EpaperLHR_20-12-14

Monday, 14 December, 2020 I 27 Rabi al-Akhir, 1442 I Rs 40.00 I Vol XI No 165 I 52 Pages I Lahore Edition

PDM concluDes first Phase of Public agitation with lahore rally g

opposition leaders hint at long March to islaMabad

PM calls PDM jalsa a waste of money, time and effort g

photos: zubair mehfooz

LAHORE STAFF REPORT

t

he final public meeting of the pakistan democratic Movement (pdM) seeking to oust the government of pakistan tehreek-e-insaf (pti) through public revolt was termed by the opposition alliance as 'historic', wherein all the major players staunchly called for the removal of the incumbent government while highlighting its supposed shortcomings. pakistan Muslim league-nawaz (pMl-n) vice president Maryam nawaz, pakistan people's party (ppp) bilawal bhutto Zardari, Jamiat ulema-e-islam-Fazl (Jui-F) chief Maulana Fazlur rehman, and others were greeted by an excited crowd when they reached the venue, Minar-e-pakistan. reportedly, the attendees had begun to gather at the venue long before the official starting time of 2 pm and had shouted slogans and carried flags. once the rally began, Maryam thanked the people who had come out in droves to attend the jalsa. she did not name prime Minister imran Khan but did say that a certain person had used "a pharaoh's tone" while taunting the pdM to

hold a large rally. "to them, i say: come and behold this full venue. the entire area surrounding the venue is full," she said, adding that there were thousands of others who could not find space in the venue. "i have received word that the media is being told to portray as if the rally failed. i know who is making these calls," Maryam said, adding: "the people of lahore have thrown this anti-people government off from the heights of Minar-e-pakistan." referring to a gathering held by the pti at Minar-e-pakistan in 2011, Maryam alleged that the public meeting had been arranged by former inter-services intelligence (isi) chief ahmad shuja pasha. referring to the premier as "covid-18 taabedaar Khan imran Khan", she said that it was because of his government that the prices had been rising for gas, sugar, wheat, electricity and medicines. the incumbent premier will have to go, Maryam said, because he had ruined the country's economy and had "lied to the people every day".

"When a leader engages in corruption, it is the people who pay with inflation. so who is the real thief?" she asked. she said lahore welcomed sindh, Khyber pakhtunkhwa (Kp) and balochistan as

coronavirus in

Pakistan

CONFIRMED CASES:

438,425

LAST UPDATED AT 9:23 AM ON DECEMBER 13, 2020

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

72

RECOVERED:

NEW CASES:

3,369 DEATHS:

383,000 8,796 SINDH:

PUNJAB:

194,359

127,212

KP:

BALOCHISTAN:

AJK/GB:

ISLAMABAD:

52,092

17,737

7,663/4,783 34,579

a "real brother". "no one is big or small, we are all equal," Maryam declared.

While expressing her grief at the seven people who had died in the Khyber teaching hospital due to a lack of oxygen, she urged the attendees to wear masks.

Maryam also spoke about the panama papers case and alleged that former chief justice asif saeed Khosa had told the incumbent prime minister to file an application "after which you [imran] ousted nawaz sharif on the basis of an iqama through a fixed match".

"When he does not have an answer to nawaz sharif's words, he says nawaz sharif is a traitor," she said, adding in a taunt that nawaz would not give imran an nro. she said that the people of lahore have "decided that taabedaar Khan has to go". responding to pM imran’s statement that the opposition did not know him, Maryam said that people belonging to all walks of life have realised that imran Khan has made their lives miserable. similarly, pMl-n supremo nawaz sharif, addressing the crowd via video-link, said that the premier "says i will not give an nro. Who is asking you for an nro? You and aleema Khan got an nro from saqib nisar yourself".

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

Ministers lash out at opposition over 'negative politics' aMid coronavirus pandeMic ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

prime Minister imran Khan said that the pakistan democratic Movement's (pdM) lahore rally showed that the 11-party alliance had wasted time, money and effort for a rally where very few people attended. "pathetic. pdM spent so much money, time, effort and displayed utter callousness by endangering people's lives during covid-19 spike," he wrote on micro-blogging site, twitter. he further said that the blackmail attempt by the anti-government alliance was ineffective and that he would never offer them an nro.

"Whatever future plans of further blackmail pdM may have, my message is categorical: there will never be an nro from my government no matter what tactics the looters devise," the premier said. earlier, while talking to a private news channel, Minister for information and broadcasting shibli Faraz said that the government is ready to hold dialogue with the opposition parties on every important national

25 injured in Rawalpindi grenade attack RAWALPINDI TLTP

at least 25 people got injured in a hand grenade attack at ganj Mandi area on sunday. three of the injured were stated to be in critical condition, rescue officials said. they said that 22 victims were shifted to the district headquarters hospital, while three were provided first aid on the spot. initial reports suggested that it was a hand grenade attack, but rawalpindi city police officer (cpo) Mohammad ahsan Younas said that it is too soon to ascertain the nature of the blast. the cpo noted that it was the second attack near a police station in 10 days. on december 4, one man was killed, and seven other people were injured in a blast carried out using an improvised explosive device near pir Wadhai police station. he said that there were reports of terror plots and added that progress has been made in the investigation of the pir Wadhai blast.

Meanwhile, rescue officials said that the explosion occurred at a filtration plant situated across the ganj Mandi

issue, but will not make any compromise on the matter of accountability of the corrupts. he said that the opposition is trying to blackmail the government by using different tactics, adding they are using resignations as political stunt, but they are not serious in its purpose.

Faraz said that the government will not come under pressure by opposition's jugglery tactics which it has adopted to get the national reconciliation ordinance (nor). he added that the opposition has no moral logic to hold public gatherings during the second wave of coronavirus, which was more lethal as compared to the first wave. replying to a question, Faraz said that the opposition parties should come to the parliament as it is the best forum to discuss every national issue.

Foreign Minister Makhdoom shah Mahmood hussain Qureshi, while addressing the media on sunday, said that opposition's public meetings despite the covid-19 pandemic were not only playing havoc with people's lives but also damaging the country's economy.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

more inside

Pakistan records 3,369 more coronavirus cases, 72 deaths STORY ON PAGE 03

scores killed after taliban attacks on military checkpoints in Kandahar STORY ON BACK PAGE

India farmers intensify protests as deadlock over new laws continue STORY ON BACK PAGE police station. the area has been cordoned off and officials of counter-terrorism department and forensic experts have arrived on the scene. punjab chief Minister sardar usman buzdar while taking notice of the blast near ganj Mandi police station has sought a report from rpo rawalpindi and directed to investigate the incident. buzdar said that those re-

sponsible for the incident should be determined at the earliest and brought to justice. he directed the administration to provide best treatment facilities to the injured.

Meanwhile, interior Minister sheikh rasheed ahmed also sought a report of the grenade blast in ganj Mandi. he has also issued instructions for providing every possible facility of medical treatment to the injured.

in today’s issue

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02

Monday, 14 December, 2020

NEWS

PaKiStan allocateS $250m BuDget for coviD-19 vaccine NEWS DESK Pakistan has increased the funds allocated for purchasing Covid-19 vaccine from $150 million to $250 million and has signed nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) with different multinational companies.

Parliamentary Secretary on National Health Services (NHS) Nausheen Hamid confirmed to a local news outlet that the allocation for vaccine purchase had been enhanced to $250 million.

“We will sign a purchase agreement with more than one company to ensure that we get a vaccine,” he said, adding that Russia had also offered its vaccine to Pakistan recently.“We are looking into its safety and efficacy as public health is our top priority,” she stressed.

When asked when the vaccine will be available, Dr Nausheen Hamid said it was hoped that the delivery of the vaccine would start by the end of the first quarter of next year.

She added that it would not be given to everyone. In the first phase of vaccinations,

frontline health workers attending to patients and people over 65 years will be vaccinated.

In the second phase, the remaining healthcare workers and people over 60 years of age will get preference.

Furthermore, she added that the vaccine alliance GAVI has also pledged to provide vaccines for the 20 per cent population.

By the end of 2021, it would be available to the masses, Hamid added.

Replying to another question, the parliamentary secretary said Pfizer had offered special containers to maintain the cold chain, adding that the vaccine could be kept in normal freezers for five days.

A senior official of the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) told the paper that there were six potential companies, and the ministry was not only engaged with them but had signed nondisclosure agreements with some of them due to which they were sharing data and progress of vaccine trials.

“The Chinese vaccine is also under trial in Pakistan so we will get the vaccine on a

Bilawal seeks permission to meet Shehbaz in jail

priority basis. As per assurances given by the companies, we may get between 100,000 and 500,000 doses by the end of February or in March. The vaccine will be administered to the most vulnerable people such as healthcare professionals working with Covid-19 patients,” he said.

Earlier, Pakistan had decided to contact the World Bank (WB) for Covid-19 vaccine funding. In this context, the health ministry had penned a letter to the Economic Coordination Division, advising it to seek funds from the WB for advance purchases of the coronavirus vaccines.

The funds would be requested under Credit Funding Act 6590.

Earlier on Friday, Prime Minister Imran Khan proposed a ten-point agenda to the world community to avert an economic collapse in the developing countries due to Covid-19. Addressing a special session of the UN General Assembly, he called for debt suspension till the end of the pandemic for low income and most stressed countries; cancellation of debt of

Taliban leader killed in drone strike had life insurance

LAHORE TLTP

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has sought permission to meet incarcerated Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif in jail. According to details, Bilawal has submitted an application to meet Shehbaz on Monday. Sources within the government confirmed the reports regarding receiving an application from Bilawal seeking a meeting with Shehbaz inside the Kot Lakhpat jail. It is pertinent to mention here that Shehbaz and his son Hamza Shehbaz are currently in jail. The development regarding a meeting between the PPP chairman and PML-N president came in the backdrop of reports that Shehbaz is tilted towards reconciliatory politics rather than confrontation. Even this was confirmed by PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz Sharif on September 28, when she said that the younger Sharif had a personal opinion that reconciliatory politics is a better option, however, when Nawaz Sharif decides on anything, he is the one who accepts it at first. The PML-N president was punished for staying loyal to his brother, Nawaz, said Maryam, adding that even as his family is being targeted with wife and daughters declared absconders and son, Hamza put behind bars.

Dense fog engulfs Punjab, KP

least developed countries; restructuring of the public sector debt of developing countries and a general allocation of special drawing rights of $500 billion.

Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases jumped to 438,425 on Sunday after

NEWS DESK Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, who was killed in 2016 in a US drone strike, had purchased a life insurance policy from a private company, IGI Life Insurance, in Pakistan using a forged identity.

The insurance company confirmed the information to the antiterrorism court (ATC) in Karachi at the hearing of the case registered against him and his accomplices by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). The investigation into the Taliban leader and his accomplices was pertaining to their involvement in generating funds for terrorist activities through the purchase of properties.

Sources in the FIA told a local

news outlet that when the matter was taken up before the court, the investigating officer appeared along with an official of the IGI General Insurance Limited and filed a report on behalf of the company.

Earlier, the insurance company had presented a cheque worth Pakistani Rs300,000 to the investigators for depositing it to the court so that the amount could be deposited in the government treasury.

The report explained that it emerged during investigation that Mullah Akhtar Mansour had purchased a 'life insurance' policy by using a fake identity and had paid up to Rs300,000 to the company before his death in the drone attack on May 21, 2016. He had purchased five properties including plots and

houses, estimated to be valued at Rs 32 million in Karachi.

"However, the FIA investigators returned the cheque asking the company to pay the principal amount along with premium so that the whole amount could be deposited to the government treasury," the sources added. On Saturday, the insurance company deposited a cheque worth Rs 350,000 with the court, which had on September 24 ordered the company to deposit the amount paid by the slain Taliban leader for his life insurance policy.

On a court directive, a property owned by Mullah Mansour in Karachi was auctioned for Rs 92,00,000 and the amount deposited with the court for depositing it in the government treasury.

