government has met all the conditions. The Finance (Supplementary ) Act has already been passed, while the government has increased power tariffs and has promised to jack up the petroleum development levy to Rs30 per litre.

Moreover, the issuance of $1 billion sukuk by the government in the international capital market will also aid the rupee’s stability. The Monetary Policy Committee of the SBP in its meeting on Monday last left the interest rate unchanged at 9.75 percent till March and this step will also strengthen the rupee.

The support provided through $15.8 billion inflows from overseas Pakistanis as well as $3.16 billion investments through Roshan Digital Account (RDA), 5.37 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in the FY2021, and measures taken by the central bank in recent months to improve the transparency in the foreign exchange market may also improve market confidence.

Monday, 31 January, 2022 | KARACHI

10 FOREIGN NEWS

TAlibAn Offer refUge TO PregnAnT jOUrnAliST denied re-enTry TO neW ZeAlAnd

A

AFP

pregnant New Zealand journalist denied re-entry to her home country to give birth said she has instead been offered refuge by the Afghan Taliban.

“This just feels like such a breach of trust,” she said on Sunday (Jan 30) in an interview with Radio New Zealand.

Ms Charlotte Bellis had been working for Al Jazeera in Afghanistan, where her photographer partner Jim Huylebroek is also based.

But she did not realise she was pregnant until she returned to Al Jazeera’s headquar-

WTO rules in favour of China over trade dispute with US geneVA Agencies

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) allowed China this week to retaliate with duties on $645 million worth of US imports per year over Washington’s failure to comply with international trade rules. The case is part of a decade-old trade dispute over US anti-subsidy duties on Chinese goods. The dispute dates back to 2012, when Beijing applied to the WTO to challenge countervailing duties that Washington introduced between 2008 and 2012 on 22 Chinese products, including paper, solar panels, and steel wire. Beijing had initially asked the trade body to award it the right to impose tariffs on $2.4 billion of US goods but later scaled that back to $788.75 million. “China urges the US to stop looking for excuses and immediately take action to correct its wrongdoings in trade remedy investigations against China,” Gao Feng, the spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce, said last week, as quoted by the South China Morning Post. The WTO ruling marks the second time that China has been authorized to fight back against US anti-dumping duties.

In November 2019, a WTO arbitrator allowed Beijing to slap duties on up to $3.58 billion worth of US imports. In that separate case, the trade body also found fault in the way Washington determined whether Chinese products are being dumped on the US market.

The US has tariffs on more than $300 billion of Chinese goods imposed by former US President Donald Trump, most of which are still in place.

ters in Doha, Qatar.

It is illegal to be pregnant and unmarried in Qatar, so Bellis kept the pregnancy secret as she prepared to return to New Zealand.

When told she did not qualify for an exemption under New Zealand’s strict COVID-19-enforced border controls and with Afghanistan the only other place she and Mr Huylebroek had visas to live, Ms Bellis said she called senior Taliban contacts and was told she could give birth there.

“We’re happy for you, you can come and you won’t have a problem,” Bellis said the Taliban told her in an interview with the New Zealand Herald.

“Don’t worry. Everything will be fine,”

Scientists on alert over rising cases caused by Omicron cousin Agencies The highly transmissible Omicron variant of the SARSCoV-2 virus – the most common form of which is known as BA.1 – now accounts for nearly all of the coronavirus infections globally, although dramatic surges in Covid cases have already peaked in some countries.

Scientists are now tracking a rise in cases caused by a close cousin known as BA.2, which is starting to outcompete BA.1 in parts of Europe and Asia. The following is what we know so far about the new subvariant: “Stealth Subvariant”: Globally, BA.1 accounted for 98.8% of sequenced cases submitted to the public virus tracking database GISAID as of Jan. 25.

But several countries are reporting recent increases in the subvariant known as BA.2, according to the World Health Organization.

In addition to BA.1 and BA.2, the WHO lists two other subvariants under the Omicron umbrella: BA.1.1.529 and BA.3. All are closely related genetically, but each features mutations that could alter how they behave. Trevor Bedford, a computational virologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center who has been tracking the evolution of SARS-CoV-2, wrote on Twitter on Friday that BA.2 represents roughly 82% of cases in Denmark, 9% in the UK and 8% in the United States, based on his analysis of sequencing data from the GISAID database and case counts from the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford.