The anti-terrorism court judge also sought reports from two private banks, Allied Bank Ltd and Bank Al-Falah, regarding the accounts purportedly obtained and operated by the Afghan Taliban leader and/or his accomplices along with details of the money deposited/transacted through them.

In 2016, then US president Barack Obama confirmed that Mansour was killed in the US drone strike in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan, hailing his death as an “important milestone” in efforts to bring peace to war-torn Afghanistan.

ISLAMABAD APP

Dense fog blanketed the plains of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) as the mercury dropped in most parts of the country on Sunday. Due to poor visibility, Swat Expressway has been closed from Chakdarra to Swat Toll Plaza and the M-1 motorway from Rashkai to Swabi. The fog has engulfed Punjab’s plains from Lahore to Ahmedpur East including Pindi Bhattian, Sangla Hill, Faislabad, Pensara, Pattoki, Okara, Lodharan, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan. Several sections of the motorway’s M-2, M-3 and M-5 roads have been closed due to the prevalence of thick fog. M-2 has been closed from Kot Momin to Lahore for vehicular traffic, M-3 section closed from Faizpur to Darkhana Interchange and M-4 from Pindi Bhattian to Faisalabad. The motorway police have also warned drivers to observe caution in view of poor visibility. In Sindh foggy morning prevails in Sukkur and Shaheed Benazirabad divisions, while motorway M-5 has been closed from Sukkur to Rahim Yar Khan. The minimum temperature has also dropped in Karachi between 12 to 14 Celsius, which will likely drop further between 10 to 12 Celsius on Monday, according to Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD).

Buzdar to lay foundation stone of hospital RAWALPINDI STAFF REPORT

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar will lay down the foundation stone of a new hospital at JaurrianChakri Road, Rawalpindi this week.

According to Dr. Ahsan Ali, director of development and planning, a 60-bed hospital will be set up at a cost of Rs499.7 million.

“A total of Rs352.44 million will be spent on the construction whereas the rest of Rs147.29 million will be utilised for the procurement of medical equipment and machinery", he explained.

Ali said modern healthcare facilities including ventilators, ultrasound digital beamformer, dental unit,

anesthesia machine with a cardiac monitor and other medical equipment will be offered for the patients at the facility. He said the facility will also offer emergency, pediatric intensive care unit, general surgery and orthopedic and eye/ENT wards.

The official said the provincial health ministry had acquired the land for this purpose.

He said construction work on the project has been started and the building will be completed by August 14, 2022, as per agreement with the firm.

3,369 new cases were reported. Another 72 patients died in the last one day, taking the Covid-19 death toll to 8,796, while at least 2,471 patients were in critical condition, according to the NHS ministry, which added that 3,83,000 people have recovered so far.

Pm enjoys with pet dogs as PDm holds rally ISLAMABAD: Unperturbed by Sunday’s much-hyped power show of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), Prime Minister Imran Khan spent quality time with his pet dogs. The Prime Minister shared pictures on his official Facebook and Instagram accounts in which he was seen feeding his pet dogs named Sheru and Tiger at his Islamabad’s residence in Bani Gala, as he did not seem bothered at all by the overall heated political unrest in the country. In the viral pictures that instantly made rounds on social media, the prime minister could be spotted merrily feeding his pets under the bright morning sun. He shared five pictures to show that he is relaxing at home with his pets.

It may be noted that the 11-party alliance of the opposition party under the banner of the Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM) held a public rally in Lahore. STAFF REPORT

Sc to take up PPP leader's bail petition ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) will hear the bail petition of former National Assembly (NA) opposition leader and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Syed Khursheed Shah on Monday.

According to details, a three-member bench presided by Justice Mushir Alam and comprising Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Justice Yahya Afridi would hear the petitions filed by Shah and his son Syed Farrukh Shah. In this regard, the court has issued notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor. Shah was arrested in September last year in a case regarding his alleged assets beyond means.

Multiple corruption cases against Shah are under investigation with NAB. In 2012, an accountability court had directed the agency to file a reference against him on a complaint pertaining to the alleged accumulation of illegitimate assets. In 2013, NAB had reopened two corruption cases against Shah under the directives of the Lahore High Court (LHC). STAFF REPORT

man commits suicide after killing wife, father-in-law SWAT: A mentally unstable man committed killed his wife and father-in-law before committing suicide here on Sunday. As per details, the deceased, Gul Muhammad, reached the residence of his in-laws in Mingora to settle a domestic dispute with his estranged wife.

However, soon after, the man opened fire, resulting in the death of his wife and father-inlaw on the spot. The bodies have been shifted to a nearby hospital for autopsy. APP

Monday, 14 December, 2020

PaKiStan recorDS 3,369 more coronaviruS caSeS, 72 DeathS COVID POSITIVE PML-N MPA LEADS RALLY; KARACHI REMAINS AT TOP IN POSITIVITY RATE ISLAMABAD

a

TLTP

S many as 3,369 new cases of the coronavirus were reported across the country during the past 24 hours, pushing the national tally of infections to 438,425. According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 72 more people succumbed to the infection during this period, taking the death toll from the disease to 8,796.

The NCOC said that a total of 42,222 samples were tested in the previous 24 hours, out of which 3,369 turned out to be positive. The number of active cases stands at 46,629 while 383,000 patients have recuperated from the disease so far.

Since the pandemic began, Sindh has reported as many as 194,359 infections, Punjab 127,212, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) 52,092, Balochistan 17,737, Islamabad 34,579, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) 7,663 and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) 4,783.

A total of 3,149 people died of the virus in Sindh, 3,351 in Punjab, 1,463 in KP, 368 in Islamabad, 175 in Balochistan, 99 in GB and 191 in AJK. The highest positivity rate of Covid-19 cases was recorded in Karachi at 18.92 per cent, while the countrywide positivity ratio stands at 7.98 per cent.

opposition playing with lives of public, country's economy: fm Qureshi

The number of critically ill Covid-19 patients has risen to 2,471. Sindh recorded the highest Covid19 positivity ratio at 12.13 per cent, followed by KP 11.68 per cent, Balochistan 9.30 per cent, AJK 8.78 per cent, Islamabad 4.68 per cent, Punjab 4.39 per cent and GB 1.98 per cent.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MPA in KP Assembly Sobia Shahid led the rally of the party to Lahore just before testing positive for Covid-19 on Sunday.

According to details, the PML-N MPA Sobia Shahid endangered the lives of others accompanying her after she led a rally to the PDM’s Lahore public gathering, a day after undergoing the Covid-19 test.

On Sunday, as she was part of the rally, the KP lawmaker received the report of her Covid-19 test, which turned out to be positive. She returned to Peshawar from Pindi Bhattian without participating at

No one stopped from attending PDM rally: Firdous LAHORE

MULTAN

STAFF REPORT

STAFF REPORT

Special Assistant to Chief Minister for Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has said that the government has not placed any barriers to stop the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) rally in Lahore.

Talking to media persons on Sunday, Firdous said that the Punjab government did not give permission to the opposition parties to hold a public gathering in the light of high threat alerts issued by the District Intelligence Committee.

She said that PML-N leadership is trying to provoke people through narrative aimed at creating chaos and unrest among the public. She said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government would not act irresponsibly as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government did in the past with innocent people at Model Town. She said that all activities of opposition alliance would be monitored through cameras and in case of any violation the law would take its course.

She added that it is the responsibility of the government to implement court orders and to maintain law and order to ensure a peaceful atmosphere.

The SACM said that the government is fixing the issues of economic crisis, law and order and destruction of institutions by the previous governments.

While calling the PDM Lahore rally a political circus, she said that it is against the law. The government has not stopped any of the participants of the rally and not even a single obstacle can be seen anywhere in Punjab, she added. She also said that PDM is a pack of 11 parties which wants an increase in coronavirus pandemic. The

Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Hussain Qureshi on Sunday said that opposition's public meetings despite the Covid-19 pandemic were not only playing havoc with people's lives but also damaging the country's economy. The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) does not want the progress of the country under honest leadership Prime Minister Imran Khan, he said while talking to people of constituencies NA-156 and NA-157. Qureshi remarked that the journey of progress would continue at the same pace. The opposition could not deceive masses on the pretext of hollow slogans and democracy, he maintained, adding the people were now politically mature and they understood tactics of the opposition. The opposition was not faithful to the masses as it was conducting political gatherings at the peak of the pandemic, he lamented. The ongoing second wave was very severe, Qureshi stated. The government was not afraid of opposition public meetings, the minister said, adding that the opposition was holding public meetings to save looted money and mislead the masses. He clarified that the premier had urged the opposition to postpone political gatherings in order to save people from the pandemic.

the Minar-e-Pakistan gathering, however, others who accompanied her reached the venue, raising fears of large-scale virus transmission.

Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Sunday said that the province has reported 1,343 cases of Covid-19 during the past 24 hours.

Divulging details of the virus tally, the chief minister said that 10,270 samples were tested for Covid-19 during the past 24 hours out of which 1,343 tested positive. “Nine more patients have died from Covid-19 in a single day,” he said. CM Murad said that 851 patients have recovered from the infection during the day.

“The numbers of active coronavirus cases stand at 25,201 in the province of which 24,225 are self-isolating at home, 960 are treated at hospitals and 16 are getting treatment at isolation centres,” he said adding that 764 patients are said to be in critical condition including 88 people on ventilators.

The chief minister said that Karachi once again topped in Covid-19 cases as 1,133 people tested positive from the city during the past 24 hours against the total of 1,343 cases of the infection in the province in a day.

NEWS

03

Pakistan army arranges three-day medical camp in Diamer district of gB ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Pakistan Army in collaboration with Diamer Administration set a three-day free medical camp in Dareal area of Diamer district in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), more than 1,282 patients were provided medical check-up facility and medicines. GB Chief Minister Muhammad Khalid Khorsheed and Force Commander Northern Areas visited the camp and highly appreciated services rendered by the medical staff.

PDm pushing nation towards coronavirus to protect corruption: Buzdar LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Expressing sorrow over the opposition parties' negative politics, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has said that unfortunately Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has “made coronavirus a partner of their alliance” as they are proving to be responsible for spreading the virus. In a statement on Sunday, he said that opposition's public gatherings have no agenda except closure of investigations into its leaders' corruption. He hoped that the people of Lahore would flatly reject the negative politics of the PDM. Buzdar said that action will be taken on Pakistan Democratic Movement's gathering at Minar-e-Pakistan as per law. He said that PDM will be remembered for its agenda to save its corruption and spread coronavirus. He also said that the nation rejects the politics of chaos and anarchy.

He further said that on one hand the number of coronavirus patients is increasing in the hospitals and death toll is rising, while on the other, the opposition is worried about the completion of their negative agenda. The opposition is pushing the nation towards coronavirus just to protect the virus of their corruption, he added. The CM said that the opposition should keep this in its mind that its rallies and public meetings may increase the ratio of coronavirus but their desire to get NRO cannot be fulfilled. Lawbreaker will face the legal proceedings, he warned.

govt determined to bring improvement in people’s lives: faraz ISLAMABAD unnatural alliance is using cheap tactics for protecting the wealth collected by money laundering, she added.

“Opposition is goof as the parties are not realising the alarming situation of Covid-19. The fake princes of Jati Umra and her maids are creating hue and cry,” she further said. “The negative politics of Maryam Nawaz, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and their cronies have been rejected by the public,” Firdous said.

The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) held its power show at Minar-e-Pakistan on Sunday. The 11-party opposition alliance held the rally in violation of the government-defined standard operating procedures (SOPs) to halt the spread of coronavirus. Moreover, the event did not have the government’s approval. The local administration denied the PDM permission to hold the public meeting citing a continued spike in coronavirus infections. The opposition did not heed the government’s calls to postpone the rally by at least two months.

STAFF REPORT

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz has said that the government is determined to bring all possible improvement in the people’s lives. In a series of tweets on Sunday, the information minister said that price reduction of sugar is a clear depiction of Prime Minister Imran Khan's commitment to provide relief to the poor.

Appreciating the PM’s vision to deal with Covid-19, he said it was Imran’s wise strategy that the country's economy and human lives remained safe. The minister said that despite challenges, Pakistan's economic indicators are positive. He said that in the first half of the financial year, remittances have increased by 27 per cent, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by 150 per cent and cement production increased by 17 per cent.

Monday, 14 December, 2020

04 NEWS

PeoPle cannot be fooled by gimmicks of Political thugs: afridi ISLAMABAD

P

stAFF RePoRt

akistan’s Kashmir Committee Chairman Shehryar Khan Afridi on Sunday said that the nation cannot be fooled by a bunch of political stooges, who had looted the national exchequer repeatedly.

While talking to media after a ground breaking ceremony of a project, Afridi said that the people of Pakistan are aware of the true agenda of the rejected politicians, who had formed an alliance in a bid to show their political existence.

"After being rejected by the voters in successive elections since 2018, the rejected politicians formed an alliance named Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) to help save each other. People rejected them in general, FATA and Gilgit-Baltistan elections.

But the corrupt politicians are still making their last efforts to fool the people again with political gimmicks," he said.

Afridi further said that the people will reject the PDM’s political gimmick and show that they stand beside Prime Minister Imran Khan's vision of prosperous Pakistan.

"The politicians, gathered under the forum of PDM, have been calling each other thieves, plunderers and corrupt in the past.

Now these political thugs stand united today to save their plundered wealth. Just like 2018, their defeat will be declared at the hands of common people," he added.

Afridi said that the rejected politicians were determined to play with the lives of the people of Lahore despite NECTA's threat alert. The PDM leadership will be held fully responsible for causing any harm to the public.

"The Indian forces are openly violating the ceasefire agreement on the Line of Control (LOC) and bombing unarmed Kashmiris. Our brave forces are fighting the enemy on the LOC. Under such circumstances, some corrupt politicians are hiding in the guise of PDM and planning riots in the

country in the name of long march. When the government and the people are united in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, a bunch of politicians with vested interests want to use people to save their plundered wealth," asserted Afridi.

"The nation cannot allow these politicians to play with the national interest. The time has now come for the public to hold these thieves accountable. These thugs have repeatedly robbed the people in the name of democracy. Now they have once again come together to deceive people with empty and false slogans. As the people have come to know the reality of these false slogans. They are no longer ready to be fooled by these thieves.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Covid-19 and PDM are all contemporary enemies of Pakistan. This bunch is attacking Pakistan's interests from all sides, but we remain unite to defeat these three enemies of the country under the leadership of Imran Khan," Afridi concluded.

Honey production in KP reduced by 60 per cent due to Covid-19 PESHAWAR Aziz BUNeRi

The beekeepers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) were hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and terrorism, which caused almost 60 per cent reduction in the production of honey.

All Pakistan Beekeeper Exporters and Honey Association (APBEHA) Senior Vice President Sheikh Gul Bacha told Pakistan Today that a letter has been sent to the

provincial government by Prime Minister Imran Khan regarding the proposal to grant industry status to this business. He added that it is a good step, but the government has to act immediately and grant industry status to this business. ‘’Only Karak district is producing Rs6 billion. The beekeepers should not hope from such letters, as many projects were earlier started with the help of some international organisations. However, those projects were limited to a few people and did nothing

Pet PTI causes come to the fore City Notes M A NiAzi Asif Nazar Butt aka DJ Butt has been arrested and bailed. The DJ, who became famous for providing his sound system at Prime Minister Imran Khan rallies, found that the police had got him for illegal possession of arms.

I wonder if there is some higher significance to all this, because the DJ was supplying his sound system for some Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) rallies. Shame on him for helping looters and plunderers, especially after he had once seen the light.

But I am not sure if the police officials are to blame. If they have been inclined to lodge a false case, surely it would be one of buffalo theft? Something that would lower the standing of the DJ before the whole village.

Even in Model Town, where the arrest took place, I would suspect that having an illegal weapon would probably fit in with the raffish and devil-may-care persona that any good DJ would have. A good DJ should also be high, but I am sure the DJ would never

admit that particular infraction of the law.

Of course, the PM had no real knowledge of any of this. He was too busy inaugurating the Anti-Narcotics Force headquarters building, even though the ANF had failed to deliver him PML-N’s Rana Sanaullah. Imran did not reveal his true feelings, and promised an anti-narcotics campaign.

That might seem to be going a little bit too far, but we should not forget that one of the many differences between us and the West is that while we have heroin and charas addicts, they also have cocaine addicts.

Now, as the level of development in the West, shows cannabis and heroin are essentially lower-class drugs, and cocaine is both cool and upper-class.

While we have got to have one syllabus for all the schools, we need something to separate the lower classes from the upper ones. Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid is credited with the phrase ‘burger family’ to describe the phenomenon. Perhaps the man he is succeeding, Brigadier (r) Ejaz Shah, will come up with the phrase ‘cocaine family’ at his new Ministry of Narcotics Control.

One of the reasons for replacing a former Intelligence Bureau DG is said to be

for this industry," Bacha said. ‘’Due to lockdown across the country, the businessmen could not move their bees in different parts of the country. Consequently, 20 per cent of bees were completely destroyed, while 40 per cent were not able to produce honey due to weak health."

He further said that all the medicines of bees are imported from China in the country.

The imports were stopped for last several months due to coronavirus infections in China and bees were affected due to lack of

medicines. ‘’One of the main reason for the decline in the production of honey is that the beekeepers were not able to transport their bees to the areas, having flower trees, due to the lockdowns. Resultantly, almost 60 per cent reduction was seen in the production of honey. KP used to produce 30,000 to 35,000 tonnes of honey annually. But due to deforestation and lack of seasonal and flowering trees, the production was reduced to Rs12,000 tonnes. The price of honey has

that he is not as sharp as he used to be.

Some would say that Imran thus found him ideal to head the government’s effort to control drugs. I think that is not fair. Instead of looking at others, Imran needs someone who can look long and hard at Sanaullah and find drugs on him.

Actually, that was the least of Imran’s worries. The real question was how to mark December 9, which should be declared as PTI Day. Look, not only is it Anti-Corruption Day, but also National Voters’ Day, both marking causes dear to the heart of all PTI true believers. They combine how the PTI believes that the voting system allows the making of laws, which allow rulers to rip off the public. Only if the public is allowed to elect its true representatives (someone who has built a cancer hospital), can the cycle be broken? Well, I suppose that the country has got it better than India. Here, we are only dealing with an attempt to have the government changed. In India, you have farmers protesting, because of new laws abolishing minimum support prices.

I hope the implementation of rule of law, without the interference of any selectors, does not lead to similar results over here. Well, we have had a rally over here so that we could get to that desired goal. The one fly in the ointment is the demand for resignations. Being an opposition MPA beats being an x-MPA.

reached to Rs20,000 per mand," he said. ‘’The government spent billions of rupees on the Billion Tree project in KP. But the flowering trees, which could increase honey production and exports, were not planted by the government despite the assurance given to beekeepers by the concerned authorities during a meeting."

The association informed that 80 per cent of honey is exported to the Gulf countries. But due to lockdown, even 40 per cent of honey could not be exported and it caused loss to the national exchequer as well as beekeepers. ‘’The second largest export market for KP's beekeepers is Afghanistan. Due to administrative and border management issues, honey could not be exported even to Afghanistan. Traders in Afghanistan have signed contract agreements with India and Iran for importing honey due to difficulties at Pak-Afghan Torkham Border," Bacha added. ‘’At present, 1.2 million people are connected with honey business in KP. But the government is not granting industry status to this business and providing relief to beekeepers as a compensation of their loss during the Covid-19 pandemic. Flower trees should have been the part of the Billion Tree Project. The government should plant flower trees in all areas of the KP, as the trees will increase the production of honey in the country. The government must also grant industry status to honey business and build training centres for the people associated with this business."

Monday, 14 December, 2020

RevelatIons In InDIan ChRonICles of fake MeDIa CReates RIPPles aMongst fReeDoM RIght suPPoRteRs iSLamaBad

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APP

HOCKING revelations by EU Disinfo Lab of an Indian clandestine operation to use fake media houses to malign Pakistan and China has attracted a strong reaction from freedom right supporters who have demanded of the United Nations to immediately remove all such organistaions.

Andy Vermaut, an official member of “The International Alliance for the Defence of Rights and Freedoms (AIDL) constituted by the United Nations (ECOSOC) and President of PostVersa, Human Rights and Fundamental Rights chapter said he was astonished to hear about the research of the EU Disinfo Lab. He said it was surprising to note how the Indian Srivastava group, resurrected ten UN recognized NGOs, to spread disinformation and fake news about Pakistan.

“I repeat my plea today for a total screening of all human rights organizations that are consulted by the United Nations on human rights and that spread fake news, purely to put a state or a people in a bad daylight,” he said in a video message.

He said the evidence from the Indian Chronicles clearly shows how members of the European Parliament, through the fake news “were abused and used mostly without their knowledge” to present false information as real information.

He pointed that the resurrection of the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace (CSOP) even uses Professor Louis B Sohn, who died in 2006, but the fake media portrayed as if he participated in activities on human rights in Washington DC even a year after his death.

“That organization was re-established in order to put Pakistan in a bad light. Just like the International Club for Peace Research (ICPR), which was used to put Pakistan in a bad light at the United Nations Human Rights Council,” he said.

He also mentioned the World Environment and Resources Council (WERC) which, he said, was re-established to oppose the construction of a dam in Pakistan.

“These NGOs were mostly represented by students at the UNHRC. These students were paid 186 euro in cash to put Pakistan in a bad light,” he said.

Andy Vermaut said he believes that the international

community has a responsibility to act, before the United Nations Human Rights Council. He said all this has severe consequences for the authentic human rights agenda as unfortunately it may be considered nothing more than a big joke.

“We cannot and [will] never accept this,” he said.

As an another example, the mentioned the Canners Permanent International Committee -an organisation specialized in promoting canned foods which ceased to exist in 2007 – was paying students in cash to criticise Pakistan with fake news at the United Nations, even in 2020.

He said the operation in which Pakistan was being damaged, through 9 NGOs constituted by the United Nations on human rights, should be immediately removed as recognized organizations of the United Nations. He said the alarming thing was that this was being done for the past 15 years “with total impunity.”

“All fake organizations with a hidden propaganda and fake agenda must lose their recognition from the United Nations.”

“It is my plea – the credibility of the United Nations and the European Union itself is at stake here,” Andy Vermaut said.

AstraZeneca to buy Alexion for $39 billion to expand in immunology franKfurt AGENCIES

Britain’s AstraZeneca has agreed to buy U.S. drugmaker Alexion Pharmaceuticals for $39 billion in its largest ever deal, diversifying away from its fast-growing cancer business in a bet on rare-disease and immunology drugs.

The deal comes in a week that AstraZeneca said it was conducting further research to confirm whether its Covid19 vaccine could be 90% effective, potentially slowing its rollout, and as a rival shot from Pfizer was launched in Britain and approved for use in the United States.

The British company said on Saturday that Alexion shareholders would receive $60 in cash and about $115 worth of equity per share - either in AstraZeneca’s UKtraded ordinary shares or in dollar-denominated American Depositary Shares.

Based on a reference average ADR price of $54.14, that implies a total price of $175 per share. Alexion shares closed at around $121 apiece on Friday.

“It is a tremendous opportunity for us to accelerate our development in immunology, getting into a new segment of disease, a new segment of physicians, and patients we haven’t been able to cover so far,” AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot told a media call.

Alexion’s best-selling drug is Soliris, used against a range of rare immune-disorders including paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), which causes anaemia and blood clots, and whose revenue rose 3.6% in the first nine months to $3 billion.