The BA.1 version of Omicron has been somewhat easier to track than prior variants. That is because BA.1 is missing one of three target genes used in a common PCR test. Cases showing this pattern were assumed by default to be caused by BA.1.

BA.2, sometimes known as a “stealth” subvariant, does not have the same missing target gene. Instead, scientists are monitoring it the same way they have prior variants, including Delta, by tracking the number of virus genomes submitted to public databases such as GISAID. As with other variants, an infection with BA.2 can be detected by coronavirus home tests kits, though they cannot indicate which variant is responsible, experts said.

More tranSMiSSible?

Some early reports indicate that BA.2 may be even more infectious than the already extremely contagious BA.1, but there is no evidence so far that it is more likely to evade vaccine protection.

Danish health officials estimate that BA.2 may be 1.5 times more transmissible than BA.1, based on preliminary data, though it likely does not cause more severe disease.

In England, a preliminary analysis of contact tracing from Dec. 27, 2021, through Jan. 11, 2022, by the UK Health Security Agency (HSA) suggests that household transmission is higher among contacts of people infected with BA.2 (13.4%) compared with other Omicron cases (10.3%).

The HSA found no evidence of a difference in vac-

Xi Jinping encourages Chinese people to march toward building a modern socialist country MiAn AbrAr As this year’s Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year, knocks on the door, Chinese President Xi Jinping extended Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese people and encouraged them to make efforts toward building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks on Sunday when delivering a speech at the gathering at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Greeting Chinese people of all ethnic groups, compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese, he called on over 1.4 billion Chinese people to march toward the future. looking back, new great achieveMentS were Made: “The Year of the Ox is coming to an end. It has been a year for us to review history, pay tribute to history and look to the future,” Xi said, adding that significant new achievements have been made in advancing the cause of the Party and the country.

The president highlighted several milestone events, such as the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, the success of the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, and a landmark victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, known as a “Xiaokang” society in Chinese.

Last year, China maintained its leading position in the world in terms of both economic development and COVID-19 control, he said.

He also cited China’s progress in its high-quality development, capabilities in strategic science and technology, reform and opening-up, and people’s wellbeing.

Comprehensive plans had been made for China to reach its carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, he

she added they said.

“In my time of need, the New Zealand government said you’re not welcome here.

“When the Taliban offer you — a pregnant, unmarried woman — safe haven, you know your situation is messed up.”

After going public with her situation, and involving lawyers, Ms Bellis said she had been contacted by New Zealand officials who said her rejected application was under review. The government’s COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said he had asked officials to check whether the proper procedures had been followed in Ms Bellis’ case, “which appeared at first sight to warrant further explanation”.

added. looking ahead, ‘iMpreSSive MiracleS’ to be Made: “During the second half of the year, the CPC will convene its 20th National Congress to review the work of the past five years and draw a development blueprint for the years ahead,” Xi said.

The congress comes at an important time when the CPC has embarked on a new journey to build a modern socialist country in all respects and to realize the Second Centenary Goal by 2049. It will be a highly important meeting and an event of great political significance for both the Party and the country, according to an official statement released by the CPC Central Committee

in November last year.

China will coordinate development and security, implement a new development philosophy, comprehensively deepen reform and opening up, and promote high-quality development, he said.

In 2020, China made a strategic decision to foster a new development pattern where domestic and foreign markets can boost each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay.

Efforts should be made in taking concrete actions to welcome the 20th National Congress, and advance the historic cause of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, said the president.

cine effectiveness, according to the Jan. 28 report.

A critical question is whether people who were infected in the BA.1 wave will be protected from BA.2, said Dr. Egon Ozer, an infectious disease expert at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. That has been a concern in Denmark, where some places that saw high case counts of BA.1 infections were reporting rising cases of BA.2, Ozer said.

If prior BA.1 infection does not protect against BA.2, “this could be sort of a two-humped camel kind of wave,” Ozer said. “It’s too early to know if that will happen.”

The good news, he said, is that vaccines and boosters still “keep people out of the hospital and keep people from dying.”