AstraZeneca hopes that an improved version of Soliris called Ultomiris has an even larger market potential. It expects more growth from introducing the target’s rare-disease treatments to China and other emerging markets.

The British firm said the boards of both companies had approved the deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021.

AstraZeneca was once seen as leading the race to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, but has fallen behind Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, as well as Moderna, whose shots have shown greater efficacy in late-stage clinical trials.

With a planned capital increase of about $25 billion after the deal closure, Soriot is looking to harness a strong advance by AstraZeneca stock, driven by the stellar growth of new cancer drugs.

The shares have climbed about 70% through the past three years. A precursor cash call, on a much smaller scale, was a $3.5 billion issue last year to fund the purchase of rights to cancer drug Enhertu from Daiichi Sankyo.

RARE DISEASES: Despite generating billions in cash

from treatments such as Soliris, one of the most expensive drugs in the world costing hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient, Alexion shares have struggled in recent years as investors have worried about competition heating up.

That had led it to be seen as a possible bid target.

Hedge fund and activist investor Elliott Management has urged Alexion to seek a buyer and in May spoke out publicly.

The fund, which had held private meetings with the company, said CEO Ludwig Hantson’s go-it-alone approach had failed to gain traction and opposed its plan to buy rivals to diversify its research pipeline. Elliott first invested in Alexion in 2017 when the share price was only slightly lower than Friday’s close of $120.98. Elliott did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

AstraZeneca said it expected the deal to immediately boost core earnings and to deliver pretax synergy gains of around $500 million per year. It also expects around $650 million in one-time cash costs during the three years following completion.

Speaking on an analyst call, 61-year-old Soriot said the deal should put to rest speculation he was on his way out, as he was determined to stay on board to see the strategic benefits of the transaction delivered.

news

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PM calls PDM jalsa a waste of money, time and effort continued from page 01 Separately, expressing sorrow over the opposition parties' negative politics, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar said that unfortunately Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has “made coronavirus a partner of their alliance” as they are proving to be responsible for spreading the virus.

In a statement on Sunday, he said that opposition's public gatherings have no agenda except closure of investigations into its leaders' corruption. He hoped that the people of Lahore would flatly reject the negative politics of the PDM. Similarly, Special Assistant to Punjab Chief Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, during her visit to the control room set up at Lahore deputy commissioner's (DC) office, said that the citizens have shown confidence in the leadership of PM Imran and have rejected PDM’s call for a really.

She said that the claims of opposition were exposed as only a small number of people gathered at Minar-e-Pakistan, adding that leadership is not transferred through inheritance. The selfproclaimed leaders tried to put the country into crisis despite alarming coronavirus situation in the country but the citizens rejected their treacherous narrative, she maintained. She also said that the government did not put any obstacle in the way of opposition in order to avoid any confrontation and to expose the political strength of PDM to the public. She further said that people of Lahore pay heed to the secret message of Shehbaz and turned a deaf ear to "Calibri Queen’s" call for a meeting.

"The Calibri Queen’s efforts to double-cross Shehbaz Sharif ended in vain," she added. Firdous said that the citizens ruined the political agenda of PDM as only a few people attended the meeting.

She said that opposition held this congregation unlawfully and strict legal action will be taken against the organizers and their facilitators. She was of the view that Pakistan People's Party (PPP) will never resign on the behest of "Calibri Queen".

She further said that the government foiled the attempt of PDM for political confrontation and political martyrdom through her best strategy.

Israel says it has established diplomatic ties with Bhutan teL aViV AGENCIES

Israel established relations on Saturday with Bhutan, a majority-Buddhist nation neighbouring India, as it looks to continue to expand its diplomatic links internationally. Israel’s accord with the Himalayan country did not appear to be related to its budding ties under U.S.-sponsored accords with Arab and Muslim countries, though Israeli officials sought to portray it as evidence of its growing acceptance abroad.

PDM concludes first phase of public agitation with Lahore rally continued from page 01 "They say, don't take names? Tell me, what should we do? Is Imran Khan alone responsible for the predicament the country is in?" he asked.

Nawaz said that his "crime is that I speak the truth" and added that he was fighting for the people. He said that his "narrative" was the same as Quaid-e-Azam's. Nawaz once again lashed out at the armed forces, accusing them of being involved in political matters.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari alleged that the government is not cognisant of the difficulties being faced by masses “because it did not come into power through people’s mandate”.

Addressing the PDM’s rally in Lahore on Sunday, he said that Imran Khan became the prime minister with the help of “selectors”.

The PPP chief that non-democratic forces termed as the establishment, which he refers to as the selectors, "have been conspiring against you (public) and have been forming governments of their choice".

"Selectors, listen clearly, you will have to listen to the public's voice, you will have to accept their decision [...] the time for dialogue is gone, now there will be a long march," said a charged Bilawal.

He recalled that his grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had founded the party in Punjab.

The PPP workers in Lahore, Bilawal said, went through torture but continued to support democracy. He said that the country is suffering because of the "fake, incompetent and illegitimate government".

"Punjab's pag (cap) is on the head of the puppet of a puppet. Is this acceptable to Punjab?" he asked, adding that he neither accepted

the prime minister nor his chief minister. He insisted that the PDM's "war is not for power but for the rights" of the people.

“Dialogue can only be held after the removal of dummy prime minister [Imran Khan],” said Bilawal.

JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has warned during his address that growing resentment and anger of the people against the “illegitimate government” can lead to anarchy in the country.

He urged the establishment to stop meddling into the political affairs of the country and let the people choose their leaders to govern the country.

“If people’s rights are continued to be abrogated then the national unity cannot remain intact,” he cautioned. “Imran Khan’s government has weakened the country so much that we could not even protect Kashmir,” the JUI-F chief lamented.

Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) Chairman Aftab Sherpao addressed the gathering, saying that the platform is of the view that domestic and foreign policies have "failed".

"All institutions have become paralysed.

We do not accept the inflation and unemployment and the country's economic policies," he said while lamenting the poor clamouring for sugar and wheat.

Meanwhile, Balochistan National PartyMengal (BNP-M) chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal started off his address by saying that the PDM public meetings were "funeral prayers of the dictators" and demanded to know who was to be held responsible for the violence in the province. Mengal said that 10,000 Baloch people were still missing, adding that all the people of Balochistan want was to be treated and respected as humans. He also spoke

about provincial autonomy, saying that if "provinces were autonomous [in Pakistan] Bangladesh would not have been created".

Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai called for a "Turkey-like revolution" in Pakistan and encouraged Maryam, Bilawal and Fazlur to lead the movement.

It is important to mention here that despite claims about attracting a huge crowd at Minar-e-Pakistan during the jalsa, reportedly relatively few people attended the PDM rally, which is a great shock for the opposition alliance.

A large stage had been set up on the steps of Minar-e-Pakistan for the leaders while chairs have been set up on the ground at the forefront. Generators had been hooked up and lights have been installed for the rally beside the all-important sound system.

A bomb disposal squad was also present during the event after a security threat alert was issued by the police earlier this week.

The district administration of Lahore had changed the entry routes to the venue ahead of the jalsa. Per the new plan, Gate no 1 was be open to the public, while Gate no 2 and 3 was be reserved for the VVIPs. Women participants were allowed to enter the venue through gates 4 and 5.

According to police sources, around 8,500 people participated in the Lahore rally, while the Special Branch said that around 10,000 people attended the gathering at Minar-e-Pakistan.

On the other hand, the government officials said that the PDM rally only attracted 10,000 to 15,000 attendees. The PTI officials maintained that the gathering turned into a fiasco because of poor attendance.

CMYK

Information Minister Shibli Faraz said that the PDM could hardly manage to gather 10,000 to 15,000 people at the venue, adding that the rally was "as cold as the weather."

Before the rally, PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah had said that the government must not stop the rally because "millions of people" would be coming to the venue.

Adding to Shibli Faraz's comment, Special Assistant to Punjab Chief Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said that the government neither stopped the opposition from carrying out the rally nor placed any containers to block the road.

"Despite all the freedom, the PDM failed to attract enough supporters for their gathering, and ended up setting a five-acre tent in a 150-acre park," she asserted. "There were only about 10,000 chairs at the jalsa venue which shows PDM's ineffectiveness."

She added that PDM’s rally was more of a classroom where "MNAs and MPAs had to mark their attendance."

Senator Faisal Javed Khan said that PDM's rally "flopped" because the opposition leaders failed to garner enough support for their mission. "Just like their previous meetings, this one too was a flopped show," he said.

Comparing the PDM jalsa to PTI's previous rallies at Minar-e-Pakistan, Faisal said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had singlehandedly filled the historic venue with supporters when he addressed a rally there. "[They could not gather enough people] even after bringing 11 different parties together," he said. "PTI's jalsas had these many people on the stage alone."

Moreover, the PDM public gathering in Lahore was marred by ruckus when participants of the rally reached near the stage by

breaking all hurdles. The participants broke barbed wires when the main leadership of opposition parties reached Minar-e-Pakistan to address the rally.

The participants of the rally also entered the female enclosure and misbehaved with PML-N MNA Shaista Pervez Malik.

Earlier in the day, PML-N MNA Riaz Hussain was denied entry into the Greater Iqbal park by JUI-F’s Ansarul Islam men deployed outside the jalsagah to ensure security. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) Dr Shahbaz Gill said on Twitter that while the PDM claims it is not being allowed to host a jalsa, it is their own party members that are causing blockades.

Before the rally began, Maryam hosted a lunch for the party leaders at party leader Ayaz Sadiq's residence in the city. The lunch was attended by Bilawal and other opposition bigwigs, including Rehman, BNP-M President Mengal and Awami National Party (ANP) Central General Secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain.

From there, the leaders left for the venue of the rally. This was PPP Chairman Bilawal's first appearance at a political gathering at Minar-e-Pakistan.

The meeting came at a crucial time both for the government and the umbrella alliance of 11 opposition parties seeking to hold "fresh and fair" elections. For the government as a second wave of coronavirus grips the country at a time when it is struggling to improve the teetering economic growth and for the opposition, as it deliberates on the much-debated question of whether to resign from the legislative assemblies to exert pressure on the authorities to hold election anew.

With additional reporting by Shahab Omer

Monday, 14 December, 2020

06 COMMENT

The abuse

Raising revenue The portfolio reverts for now to the PM

T

Child abuse is more of a problem than we think

hough Dr hafeez Sheikh has been made a minister instead of PM’s adviser on finance, so that he can continue to chair cabinet committees, which the Islamabad high Court has ruled he cannot in the less formal status, he has had the Revenue portfolio withdrawn from him. This reflects the continued failure of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), which is supervised by the Revenue Division, to fulfill the collection targets given it to meet the government’s commitments to the IMF. At the time Dr Sheikh was tapped as adviser, pursuant to the IMF package, the government inducted prominent chartered accountant Shabbar Zaidi as FBR Chairman. It did not work, and Mr Zaidi left his job for medical reasons. Covid-19 created many financial problems for the government, but one area of relief it granted was on IMF conditionalities. however, of late, the IMF has been holding back on further tranches, and its main problem is the failure of the FBR to meet its collection targets. The government has tried to build its reputation for economic management on the basis of current account surpluses, but it still has got to face the IMF. As Minister, Dr Sheikh will no longer be able to command the FBR. one of its problems has been a revolving-door chairmanship, with the chairmanship once again in the hands of the very career officials most in need of reform. While outstanding individuals have held the office, none have met all the requirements. It seems a successful Chairman must be ready to act as tool for the government to use against political opponents, as it was used to hound Mr Justice Faez Isa of the Supreme Court. he must also meet the collection targets set by the IMF, and he must win the confidence of the FBR’s officials.

All the while, he must not only push through reforms whereby businessmen are no longer scared of the tax officials, and the prevailing culture of corruption is brought to an end. Prime Minister Imran Khan has taken over this task personally, albeit by default, but until he finds the right instruments in the FBR itself, it is unlikely he will make any difference.

Zainab naZir

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AMPAgINg beasts, broken angels, their roar of pain, skin that breathes and beats scars, tangled sentences, naked expressions, turns and thorns, hidden secrets, damage done─ a fact long-hidden in Pakistan, concealed in the hush of taboo, is no more hidden. Child sexual abuse is a social evil of significant magnitude.

It is an interpersonal trauma, that is, perpetrated by evil demons with their twisted and lustful hands, against minors. Child sexual abuse plagues minors of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that incidents of children being abused is so high that it's almost an ambiguous malaise. The talk of sexual abuse of boys often meets laughter and murky glances. Why is this a butt of jokes?

Mercifully, the scenario is not the same for the abuse of girls. The proximity of this social evil shatters the pillars that anchor our community values. Most of the time, societal pressure and societal respect clouds our judgment and influences our decisions regarding this debauchery.

To make matters worse, the definition of rape under section 375 of the Penal Code only includes a man forcibly to have sex with a female without consent but fails to cover a man forcing himself on another male (that is covered by section 377). one can only hope that scandals like the one in Kasur (2015) involving sexual abuse of boys in front of the cameras will one day change this thinking pattern. Child abuse in Kasur has continued since 2007 when the victims were most school students. Thus, there is a severe

need for the lawmakers to look into this issue and ensure that the boys are treated fairly and justly and that sex without consent with a boy should also be labelled as "rape".

The accused of the Kasur incident may argue that the boys were having consensual sex and they were not guilty of any such crime. A question arises here that if a child cannot drive, own property, vote, or file

may suffer from health issues, such as sexually transmitted infections, physical harms and injuries and unwanted pregnancies. In the long term, the victims of sexual abuse are more likely to suffer from anxiety, depression, eating disorders and stress disorders. They are also more likely to self-harm, become involved in criminal activities, behavioural issues, misuse drugs and alcohol, and to commit suicide as young adults. The victims picture themself in every other child happily playing outdoors, every child painting his or her childhood dreams and in every child who smiles without the fear of tomorrow. But, unfortunately, it is the victim who knows that the rainbow comes and goes. he or she is unable to overcome the inappropriate shame and self-blame, imposed on him or her by the abuse, to find self-respect, confidence and esteem.

Child abuse is very common in our country. It is important to understand, evaluate and reduce the risk factors of abuse and familiarize yourself with it.

Victims are not responsible for their victimization. The odds are very low that a child is lying. The odds are very high that the ravaging monster is manipulating you to believe that the child is lying. Believe the child. A society will never be harmed by any outside threat, until it has corrupted its insides by reaching a moral decline. Some questions to ask ourselves are: have we reached an absolute moral decline? When will all this strike a chord? When will all this spark a firestorm to set us free?

Child abuse is very common in our country. It is important to understand, evaluate and reduce the risk factors of abuse and familiarize yourself with it.

Victims are not responsible for their victimization.

The odds are very low that a child is lying. The odds are very high that the ravaging monster is manipulating you to believe that the child is lying.

Believe the child. A society will never be harmed by any outside threat, until it has corrupted its insides by reaching a moral decline. Some questions to ask ourselves are: Have we reached an absolute moral decline? When will all this strike a chord? When will all this spark a firestorm to set us free?

Now 10 billion trees

an FIR, then why is the same child considered mature and capable enough of giving consent to sex? Anyway, Section 377 PPC criminalises consensual sex.

Sexual abuse can cause serious physical, emotional and mental harm to children both in the short term and the long term. In the short term, children

The writer is an English Literature and Linguistics graduate based in Islamabad and can be reached at zainab.nazir@gmail.com.

Turning green won’t be a cakewalk

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Homework or no homework?

T might sound fine for Prime Minister Imran Khan to announce that Pakistan will have 60 percent clean energy by 2030, but that will involve a lot of work, especially in a country where there are growing energy shortages, and the policy priority of governments has been to solve those shortages at almost any cost, with environmental consequences a low priority. It is in that context that coal-fired power plants came up, which Mr Khan announced would no longer be developed. It should be remembered that it had been voiced by the more aware that Thar coal had not been used precisely because it was environmentally horrendous, but that objection disappeared in the face of the country’s power shortages.

Among the herculean tasks that will have to be undertaken will be having 30 percent of all vehicles switched to electricity in the next five years. That assumes that about 20 percent of the current fleet will retire in this time. Considering that vehicles of the last century are still on the roads, it seems an uphill task. he also told the World Ambition Climate Summit, which he attended online, that his government would plant 10 billion trees in the next three years.

Considering that his original ‘billion-tree tsunami’ has run into criticism for mismanagement, and is being investigated for allegations of misappropriation, it seems that the project is merely meant as a lollipop for party hacks.

It is to be hoped that Mr Khan is not only making these announcements to win kudos among foreign activists and Ngos. Environmental change, and global warming, is a global problem, but would not be solved if Pakistan converted its entire area to forest, and changed its energy use 100 percent to renewable sources. The meaningful steps have to be taken by the world’s biggest polluters, like the uSA, Europe, China and India. That does not mean Pakistan should do nothing, for every little bit helps; but apart from its own actions, Pakistan must make its voice heard among the polluters of the world in favour of sanity and sustainable development, not the disaster around the corner that is awaiting us all.

An Eternal Debate

MuhaMMad aMir SaleeM

T

hE debate on homework is quite an old one.

A stark contradiction exists among parents.

For some, it is essential to keep children busy at home instead of allowing them to be glued to electronic gadgets or mobiles. As opposed to this, some parents give preference to extracurricular activities and family time over it. The same wedge in opinions lies, and always lay. among educationists and psychologists, both child psychologists and educational psychologists. Their literary and academic work is full of varying degrees of agreement and disagreement. No wonder at all, that the discussion turns up in the schools!

In private-owned schools, parents and students are valued clients whose satisfaction is the prime goal to be entertained. The policy statements of such schools– enthralling, inspirational, and eye-catching– are found either on notebooks or decorated walls in premises. Also, notebooks bear the same attractive school icons and promotions. So, one can establish a correlation between marketing and a sale factor. Not surprising at all, who is the beneficiary? Nevertheless, this is not the case with all schools!

To the utter disappointment of those entering the profession, the status of the teacher is no more than that of a minority member in institutions where students are considered a valued customer! Further, the performance of a teacher is evaluated through the prism of parent and student satisfaction. In such an environment, consequentially, the creative and inno-

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vative flair of the teacher hides in the deep mist of artificial display. This costs both students and schools alike! Whereas, the unchecked homework or the absence of homework is a good pretence in the hands of the school management to take teachers down a peg or two.

To support the family, the working women do not have much time to monitor kids at home; hence, the advocacy of homework is a natural proclivity because it keeps their children busy at home in the absence of parents.

Analogous to this, some parents lend homework a great deal of credence and believe that it improves examination grades. But, the latest research of some prestigious institutions in the West sets aside this abstraction and claims that home assignments only bring a modest improvement in standardized tests.

By and large, students give the least significance to homework. It is precise to say that they bring it off superfluously at home. But, some even accomplish it during lectures at school! The predominant numbers of students detach its importance from the examination perspective and put it down as an additional burden! on top of it all, teachers do not check the accuracy of assignments; they only mark them as to relieve themselves of this burden. The very predispo-

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sition permeates among teachers who do not check the accuracy of assignments─ just scrambling and scribbling on the scripts. here comes the worst, in the shape of tuition and academy, that all tasks from schools become devalued! undoubtedly, the correct amount and frequency can enhance the significance of homework. Further, if teachers sincerely check the accuracy of work, it will benefit students the most. Schools should reduce the burden of teachers in terms of student-teacher ratio, so teachers spend more time improving their knowledge and preparing their lessons. If home assignments carry some marks in the internal assessment system, students may attempt it more seriously.

We should follow the Finland model of education in which teachers enjoy high social and economic status. Their selection is the toughest because teachers must have a Master's degree and have to get through specific exams to be a teacher. Indeed, a collective effort is required to revamp our education system that may produce a class of civilized, diligent, honest, and selfless individuals.

Undoubtedly, the correct amount and frequency can enhance the significance of homework. Further, if teachers sincerely check the accuracy of work, it will benefit students the most. Schools should reduce the burden of teachers in terms of studentteacher ratio, so teachers spend more time improving their knowledge and preparing their lessons. If home assignments carry some marks in the internal assessment system, students may attempt it more seriously. We should follow the Finland model of education in which teachers enjoy high social and economic status.

Their selection is the toughest because teachers must have a Master's degree and have to get through specific exams to be a teacher. Indeed, a collective effort is required to revamp our education system that may produce a class of civilized, diligent, honest, and selfless individuals.

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Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

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The writer is an ‘IGCSE’ & ‘O’ Level, Pakistan Studies Teacher.

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Monday, 14 December, 2020

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

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

Powering political figure from Larr Belt

Mismanaging covid-19 A strict lockdown, even a short one, is needed in cities KaSwar GardeZi

S

INCE the start of the covid19 pandemic, the incumbent government faced criticism for not handling the situation properly. It started off with the Sindh government advising closure of borders so as to nip the virus in the bud followed by calls for continued lockdowns amidst rising cases. Nonetheless, the government remained firm in its policies and gradually opened up the country. Much to their own surprise, the numbers started falling down and the curve flattened.

Despite the criticism, the IK led government withstood all opposition and endeavoured to protect the economic interests of the country.

The concept of smart lockdowns somehow seemed to work and the country was able to open up to a great extent. however, during the first wave, there was a general sense of responsibility as the citizens continued to adhere to the SoPs to some extent. A significant number of people could be seen wearing masks and trying to protect themselves by practicing some sort of social distancing. unfortunately, the relief during the first wave didn’t bode well for the general populace.

Covid-19 is back with more rigour. In fact, it never went away and had merely slowed down in the summer months. The pandemic is ravaging on a drastic level with an alarming rise in the number of daily cases and deaths. however, this time around, the citizenry isn’t willing to acknowledge the potential dangers. In March, the pandemic was new and had created a fear in the hearts and minds of the people. By now, the people are used to the coronavirus scare and aren’t scared anymore. Large public gatherings are being organized, weddings are being celebrated, business is booming and at the same time, people are coughing up the last breaths of their lives.

According to some statistics, the second wave includes a mutated strand of Covid-19 which has unveiled unconventional symptoms which had not been present before. The intensity of its peculiarity is so much that in some cases the virus is gone within a few days without any material physical symptoms and in others, it is taking more than a month to leave the body.

With ongoing uncertainty, it is imperative that the people realize the seriousness of the second wave. If not for yourself, then at least for your more vulnerable loved ones.

While the government may have handled the first wave effectively, it doesn’t seem to be doing so well during the second wave.

Covid-19 patients in a Peshawar hospital died because their oxygen supply ran out and refurbisments couldn’t reach on time. The positivity ratio is rising to an alarming level and there is a continued flouting of the SoPs throughout the country. If you walk into any government office, utility store, private office, court of law or any other public place, a vast majority present there is without masks

and the few who do wear them will have their noses uncovered. overall, the majority of the population is not adhering to the SoPs and the government isn’t doing anything to enforce them. Ministers do threaten action and lockdowns during press conferences but, nothing is being done on the ground to enforce these measures. unlike the first wave, the second appears to be more deadly and luck isn’t going to favour us always if we don’t strive to help ourselves. The government should even consider a smaller lockdown of, for instance, a week, throughout the nation. or, perhaps, lockdown in phases in different parts of the country in order to curb the spread of the virus. For all intents and purposes, the apparent minilockdowns are nowhere to be seen.

I have personally been to areas which are supposed to be in mini-lockdown, with no lockdown in sight. No effective measures are being adopted which would contribute in curbing the spread.