WHO’s Asia-Pacific chief probed over racism, misconduct AFP World Health Organisation head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Saturday announced an investigation into a “senior staff” member, the UN agency’s Western Pacific chief, over claims of racism and misconduct. “We have been aware of some concerns since late 2021 and have been following due process. With the cooperation of the staff member, an investigation process is underway,” Tedros said on the final day of the WHO’s executive council meeting in Geneva. The WHO chief didn’t say when the enquiry opened, adding that “there is a limit to what we can say at this time”. However, Tedros added that “we take these allegations seriously”. The serious accusations, detailed in an email seen by AFP after the affair was revealed on Thursday by the Associated Press, target the head of the agency’s Western Pacific region Japanese doctor Takeshi Kasai, who has already said he is ready to cooperate in any investigation. According to AP, dozens of WHO staff members filed an internal complaint in October before sending an email in mid-January to the countries on the UN agency’s executive board. In the email, they accused Kasai of “authoritarian and racist leadership” adding that he had regularly shared privileged information with the Japanese Foreign Ministry, of not wanting to criticise China and of having “wasted” donor money. Many countries expressed their concerns over the matter earlier this week. On Saturday, several diplomats again called on the WHO to investigate all allegations of misconduct.

“We take all allegations seriously and expect that independent investigations will be progressed as a matter of priority,” an Australian representative said Saturday. A British representative said: “once again we regret to have heard of this first in the media”. A Norwegian official said “we need a WHO that we all trust, member states as well as staff, beneficiaries and the global community. This includes creating an organizational culture that promotes good ethics and builds trust within the organization and having solid systems in place to enable this”.

Monday, 31 January, 2022 | KARACHI

SPORTS 11

HAlEs, sTIrlIng HElp IslAMAbAd UnITEd bEAT pEsHAWAr ZAlMI kARACHI

I

Staff RepoRt

SLAMABAD United’s opener Alexander Daniel Hales and Paul Robert Stirling shined the brightest on Sunday as they sailed their team to a ninewicket victory against Peshawar Zalmi in the fifth match of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) at National Stadium in Karachi.

Hales and Stirling started an aggressive inning and smashed 50 in

partnership within just three overs, making it one of the fastest fifty in the history of the PSL. Both the openers continued to punish the bowlers and make the clash one-sided. Stirling hit 50 off just 18 balls with seven fours and three sixes. It was the second-fastest 50 of the PSL. No bowler of Zalmi was able to hold charged Stirling and Hales from sending the balls to the boundary.

They shared 100 in partnership with an average of 11.8 runs per over.

Hales smashed 50 off 32 balls with eight fours and one six.

Stirling returned to the pavilion after scoring 57 runs off 25 balls when suffered a run-out by Zalmi’s skipper Wahab Riaz on the Hussain Talat’s delivery.

Islamabad United chased down the 169-run target posted by Zalmi in 15.5 overs at the cost of just one wicket. Hales was the top-scorer of the match as he made 82 runs off 54 runs with 12 fours and one six and remained not out. Meanwhile, Rah-

manullah Gurbaz scored 27 runs off 16 deliveries.

PeshawaR ZaLMi’s innings: Earlier, Zalmi set a 169-run target for Islamabad United in the match. United’s bowlers destroyed the top-order batting line of Peshawar Zalmi as they lost the fourth wicket at just 35 runs in the clash.

United’s pacer Hasan Ali drew the first blood for his team after taking the wicket of Tom Kohler Cadmore in the opening over. He was bowled for a duck. In the third over,

Faheem Ashraf sent Yasir Khan back to the pavilion when he was playing on 14. Ashraf bagged his second wicket in the fifth over.

Meanwhile, Shadab Khan bowled Haider Ali in the sixth over when the team’s total score was just

35. However, the team’s middleorder batters steered the team to a 168-run total. Experienced Shoaib Malik made 25 runs off 22 balls with two fours and one six. He shared over a 73-run partnership with Sherfane Rutherford.

HBL PSL: Gladiators seek replacement for Shahid Afridi kARACHI Staff RepoRt

Intruder halts play in men’s singles final at Melbourne MeLBOURne: A protester jumped on to the court and interrupted play at a crucial stage of the Australian Open men’s singles final between Russian world number two Daniil Medvedev and Rafa Nadal of Spain at Melbourne Park on Sunday. Security officials promptly made a human shield around the players as some others dragged the person, who appeared to carry a banner reading “abolish refugee detention”, off the court at the Rod Laver Arena. Nadal was attempting to save a break point while serving at 5-3 up in the second set as the person fell awkwardly from the stands behind Medvedev’s end of the court, halting play for a few minutes. The Spaniard, who is chasing a 21st Grand Slam title, went on to lose the game and the second set in a tiebreaker.

Earlier this month, protesters criticised Australia’s harsh asylum policies when top-ranked Novak Djokovic was held in an immigration detention hotel after his visa was revoked on his arrival at Melbourne. The Serbian was eventually deported from the country after a court upheld the government’s decision to cancel his visa, capping days of drama over Australia’s Covid-19 entry rules and his unvaccinated status. ReuteRS

All-round Moeen stars as England level Windies T20 series LOndOn: Stand-in skipper Moeen Ali starred with bat and ball as England beat the West Indies by 34 runs in the fourth Twenty20 international in Bridgetown to set up a series decider on Sunday. Moeen, leading England in place of the injured Eoin Morgan, struck seven sixes, including four in a row off Jason Holder, during a 63 made from just 28 balls as England posted a total of 193 for six on Saturday The off-spinner then took two for 28 runs during the West Indies’ 159 for five as England levelled the five-match series at 2-2 ahead of the teams’ return to the Kensington Oval. England’s bowling in the latter stages of matches earlier in this series had proved expensive. But with the West Indies needing 61 off the final four overs, Chris Jordan — recalled after England’s defeat on Wednesday — and Reece Topley held their nerve.

‘Fantastic’: “I thought we were good in all areas,” said player of the match Moeen as he highlighted England’s bowling late on. “That’s the thing we’re really proud about tonight, the ‘death bowling’ was fantastic,” Moeen said. As for his own form, he added: “I got some momentum with my batting. I was happy to contribute for the team.” Both Moeen and West Indies captain Kieron Pollard were full of praise for England leg-spinner Adil Rashid, who checked the hosts’ run chase with 1-28. “We screwed up in the middle of our innings, not losing wickets but being a little slow,” said Pollard.

“Adil Rashid bowled exceptionally well again, as he has in this series, with his variations and tomorrow will be an even game.” Earlier, England opener Jason Roy, dropped on three, made 52 off 42 balls. The tourists were 80 for one off nine overs before Pollard slowed the run rate. But Moeen revived the innings, as England added 59 in the last three overs after James Vince had made 34. Moeen took England past three figures when he swept Akeal Hosein for four and fired England past 150 with four successive sixes off Holder. The West Indies raced to 56 without loss in six overs, Kyle Mayers marking his first match of the series with some blazing hitting. But Rashid slowed the run rate before Moeen had Mayers (40) and Brandon King (26) caught in the deep. Rashid then removed Rovman Powell, fresh from a hundred on Wednesday, for just five. West Indies were now 78 for three but some big-hitting from Nicholas Pooran and Holder kept the hosts in the game. But Barbados-born Jordan, whose recent late-innings bowling has been much criticised, conceded just seven runs in the 17th over before taking the catch on the boundary that saw Holder dismissed. afp

Quetta Gladiators have requested the Pakistan Super League’s (PSL) technical committee to arrange for a replacement player for all-rounder Shahid Afridi, a franchise official said Sunday.

The Gladiators’ management has asked the committee to allow Hassan Khan — who is a squad member and ex-skipper of the Pakistan U19 team — to play for the team, the franchise’s manager Azam Khan said.

The demand came after the all-rounder’s second coronavirus test returned negative, but he will undergo isolation for seven more days.

The Gladiators have three more matches in the ongoing Karachi leg. They will go against Multan Sultans on January 31, Islamabad United on February 3, and Lahore Qalandars on February 7. They have won one out of the two matches played so far.

The former Pakistan team captain and Gladiators all-rounder had tested positive for coronavirus on January 27 after he had briefly exited the bio-secure bubble for a medical check-up.

Meanwhile, Karachi Kings President Wasim Akram, who tested positive for coronavirus on January

25, has now tested negative and will join his franchise in their match against Lahore Qalandars today.