Large scale weddings are taking place with zero SoPs as are all sorts of events. Educated people are mostly acting in the most illiterate manner by gathering together for their events without adhering to social distancing and wearing masks. Just this past week, the provincial bar elections were conducted in Punjab with daunting sights of negligible social distancing. In fact, for a moment, it appeared as though covid-19 doesn’t exist and we live in pre-covid19 times.

The government is not managing the second wave as effectively as it should. With the sole exception of criticizing the PDM rallies, the government hasn’t taken any concrete steps to counter the violation of SoPs. Yes, the economic

repercussions have to be taken into account ut, a strategically planned short-term lockdown won’t do much harm. I do not propose a monthlong lockdown but at least in urban areas, a strict lockdown even for a week or 10 days will significantly counter the rapid spread. Accordingly, a strict enforcement of masks should also be ensured. Mere statements regarding following of SoPs is not going to work. Some form of deterrent should be created in order to make the public follow the rules. To begin with, government officers themselves including police officers should strictly wear masks; in fact it should be made part of the uniform for now.

It appears that the incumbents are hoping against all odds that the second wave will be over as quickly as the first was. Indeed, the second wave will be over soon, it isn’t going to be the end of the world. however, before leaving, it will wreak havoc all over. hundreds of deaths and the pressure on the healthcare system can be reduced if the government actively takes steps to enforce SoPs and cut down on all unnecessary gatherings.

Let us hope that better sense prevails and the government along with the citizenry displays a sense of responsibility by fighting out the last and most dangerous leg of the covid-19 virus effectively and sincerely. Far too many lives have been lost and far too many households have been destroyed, so let us all play our parts to fight this menace once and for all.

It appears that the incumbents are hoping against all odds that the second wave will be over as quickly as the first was. Indeed, the second wave will be over soon, it isn’t going to be the end of the world. However, before leaving, it will wreak havoc all over. Hundreds of deaths and the pressure on the healthcare system can be reduced if the government actively takes steps to enforce SOPs and cut down on all unnecessary gatherings.

Let us hope that better sense prevails and the government along with the citizenry displays a sense of responsibility by fighting out the last and most dangerous leg of the covid-19 virus effectively and sincerely. Far too many lives have been lost and far too many households have been destroyed, so let us all play our parts to fight this menace once and for all

The writer is a lawyer and a columnist. he can be contacted at kaswargardezi@gmail.com

TENS of thousands of people reached at Shirazi house Thatta to bid farewell to their beloved leader, and patriarch of Shirazi group Sayed Aijaz Shah Shirazi who remained a sturdy voice of the poor population of the remote districts, Thatta and Sujawal. The deceased was advisor to the Chief Minister and was found contagious two months ago. he was admitted to a private hospital in Karachi where he succumbed to the virulent disease, CoVID-19. grief has engulfed both the districts where the shirazi group enjoys significant political influence.

Aijaz Shah Shiraz the elder son of Qadir Dino Shah Shirazi strived hard for making the shirazi clan a dominating political figure of the two districts. he started his political career by contesting local body elections in 1984. he was then elected member of the provincial assembly for five consecutive terms. he held many portfolios as minister and also served as adviser to Chief Minister on many occasions. he had an out of ordinary affiliation with downtrodden people of his district, It was famous for him that he rarely missed any funeral procession or any other public event in the area. he was among those very few politicians of Sindh who wanted to be directly connected to his people who had always attached high hopes to him.

Resolving disputes of his people through pacfic means was another aptness he was known for, people from far-flung areas of the districts used to come to him for peaceful patch up. Apart from it whenever the shirazi clan and their voters faced political victimization he always stood up front to defend his people. Not only his supporters but political rivals also praised his ability to mobilize common people. "We have lost an echoing voice of our rights today, he was like a sanctuary to us: said an octogenarian who had reached to attend the funeral of his leader, with tears in his eyes. "I always saw him surrounded by mob of people, he was a ray of hope for those people who had suffered because of drastic poverty; Said Information Secretary of Pakistan Peoples Party District Sujawal, Suraj Sujawali. his Son Ayaz Shah is Member of National Assembly from Sujawal while his another Son Syed Riaz hussain Shah is Member Provincial Assembly. his nephews and brothers were also elected to the parliament of Pakistan on different occasions.

Besides a large number of people from both the districts prominent political figures of Sindh including Speaker of Sindh Assembly Agha Siraj Durani, Minister Local government Nasir hussain Shah attended the funeral prayers. The Chief of Shirazi Clan was buried next to his father,s grave in the Shah Murad Shah Shirazi graveyard Makli. Late on wednesday after burial was conducted Chief Minister of Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah reached at Shirazi house Thatta to offer condolence with the bereaved family. Talking to local reporters he said that; "Sindh has lost a committed politician, he always raised voice for his people ''.The vacuum created by his death can never be fulfilled. PPP Chairman Bilwal Bhutto Zardari, Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Fariyal Talpur also condoled the death of the seasoned politician. (Courtesy Mahebob Brohi Reporter KTN News Thatta) KAMRAN KHAMISO KHOWAJA SuJAWAl

The Climate change conundrum ThE green and climate activist greta Thunberg has taken a strong swipe at the world leaders again for inaction on the "looming" climate crisis. handling the climate crisis is out and out about collective responsibility of everyone out there. hardly has there ever been action on this serious issue. Even such serious talks have been taking place on and off. But this Swede has been pitching for green cause on and on. "Still, we all have been speeding in the wrong direction," speaks greta Thunberg of the climate conundrum.

Besides this, the uN Secretary-general Antonio guterres has strongly reacted to the issue of climate change, discussing deeply the actual challenges posed by the climate crisis. This news piece has caught the attention of the world community, having been highlighted by the media houses like CNN. It is time to create such serious climate change talks at the world stage.

The factors like carbon dioxide-greenhouse gases contributing to the climate crisis have to be dealt with in a proper way as chalked out at climate change summits so far. Volatile weather patterns and climate change impacts have started eating into the growth of the world. Intense tropical storms have become the order of the day. Just as on the American continent, Asian nations have been encountering plenty of storm systems. There was recently cyclone Burevi off my native areas like Korkai, Tiruchendur, Tuticorin, Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. It is time to make the most of monsoon rainfall tapping only the good benefits, negative sides apart. This aside, there have been reports of rigorous deforestation activities going on in the Amazon rainforest. The fact that the Amazon has been home to rich biodiversity and green cover in the world should dawn on everyone out there to protect this rich green area forever even as it is time to make certain "ranching activities" though necessary will not come in the way of green activities. In short, the globe and geographical areas out there have long been the natural gifts to the human society.

Therefore, the international community should furthermore get ready to handle the climate challenges through mutual cooperation and strong green strategies.

P SEnThIL Saravana DuraI MuMbaI

Pandemic and poverty ThE coronavirus pandemic has worsened things for all, but the poor are more exposed to destitution, disease and death. Recently, two shocking and heart-rending incidents have happened in the country. on Saturday in Patoki, Kasur, a daily-wage worker, with no means left to support his family, threw his four little children and wife into a canal. The man is said to have been out of work for around a week, consequently he had been rendered penniless. he was unable to buy even bread for his family. Driven to utter desperation he killed or tried to kill his family. Reports say the bodies of two of the children, aged five and two years, have been fished out. The man named Ibrahim cried helplessly before pushing his children and wife into the canal. on the same day in Sanghar, a five-year-old girl died and her mother fell sick after they ate sweets laced with poison they found on the wayside. The sweetmeats were placed to kill stray dogs. The little girl died largely due to official negligence, a hallmark of the officialdom. In both these tragic cases, it is the increasing poverty in the country more than anything else that claimed so many lives. In 2015 in Pakistan, the number of people living below the poverty line was estimated at 50 million. The Covid-19 pandemic would likely push another 10 million into poverty. The people have expected much more from PTI's regime but only disappointment they got in returns like previous governance. The government must think of public specially poor classes in this pandemic. ayaz uMar abSOr

Monday, 14 December, 2020

08 WORLD VIEW

Why Michael Morell cannot be cia director GROSS MANIPULATION OF CIA ANALYSIS UNDER GEORGE W BUSH PUSHED A NEW GENERATION OF “YES MEN” INTO THE AGENCY’S TOP RANKS AND NOW ONE OF THEM IS BEING CONSIDERED BY JOE BIDEN FOR THE TOP JOB Consortium news

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Ray McGoveRn

s President-elect Joe Biden names his cabinet and other chief advisers, what has escaped wide attention is the fact that none of his hawkish national security advisers — except for his nominee for defense secretary, Gen. Lloyd Austin — has served in the military.

Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell, who is reportedly on Biden’s short list for CIA director, shares that non-veteran status, one of the reasons along with other skeletons from Morell’s past that make him singularly unfit to lead the CIA. During my 27 years at the CIA, I worked under nine CIA directors — three of them (stan Turner, Bill Colby, and George H.W. Bush) at close remove — and served in all four of the agency’s main directorates.

Having closely followed the past-twodecade corruption of my profession — in particular, what the chair of the senate Intelligence Committee called the “uncorroborated, contradicted, or even non-existent” intelligence manufactured to “justify” the attack on Iraq, I have on occasion offered suggestions for remediation, particularly during transition periods like this one.

WHIZ KIDS: Decades of unfortunate experience show that over-dependence on bright, but inexperienced “best and brightest” can spell disaster. War gaming and theorizing at Princeton and Johns Hopkins have yielded knights with benightedly naive, politics-drenched decisions that get U.s. troops killed for no good reason.

Even if Gen. Lloyd Austin is confirmed as secretary of defense, the whippersnappers already appointed by Joe Biden will probably be able to outmaneuver the general and promote half-baked policies and operations bereft of needed military input — not to mention common sense from the likes of Gen. Austin who knows something of war.The current generation of “whiz kids” — the well-heeled, politically astute chickenhawks Biden has appointed — will always “know better” and — if past is precedent — are likely to pooh pooh what Gen. Austin may advise, assuming he is able to get a word in edgewise.

Moreover, ambitious former generals like David Petraeus — many of them now on the outside of the proverbial revolving door making big bucks in the MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-IntelligenceMedia-Academia-Think-Tank) complex — will not hesitate to weigh in with their own self-interested support to the chickenhawks, fostering the notion that military threats from notional enemies warrant still more funding for the defense contractors on whose boards so many alumni generals sit.

Who does not remember the braggadocio accompanying the criminal attack on Iraq, the full-throated support of journalists like David sanger of The New York Times, and the chest-thumping of Bush/Cheney neocons saying “Real men go to Tehran?” (sanger is still at it, sitting on the “Judith Miller Chair for Journalism”.)

Clearly, one does not have to go as far back as Vietnam for noxious examples of the harm that can be done by these “best and brightest,” albeit inexperienced advisers — whether out of the myth of American exceptionalism, ignorance of post-WWII military history, or pure arrogance.

It may be helpful to recall that Vice President Dick Cheney, the archdeacon of the chickenhawks, acquired five draft deferments during Vietnam. (so did his successor as vice president, the president-elect.)

Cheney, of course, was the driving force behind the attack on Iraq. He had appointed himself Bush’s principal intelligence officer (usurping the role of CIA Director George Tenet who made not a murmur of protest) and went first and biggest with the Big Lie on (ephemeral) weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Here’s Cheney in his kick-off speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Aug. 26, 2002: “simply stated, there is no doubt that saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass

IN HIS MEMOIR TENET GAVE THE LAURELS TO MORELL FOR “COORDINATING THE CIA REVIEW” OF SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL’S UN SPEECH THAT LET SLIP THE DOGS OF WAR destruction.” simply stated, Tenet dutifully followed White House orders to “fix” the intelligence to support Cheney’s accusations against Iraq. Tenet did so formally in the deceitful National Intelligence Estimate of Oct. 1, 2002 — which earned the sobriquet “The Whore of Babylon.”

It was successfully used to get Congress to enable Bush/Cheney to make war on Iraq, and eventually create havoc in the whole region. In his memoir Tenet gave the laurels to Morell for “coordinating the CIA review” of secretary of state Colin Powell’s UN speech that let slip the dogs of war.

CAKEWALKS AND CUBBYHOLES: Cheney, the quintessential chickenhawk, surrounded himself with advisers of the same bent. One pitiable example was armchair warrior Kenneth Adelman, who had been director of the U.s. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency under President Reagan. In a Washington Post op-ed of Feb. 13, 2002, Adelman wrote: “I believe demolishing Hussein’s military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk.”

Two years later, Adelman wrote an equally pathetic op-ed, insisting that he and his neoconservative friends had been right on everything except Iraq possessing WMD, Iraqi factions cooperating after saddam Hussein was deposed, and “probably” on close ties between saddam and al-Qaeda.

As for Cheney himself, he did memorize some weapons nomenclature vocabulary, but could not avoid an occasional faux pas betraying his lack of familiarity with things on the ground. Nine months after the attack on Iraq, when WMD were still nowhere to be found, NPR asked Cheney whether he had given up on finding them.“No, we haven’t,” he said. “It’s going to take some additional, considerable period of time in order to look in all the cubbyholes and ammo dumps and all the places in Iraq where you’d expect to find something like that.” (The continued, quixotic search cost not only a billion dollars but the lives of U.s. troops.).

The amateur but opinionated Cheney was the largest fly in the intelligence ointment. Four months into the war it got so blatantly bad that we Veteran Intelligence Professionals for sanity (VIPs) sent a Memorandum to President Bush entitled “Intelligence Unglued”, recommending that he “ask for Cheney’s immediate resignation.”

NAIVETÉ ON WAR: In a recent, disturbingly graphic article entitled “Biden’s young Hawk: The Case Against Jake sullivan,” retired Army Maj. Danny sjursen broadly hinted that President Biden’s national security adviser should at least look at the photos. (An editor’s note in the piece explained that such photos are almost totally absent from Establishment media: “Graphic images of war and suffering are included with this text. We believe it is important for the world to witness what their taxes, votes and apathy may be supporting.”)

In his article sjursen finds himself wondering “whether sullivan’s ever seen a dead child, gazed upon the detritus of American empire, waded through the sights and smells of our indecency. And, worse still, I wondered whether it’d matter much if he had. …”

The national security adviser is gatekeeper to the president, with the gate strong or weak depending — at least in concept — on what the president wants. In the normal course of business, the CIA director and the director of national intelligence would go through the security adviser to get to the president. Cabinet secretaries in the national security arena and, when appropriate, FBI directors often use the same channel.

What seems important here, though widely overlooked, is that no Biden national security appointee/nominee except Gen. Austin has apparently served a day in the military. Not sullivan, not DNI nominee

Avril Haines, not secretary of state nominee Antony Blinken, and not FBI Director Christopher Wray.

This is just one factor that should disqualify Morell for director of Central Intelligence (DCI). There are already far too many fledgling warhawks-without war experience. In Morell’s case, though, there are many other factors — some even more important — that disqualify him. His playing fast and loose regarding the legality and effectiveness of torture has been in the headlines recently, thanks to senate Intelligence Committee member Ron Wyden (D-OR), who called Morell a “torture apologist.”

It has been a challenge to record Morell’s many artful dodges, but Consortium News did publish “On Iraq/Torture, still in Denial”, as Morell began to peddle his memoir in May 2015.

Two of Morell’s tours de force with Charlie Rose in 2016, in which Morell advocates killing Russians and Iranians in syria, were covered by CN.More revealing still — and damning of his chances for another try at CIA — is an article, “Rise of Another CIA Yes Man.” That piece was written when Morell was picked to be Gen. David Petraeus’s deputy at CIA; it ends with personal comments by intelligence professionals who knew Morell well.

The article also includes citations from Tenet’s own memoir, including encomia he threw in Morell’s direction, one of which should actually be enough to bar Morell from any future role in intelligence.

In Tenet’s book, At the Center of the storm, he writes that Morell “coordinated the CIA review” of the intelligence used by secretary of state Colin Powell in his infamous Feb. 5, 2003 speech to the UN security Council on the threat from (non-existent) WMD in Iraq.

Tenet, who sat directly behind Powell on that day, pointed out that Morell had served as regular briefer to President George W. Bush. It has been reported that, of the CIA’s finished intelligence product on Iraq, it was The President’s Daily Brief delivered by Morell that most exaggerated the danger from Iraq. Morell fluttered quickly up CIA ranks as the yes-sir protege of two CIA directors who were, arguably, the worst of them all — “slam-Dunk” Tenet and theRussians-hacked-so-Trump-won John Brennan. During the presidential campaign of 2016, as Brennan and his accomplices in the National security state worked behind the scenes to sabotage candidate Donald Trump, Morell dropped any pretense of nonpartisanship — which used to be the hallmark of an intelligence professional.

From retirement (but with eyes on the big prize he coveted in a new Democratic administration), Morell openly backed the Democratic candidate in a highly unusual op-ed in The New York Times on August 5, 2016: “I Ran the C.I.A. Now I’m Endorsing Hillary Clinton.”

IRAQ: THE CRUCIBLE

In my view, the key gauge in weighing qualifications for a national security position like CIA director is whether a candidate showed good judgment before the misbegotten, calamitous attack on Iraq.

Morell flunks that test outright. Accordingly, he can hardly be expected to be one of the calmer voices in a room of still less experienced fledgling hawks who, to quote Maj. sjursen, have never “waded through the sights and smells of our indecency” in killing and maiming abroad. With Morell in the room, there would be greater risk of the U.s. getting sucked into still more misadventures overseas.

What did Morell tell Bush about Iraq? In Tenet’s memoir, he describes Morell as “the perfect guy” to brief President Bush, noting that Morell and Bush hit it off “almost immediately”. Morell added later: “I was President Bush’s first intelligence briefer, so I briefed him kind of the entire year of 2001.”

‘THE ENTIRE YEAR 2001’ so, was Iraqi President saddam Hussein trying to acquire “weapons of mass destruction” during 2001? The first (and honest) answer was ”No” — if Powell and National security Adviser Condoleezza Rice are to be believed. Here’s what they said at the time — Powell publicly during a speech in Cairo and Rice to CNN five months later.

Powell on Feb. 24, 2001:“He [saddam Hussein] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors.”Rice told CNN’s John King on July 29, 2001:“We are able to keep arms from him [saddam Hussein]. His military forces have not been rebuilt.”Is this what Morell told Bush just six weeks before 9/11? Did Morell ever explain how Iraq could have developed, purchased, or stolen copious WMD in one year’s time?

And when Morell briefed Bush right after 9/11, was the president fixated on saddam Hussein, as counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke describes him in his book Against All Enemies? According to Clarke, on 9/12 Bush told him “to go back over everything, everything. see if saddam did this. see if he’s linked in any way.”

Clarke says he was incredulous, replying, “But, Mr. President, al-Qaeda did this.”

In later interviews Clarke added that he felt he was being intimidated to find a link between the attacks and Iraq.

Did Morell play it straight and tell Bush (as Clarke did) that Iraq had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or the attacks of 9/11? Did Clarke share that vignette at the time with Tenet and Morell?

And what about those notional Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq? After 9/11, did Morell take his cue from Cheney, Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Tenet and give President Bush the impression that Iraq already had all manner of WMD and was on the threshold of acquiring a nuclear weapon?

SHAM DUNK Later, in December 2002 when Morell’s

boss Tenet assured Bush and Cheney that CIA could prove, slam-dunkedly, the existence of WMD in Iraq, did Morell ever ask himself how both Powell and Rice could have been so far off base the year before?

Far more likely, Morell knew what the game was, as he watched Rice do a fancy pirouette, telling CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on sept. 8, 2002 that “saddam Hussein is actively pursuing a nuclear weapon. We do know that there have been shipments into Iraq of aluminum tubes that really are only suited to nuclear weapons programs.”

The most accomplished engineers and technical intelligence analysts in the intelligence community knew that the aluminum tubes story was Bs. In the finest tradition of intelligence analysis, they remained impervious to the political winds. They insisted that associating those aluminum tubes with nuclear weapons development was wrong and they could not be persuaded to go along.

And yet that bogus information got into Powell’s February 2003 speech at the UN. In Morell’s memoir he wrote that he wanted to apologize to Powell. Morell says, “We said he [saddam Hussein] has chemical weapons, he has a biological weapons production capability, and he’s restarting his nuclear weapons program. We were wrong on all three of those.”But not my fault, wrote Morell, who tried to shift the blame by claiming he was not a senior official at the time.

How does that square with Tenet writing that Morell “coordinated the CIA review” of Powell’s speech? Whom to believe? However begrudging must be any trust given “slam-dunk” and “we-do-not-torture”Tenet, he presumably would have less reason to dissimulate than Morell in this particular case. Assuming Morell did “coordinate the CIA review” of Powell’s speech, did Morell know about the strong dissent on the infamous aluminum tubes?

More important, did he know that CIA operators had recruited and “turned” Najisabri, the Iraqi foreign minister (who saddam Hussein continued to believe was still working for him) and, with the help of British intelligence, had “turned” the chief of Iraqi intelligence, Habbush, as well.After the reporting from these two sources on other issues and after their access to secret information was evaluated and judged to be genuine, President Bush was told that sabri and Habbush both said there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. sabri’s information was given to the president by Tenet on sept. 18, 2002; Habbush’s in late Jan. 2003.

Did Tenet not share that with Morell before he coordinated CIA input into Powell’s speech?Clearly, this first-hand intelligence from proven sources with excellent access did not suit the Cheney/Bush narrative for war on Iraq. The president’s staff told CIA operatives not to forward additional reporting on this issue from these sources, explaining that Bush did not want more information about weapons of mass destruction; rather, it was now about “regime change.”

Did Morell know about this when he was “coordinating” input into Powell’s disastrous speech? It is a safe bet that Morell was fully aware of the con job he was “coordinating” — as did other senior intelligence officials.

In his own memoir, former Director of National Intelligence (and, during Iraq, director of imagery analysis), James Clapper takes a share of the blame for the Iraq WMD fiasco. Clapper puts the blame for “the failure” to find the (non-existent) WMD “squarely on the shoulders of the administration members who were pushing a narrative of a rogue WMD program in Iraq and on the intelligence officers, including me, who were so eager to help that we found what wasn’t really there.” (emphasis added).

Regarding Morell’s “I-confess-they-didit” apology to Powell, the still-youngish Morell has not stopped lusting for an eventual seat at the table, so he apparently thought it a smart move politically. Typically, Powell did not react — as far as is known. Nor has the conflict-averse Powell summoned the cohones to say clearly what he thinks of how Tenet, Morell, et al. sold him a bill of goods on Iraq.

In the “where-are-they-now?” department, Tenet quit in July 2004 and fled to Wall street to be joined the following year

by Jami Miscik, who was deputy director for intelligence during the Iraq fiasco. she “lucked into” a nice job at Lehman Brothers before it went bust.

Ray McGovern was an Army Infantry/Intelligence officer before serving as a CIA analyst. A specialist on Russia, he also prepared and delivered The President’s Daily Brief for Nixon, Ford, and Reagan.

Monday, 14 December, 2020

BUSINESS 09

Govt manages precarious debt situation with discipline: Finance Ministry ISLAMABAD: The Finance Ministry on Sunday claimed that the government has managed the precarious debt situation with discipline, aggressive control of expenses and increase in tax and non-tax revenues. In a statement on Sunday, the Finance Ministry said that the government’s efforts have yielded primary surplus. The government has succeeded in keeping the stock of public debt firmly in check with virtually no increase in the current fiscal year.

The statement further said that the prudent debt management has included conversion of short term into longer term debt and reduction of the cost of borrowing.