ViVian RichaRds aRRiVes in KaRachi: Veteran West Indies cricketer Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, who is also Gladiators’ mentor, has also arrived in Karachi.

Sir Viv Richards will rejoin the Gladiators after completing a three-day isolation period.

In his message upon his arrival, Richards said that he is extremely happy to visit Pakistan again. He also lauded the squad for making a good start in the ongoing PSL season. “It is great to know that you guys started off on a very good note. Winning is always very important,” he said. Richard congratulated the Gladiators once again and said he is looking forward to seeing the team members soon. Quetta Gladiators registered their first win in the seventh edition of PSL as they pounded Karachi Kings by eight wickets on Saturday.

Nadal edges Medvedev in five-set thriller to win Australian Open News Desk Nadal edged Daniil Medvedev in a classic Australian Open final on Sunday, roaring back from two sets down to claim a record 21st Grand Slam title only months after fearing his glorious career might be over due to injury.

With Novak Djokovic forced out by deportation and Roger Federer recovering from knee surgery, the Spanish great is now one major title clear of his ‘Big Three’ rivals after surviving the 2-6 6-7(5) 6-4 6-4 7-5 thriller at Rod Laver Arena.

Riding a wave of raucous support from the crowd, a vintage Nadal pulled off one of his finest performances to deny Medvedev again, less than three years after leaving the Russian heartbroken in five sets at the 2019 US Open final. In a match steeped in drama, Nadal was two points from the title but was broken as he served for the match at 5-4. He held firm to break Medvedev again and served out

the match to love, rushing in to deliver a backhand volley as a stunning coup de grace.

Dropping his racket, Nadal shook his head and grinned, then kicked a tennis ball away and pumped his fists in delight. It was a triumph that defied time and logic, the 35-year-old completing his first five-

set win from a two-set deficit in 15 years — since overhauling Mikhail Youzhny in the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2007.

Having suffered four final defeats in 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2019, Nadal can now savour a second Melbourne Park crown, 13 years after beating Federer in the 2009 decider.

Gao Tingyu, Zhao Dan named flag bearers of Team China for Beijing 2022 opening ceremony

MIAN AbRAR Speed skater Gao Tingyu and skeleton racer Zhao Dan of Team China have been named as the flag bearers for the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, the team announced on Sunday.

The opening ceremony will take place at the National Stadium in Beijing on February 4.

Gao Tingyu of China competes in the men’s 500-meter speed skating race at the ISU World Cup in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, December 10, 2021. /CFP Gao joined the Chinese national speed skating team in 2016 and made his Olympic debut in Pyeongchang in 2018.

Having won the men’s 500-meter bronze medal, he became the first Chinese male speed skating medalist in the Winter Olympics. Gao continued to refine his performance in the following years. He refreshed his personal best in the men’s

500m race with a time of 34.282 seconds at the World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships in February 2021.

Then in the domestic event in September 2021, Gao further improved his time to 33.83 seconds.

In the previous legs of World Cup competitions, Gao kept his times under 34 seconds. “I’m so honored to be the flag bearer of Team China for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games opening ceremony,” Gao wrote on Sina Weibo. “It’s exciting enough to compete at home, bearing the Chinese national flag gives me extra motivation. I have been looking forward to doing this for a long time. I will try to respond to this trust in me with my best performance in the Games.”

Zhao Dan of China competes in the women’s skeleton race at the World Cup at the Olympia Eiskanal in Innsbruck, Austria, November 19, 2021. /CFP Compared with speed skating, skeleton is a relatively younger sport in China. Zhao was recruited by the Chinese national team in September 2018. In the franchise’s first Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland, in January 2020, Zhao finished in seventh place.

Then at the fifth IBSF Intercontinental Cup in Innsbruck, Austria, in November 2021, Zhao secured her first IBSF race victory. Her best finish at the World Cup was 15th place.

“I felt so surprised and honored when I learned that I was chosen to bear the flag for Team China at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics,” Zhao posted on Sina Weibo. “I’m lucky enough to compete at home and now I am given another role. It gives me a bigger sense of responsibility and mission. I will cherish this trust in me, give full play to my potential and show the best of myself in the competition.”

The long hair and pirate shorts of that decade have fallen by the way-side, but the class and fighting spirit endure in the face of Nadal’s titanic battles to recover from injuries.

Having missed Wimbledon due to fatigue and the US Open because of a chronic condition in his left foot, Nadal was on the brink of quitting in late-2021 and felt blessed just to turn up at Melbourne Park this year.

His ability to play seven matches felt miraculous for the Spaniard, who joins Djokovic, Rod Laver and Roy Emerson as the only men to win each Grand Slam title twice. Now more than ever, world number one Djokovic may rue his failed bid to defend his title in Melbourne without COVID-19 vaccination.

His deportation threw the tournament wide open, leaving a vacuum for Nadal to fill and strike a potentially decisive blow in the Grand Slam race.

Hbl psl: Multan sultans to seek replacements for its foreign trio kARACHI NewS DeSk

Three foreign players will not be a part of the Multan Sultans squad in the seventh edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), as they have national duties to attend to. The three West Indian players — Roman Powell, Odean Smith, and Dominic Drakes — have been selected for the Windies’ tour of India, set to take place next month. The Windies will play T20I and ODI series in India from February 6-20. West Indies’ Johnson Charles, the cover player for Powell, will now play in the squad for the entire tournament. However, Dominic was the substitute for Smith, and unfortunately for Multan, both will not be joining them. As a result, the franchise will now request a replacement player. The Sultans have been on a roll so far as they have won both the matches they have played against Karachi Kings and Lahore Qalandars. They are on the top of the points table, with four points to their name.

Monday, 31 January, 2022

prayer tiMings

NEWS

Foreign oFFice condemns killing oF Five in occupied kashmir ISLAMABAD

p

staff report

AKISTAN on Sunday condemned the extra-judicial killing of five people in Pulwama and Budgam districts in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Indian troops on Sunday claimed to kill five fighters in stepped-up anti-insurgency operations, police said.

The fighters were killed in two separate overnight operations by troops south of Srinagar, Kashmir police chief Vijay Kumar told Reuters.

“We had launched two separate operations on the basis of inputs about the presence of militants in these areas last

night. Five militants, including JeM commander, Zahid Wani, and a Pakistani national, Kafeel, were killed in these two operations,” Kumar claimed, without offering evidence.

Condemning the incident, the Foreign Office “also reiterate our call on the international community, including the United Nations, to hold India accountable for its gross and systematic human rights violations and crimes against humanity in [held region], without further delay”.

In their unabated reign of terror, the occupation forces had killed at least 23 people in so-called encounters and cordon-and-search operations in January alone, the statement observed.

Bandial to become top judge on February 2 ISLAMABAD staff report

Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Supreme Court will take oath as the next chief justice on February 2 (Wednesday) as the incumbent Gulzar Ahmed will hang his robe on Tuesday after two years and 42 days in office. He was appointed to the highest judicial office in the land on December 21, 2019. Justice Bandial will serve in the top judicial office until September 16, 2023, when he is due to be replaced by Justice Qazi Faez Isa. In 2019, Justice Isa delivered a landmark, and unprecedented, verdict in the 2017 Faizabad sit-in case, warning the security agencies not to exceed their mandate and meddle in politics, an apparent rebuke over their handling of five-week-long Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) protest. When elevated to the top judicial office, Justice Bandial will face a veritable mountain of 51,766 cases pending before the Supreme Court alone. The total backlog of cases in the national judiciary, including the superior courts as well as district courts, stands at a whopping 2.1 million. Seven justices of the higher courts, including Justice Ahmed, will retire in 2022. These include five justices of the apex court and two of the Lahore High Court (LHC).

The Supreme Court justices retire after reaching the age of 65 years while the high court judges leave the office at 62. After Justice Ahmed, Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed of the Supreme Court will retire next on March 5, Justice Maqbool Baqar on April 4, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel on July 13 and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah on August 13. Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem of LHC will hand his robe on June 30, and Justice Chaudhry Masood Jahangir will retire on December 2. Out of the total strength of 17 justices, seven will have the opportunity to become the chief justice while the remaining 10 will retire as Supreme Court judges.

Driven by the radical Hindutva ideology that provoked and condoned genocide of Muslims, the Indian forces were relentlessly targeting the Muslim population of Kashmir, especially the youth.

“The international community must act to stop this wanton oppression and persecution of the besieged Kashmiris under illegal occupation. We also reject and condemn the Indian officials’ lies insinuating the killing of an alleged ‘Pakistani’ resistance fighter,” the Foreign Office added.

Indian troops were known to kill innocent people passing them off as alleged militants, in the hope of getting monetary rewards or gallantry medals, the statement observed.

The Foreign Office further said Pakistan saluted the resilience of the people of Kashmir who continued to stand firm in their just and peaceful struggle for their legitimate right to self-determination as pledged to them by the UN Security Council resolutions.

Last year, the disputed region witnessed a wave of civilian killings, with fighters seemingly targeting non-residents, including migrant workers, and members of the minority Hindu and Sikh communities in the Muslim-majority valley.

Indian forces in the heavily militarised region responded with a widespread crackdown. More than 189 fighters were killed last year, a police official said.

FAJR SUNRISE

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Fawad says ‘judiciary needs to introspect over fast declining global ranking

Imran welcomes Trudeau’s condemnation of Islamophobia ISLAMABAD staff report

Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday welcomed a statement by his Canadian counterpart, Justin Trudeau, condemning the rising tides of Islamophobia in the West and called for an end to hatred against Muslims.

Trudeau, on the fifth anniversary of the 2017 Quebec mosque attacks on Saturday, announced to appoint a special representative on combatting Islamophobia as part of the nation’s anti-racism strategy.

In 2021, Canada declared January 29 a National Day of Remembrance for six Muslims that were killed and 19 wounded in the shooting rampage.

“Islamophobia is unacceptable.

Full stop. We need to put an end to

this hate and make our communities safer for Muslim Canadians. To help with that, we intend to appoint a Special Representative on combatting Islamophobia,” he tweeted.

Pointing out the need to end Islamophobia, Khan appreciated Trudeau’s intent to appoint a special representative to combat anti-Muslim sentiments in the West.

“I welcome Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s unequivocal condemnation of #Islamophobia & his plan to appoint a Special Representative to combat this contemporary scourge,” he wrote. “His timely call to action resonates with what I have long argued. Let us join hands to put an end to this menace.”

In a statement announcing the move, Ottawa underlined that Islamophobia is a reality for Muslims

across Canada and around the world, noting that building a more inclusive country and combatting discrimination is a must.

“This year, on the eve of the fiveyear anniversary of this act of terror [mosque attack in Quebec], the Government of Canada stands with and supports Muslim communities across Canada and reaffirms its commitment to take action to denounce and tackle Islamophobia and hate-fueled violence,” it said in a statement.

“The special representative appointment […] will be an additional step in the government’s ongoing work through Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy to tackle Islamophobia in all its forms,” said the statement, noting this had been recommended during a National Summit on Islamophobia held in July last year.

IHC to take up contempt petition against NAB boss in Musharraf wealth case ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) will take up a contempt petition against retired Justice Javed Iqbal, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman, on Monday over his purported failure to take action against former president Pervez Musharraf in a wealth case. According to the cause list issued by the court’s registrar, a bench comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan will hear the case. In 2018, a bench of the high court directed the dirty money watchdog to proceed against the former army chief, Redefining the power of the agency to investigate former servicemen. The ruling was issued on a petition filed by retired Lt. Col. Inam ur-Rahim in 2014 seeking a probe into the alleged corruption by Musharraf while holding the office of president. Monitoring report

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday lambasted the detailed judgement pertaining to the review petitions filed in Justice Qazi Faez Isa case by stating that if a judge could not be held accountable for the assets of their spouse and children then how was it possible to hold politicians and bureaucrats accountable. The minister in a tweet stated that the judiciary needed introspection in the light of its “fast declining” ranking at the global level. Fawad claimed that “the new chief justice will have to face this challenge after he takes the oath” It is pertinent to note that the SC, in its judgement released on Saturday had observed that Justice Isa could not be held liable to account for alleged tax evasion, if any, by his independent spouse, under any law of the land or under any clause in the Code of Conduct prescribed for the judges of superior courts. “This Court could not have issued any direction to the Council to exercise its suo motu jurisdiction.” Justice Yahya Afridi in his additional note had written that section 216 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, commanded confidentiality of the information of a tax filer, and breach thereof exposed the delinquent to penal consequences under sections 198 and 199 of the Ordinance. He further added that PM Imran Khan, Law Minister Dr Farogh Naseem, ARU Chairman Mirza Shahzad Akbar and tax officials were liable to penal consequences of violating section 216 of Income Tax Ordinance 2001. news desk

China and Pakistan, together for a shared future!

AMBASSADor NoNg roNg On February 4, when 1.4 billion Chinese people celebrate the Chinese Spring Festival, the main torch of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games will be lit in the “Bird’s Nest”, and Beijing will be the first city ever to host both summer and winter Olympic Games.

President Xi Jinping said in his New Year address that “We will spare no effort to present a great Games to the world.” China is ready to deliver a streamlined, safe and splendid Winter Olympic Games to the world, ensure all participants feel spring-like warmth and providing more solidarity, confidence and strength to the world.

The Beijing Winter Olympic Games will also be distinguished for its Green features.

For the first time in Olympic history, all venues in the competition zones are powered 100% by green energy. And as first ever in Winter Olympic history, ice-making will use carbon dioxide as a refrigerant, cutting carbon emissions to nearly zero. Most of the Winter Olympic Games venues are renovated from the existing venues and facilities of the 2008 Summer Olympics Games, coordinating the needs of the games and postgames use. We are confident that the Beijing Winter Olympic Games will be a carbonneutral event.

China highly appreciates Pakistan's strong support and sincere wishes to China

in hosting the Beijing Winter Olympics. We warmly welcome Prime Minister Imran Khan to come to China to attend the opening ceremony. Prime Minister Imran Khan recently told Chinese media that this will be the first Olympics he will witness, and that he is looking forward to experiencing an exciting global event in Beijing. President Dr. Arif Alvi laughed happily when he received the mascot, and said that the Beijing Winter Olympic Games will be “very successful” and Pakistan will participate in the splendid sports event with passion and joy. We wish the Pakistani sports delegation good luck, to

excel himself in the Games, and look forward to seeing the Pakistani flag fly high again in the “Bird's Nest”!

Last year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Pakistan. The two sides held more than 140 activities in celebration and commemoration of this important occasion, which all attached high popularity. Be it the exchange of congratulatory messages between the two countries’ leaders, high-profile receptions or activities such as the signing of friendship deals between provinces and cities, a youth video contest

and exchanges covering a wide range of areas including the political, diplomatic, economic, sub-national, education, scientific, cultural and health sectors. The celebrations held virtually or in-person, deepened political mutual trust, strengthened the two peoples’ friendship and promoted practical cooperation in various sectors despite COVID-19 restrictions. During the past 7 decades since the establishment of ChinaPakistan diplomatic ties, no matter how the international situation may change, the two sides have always stood side by side in weal and woe. China and Pakistan have worked together to tackle risks and challenges such as COVID-19, consolidating strategic mutual trust and deepening strategic cooperation. History has fully proved that the two countries are the most reliable iron-clad brothers for each other.

Just as President Xi Jinping said on the phone conversation with Prime Minister Imran Khan, the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, with more sources of turbulence and risks around the world. Under the new circumstances, the two countries should stand together even more firmly and push forward the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership, build a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era. Nowadays, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has entered a new stage of high-quality de-

velopment, and the cooperation between our two sides will have even greater potential.

China supports Pakistan in exploring a development path suited to its own national conditions and is willing to share China's high-quality development opportunities with Pakistan, and contribute to Pakistan’s industrialization, urbanization and digitization.

China will continue to support Pakistan in its fight against COVID-19, jointly build the CPEC with high quality and strengthen cooperation in such fields as agriculture, digital economy and people's livelihood. We will continue to unleash the positive effects of the CPEC in promoting growth and improving people’s well-being. China is ready to work with Pakistan to enhance multilateral coordination, practice true multilateralism and promote international fairness and justice, to safeguard the common interests of the two countries and maintain world peace and stability. We look forward to the meetings between the leaders of the two countries during Beijing Winter Olympics, which will surely further draw a brighter future for China-Pakistan relations.

Let us join hands to welcome the Beijing Winter Olympics under the guidance of the Olympic Motto of“Faster, Higher, Stronger—Together”, and strive for greater progress in our all-weather strategic cooperative partnership. China and Pakistan, together for a shared future!

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