The combined effect of these actions will contain any addition to the debt stock to a minimum. The Finance Ministry clarified that the sole reason forcing the government to borrow is the requirement to pay one trillion rupees as an interest on the past loans in the period from July to October. This is on top of Rs4.7 trillion already paid prior to June, bringing the total amount of interest paid on the past loans to a staggering Rs5.7 trillion. TLTP

Global economy to contract by 5.6 per cent this year: UNCTAD GENEVA: The volume of global trade is set to face the sharpest decline since the end of the global financial crisis, falling as much as 5.6 percent this year, the UN Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) predicted. The figure, announced by the agency earlier this week, is more optimistic than its previous forecast, which expected global trade to contract by nine percent year-on-year. The previous largest decline was seen in 2009, when global merchandise trade took a 22-percent nosedive. However, the UNCTAD downgraded its forecast for the service sector, which was hit hard by a steep decline in travel, transport and tourism activity during the pandemic. The troubled sector is on path to fall by a staggering 15.4 percent to levels last seen in the 1990s, according to nowcasts – data-led projections for the immediate future – from UNCTAD's 2020 Handbook of Statistics. Even following the previous crisis, services trade was down by less than 10 percent. The pandemic has also transformed business as usual in 2020, the UN agency said, adding that it had to adjust statistics methods to provide upto-date figures on the economic fallout. “Unlike previous years however, the models that nowcast international trade and GDP had to grapple with some of the most unusual circumstances in living memory,” said UNCTAD’s chief statistician, Steve MacFeely. Most major economies are set to face contraction this year after the Covid-19 outbreak forced governments to impose restrictions to contain the spread of the deadly virus. China, which was the first to face the outbreak and bring it under control after strict lockdowns, can become the only exception. TLTP

Hitachi to sell overseas home appliance biz to Turkey's Arcelik TOKYO: Japan’s Hitachi Ltd plans to sell a 60 per cent stake in its overseas home appliance business to Turkish consumer electronics maker Arcelik AS for about $300 million, and jointly operate the business, the Nikkei newspaper said on Sunday. The Japanese industrial conglomerate aims to improve profit via the deal with the Turkish company - which has a business network in Europe and Africa - by expanding sales of its Hitachibrand appliances, the paper said without citing sources.

The overseas business of Hitachi Global Life Solutions Inc, its home appliance unit, is worth about $500 million, according to Nikkei. The unit sells products in China and Southeast Asia, but 80 per cent of its revenue comes from Japan, the paper said. AGENCIES

UK plANNiNG bAiloUT pACKAGe For iNDUsTries HArDesT HiT

by No-DeAl brexiT LONDON AGENCIES

U

K cabinet ministers are planning a “multi-billion” pounds bailout package for industries hardest hit by a no-deal Brexit, The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported. The proposals include resilience deals for sheep farmers, fishermen, car manufacturers and chemical suppliers who face trade disruption or being hit with European Union tariffs after January 1, the newspaper said.

The package is expected to involve between 8 billion pounds and 10 billion pounds of funding.

Ministers warned supermarkets to stockpile food According to The Sunday Times, British ministers have also warned supermarkets to stockpile food amid possibilities of a no-deal Brexit, with shortages feared as talks with the European Union remain deadlocked.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to take control of planning if Britain opts for no deal and will chair an exit operations committee to prepare the response, the newspaper reported.

Ministers have told suppliers of medicines, medical devices and vaccines to stockpile six weeks’ worth at secure locations in the United Kingdom, the report added.

UK central bank warned about disruptions to financial system The Bank of England has said that the UK's banking system remains resilient to a wide range of possible economic outcomes due to Brexit but the end of transition period on 31 December might bring disruptions.

According to a report by the bank’s Financial Policy Committee (FPC), most risks to financial stability have been mitigated. It said, however, that “Financial stability is not the same as market stability or the avoidance of any disruption to users of financial services.

Some market volatility and disruption to financial services, particularly to EU-based clients, could arise.”

The report added that despite preparations for the end of the transition period now being in their final stages, it might be the case that some users are not yet fully ready to trade with European Union (EU) coun-

terparts “or on EU or EU-recognised trading venues.”

The UK left the EU on January 31, but as part of the withdrawal agreement, both sides entered an 11month transition period to negotiate their future commercial relations.

According to the FPC’s report, irrespective of the particular form of the UK’s future relationship with the European bloc, the Bank of England “will remain committed to the implementation of robust prudential standards in the UK.” It said that major British banks could absorb credit losses in the order of £200 billion ($265 billion), even

in case of unemployment rising above 15 percent or if business insolvencies rise due to the combined impact of the pandemic and Brexit.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, said there is now “a strong possibility” Britain and the EU would fail to strike an agreement over trade.

The EU also announced contingency plans for a no-deal Brexit on Thursday, including the proposal that European fishermen should have continued access to British waters if the UK walks away from the negotiating table without an agreement.

Oman looks to make the most of dwindling oil reserves MUSCAT TLTP

Oman has just established a new stateowned company for upstream oil and gas operations to help garner investment interest and further develop its resources.

Energy Development Oman (EDO) will have a stake in the majority stateowned Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) as well as developing independent projects. EDO will be primarily focused on Oman’s biggest oil field in Block 6, which currently produces 650,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The company can attract funds independently as part of a plan to raise debt. They will “undertake hydrocarbon exploration and production operations” according to a government gazette announcement on Sunday. In addition,

EDO will work in the fields of enhanced oil recovery, low carbon technologies, and solar thermal energy.

Major Oman producer PDO is 60 percent owned by the Omani government, with Royal Dutch Shell, Total, and Partex splitting the rest. To date, PDO has 192 oil fields, 52 gas fields, 29 production stations, and approximately 9000 active wells. The EDO model is expected to encourage others in the Middle East to follow suit. Oman decided to raise funds independently through EDO to tackle its mounting budget deficit, a model that could be replicated in state-dominant oil nations.

The company is expected to issue up to $3 billion of bonds in the first half of 2021, according to a Bloomberg source. As part of this plan, JPMorgan Chase & Co. is advising the govern-

ment on the best moves forward.

PDO Managing Director Raoul Restucci said of the establishment of EDO earlier this year, “EDO will be a holding company of PDO and a number of investments. For PDO, it will enable us to corporatize the entity and thus enable us to secure the funding and resources which the government at the moment is securing for us at a very high cost. We will be able to deconsolidate that debt and secure it at substantially more attractive terms… EDO is also about energy transition as well. We have a number of businesses, a number of investments that are very keen to partner with us.”

Oman is the largest non-OPEC oil producer in the Middle East region, providing the Omani government with 76 percent of its total revenue in 2019. In

September this year, Oman’s oil production stood at 718,700 bpd, a 0.18 percent decrease month-on-month from August. The reduction in the country’s oil production comes following the 2020 decrease in demand for the commodity, which hit the whole Middle East region hard and led to OPEC and Oman agreeing to cut production until the end of the year.

Oman is generally experiencing a slowdown in oil production due to its limited reserves. Current reserves stand at 4.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

This would provide Oman with a further 25-30 years of crude production at 2019 levels. Enhanced oil recovery techniques could, however, help combat the difficulty in accessing existing reserves, according to a Ministry of Finance prospectus from October.

Bitcoin rising to replace dollar as reserve currency, says Morgan Stanley strategist NEW YORK TLTP

Morgan Stanley’s global strategist has made a case that bitcoin is making progress towards replacing the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

“Do not assume that your traditional currencies are the only stores of value, or mediums of exchange, that people will ever trust,” he warned governments.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s chief global strategist and head of emerging markets, Ruchir Sharma, published an opinion piece in the Financial Times. He explained how bitcoin is making progress towards replacing the U.S. dollar and becoming the world’s reserve currency.

The Indian investor began by recalling that when the coronavirus pandemic hit, the U.S. dollar was the world’s “reserve currency,” noting that it has been one for 100 years while other previous reserve currencies lasted about 94 years on average. “That would have been reason to question how

much longer it could continue, but for one caveat: the lack of a successor,” Sharma described, noting some contenders that fall short, such as the euro or China’s renminbi.

“US officials were thus confident that, in

response to the Covid-19 lockdowns, they could print the dollar in limitless quantities without undermining its reserve currency status, allowing the country to keep running large deficits without apparent conse-

CMYK

quences,” the strategist continued, elaborating: “But a new class of contenders is emerging: cryptocurrencies … cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are being pitched by their champions as decentralised, democratic alternatives.”

While pointing out that there are bitcoin sceptics, including those who prefer gold, Sharma said, “many people have bought bitcoin in bulk,” as they fear that “central banks led by the US Federal Reserve are debasing the value of their currencies.” This has boosted the price of bitcoin which has “more than quadrupled since March, making it one of the hottest investments of 2020.”

He proceeded to describe that after decades of mounting, U.S. debts to the rest of the world surpassed 50 per cent of its economic output last year, citing that this is “a threshold that often signals a coming crisis,” according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Sharma added that since then, those liabilities have spiked to 67 per cent of output as the government continued to borrow heavily under lockdown.

“The dollar’s reign is likely to end when the rest of the world starts losing confidence that the US can keep paying its bills. That is how dominant currencies fell in the past,” the strategist claimed, asserting: “Bitcoin is also starting to make progress on its ambition to replace the dollar as a medium of exchange … Money printing is likely to continue, even when the pandemic passes.

Trusted or not, bitcoin will gain from widening distrust in the traditional alternatives.”

Sharma believes that bitcoin is gaining mainstream acceptance. “Today, most bitcoins are held as an investment, not used to pay bills, but that is changing,” he opined, noting that small businesses are starting to use the cryptocurrency for international trade, “particularly in countries where dollars can be hard to come by (such as Nigeria) or the local currency is unstable (Argentina).” He further pointed out that large companies such as Paypal and its subsidiary Venmo are planning to allow 28 million merchants to accept bitcoin next year.

Monday, 14 December, 2020

10 foreign newS

EU, UK nEgotiators agrEE postBrExit tradE talKs shoUld ContinUE BRUSSELS

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Malaysia seizes record haul of crystal meth worth $26.2 million KUALA LUMPUR AGENCIES

Malaysia’s maritime agency said on Sunday it had seized more than two tonnes of crystal methamphetamine worth 105.9 million ringgit ($26.2 million) from a boat off the country’s west coast, its largest-ever haul of the drug.

Malaysia has made several record busts of crystal meth in recent years. Authorities have said the intercepted shipments were part of a multibillion-dollar illicit drug trade that stretches across Australia, Southeast Asia and China. The latest discovery came on Wednesday when a Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) patrol encountered a recreational boat moving suspiciously off Penang island, MMEA Director-General Mohamad Zubil Mat Som said in a statement. A chase ensued when the boat’s lone occupant, a 26-year-old Malaysian man, refused orders to stop. He then attempted to escape by jumping into the water but was later arrested, Mohamad Zubil said. Officials inspecting the boat found 130 sacks containing 2,118 kg (2.12 tonnes) of crystal methamphetamine disguised as packets of Chinese tea. The origin and destination of the drugs are still under investigation. The tea packaging, though, was similar to that found in previous shipments suspected to have come from Myanmar, Mohamad Zubil said. “This is the biggest seizure in MMEA’s 15-year history,” he said.

Crystal methamphetamine is a highly addictive synthetic drug also known as speed, shabu and yaba. “As big as two-plus tonnes is - and it’s massive - the syndicates that run the drug trade in Asia can easily replace shipments like this,” said Jeremy Douglas, Southeast Asian regional representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. “The region needs a forward looking strategy that addresses root causes if they ever hope to get ahead of the situation.”

China moon probe begins journey back to Earth BEIJING AGENCIES

A Chinese spacecraft carrying rocks and soil from the moon has begun its journey back to Earth, the Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday, putting China on course to become the first country to successfully retrieve lunar samples since the 1970s. Engines on the Chang’e-5 probe were ignited 230 km (143 miles) from the lunar surface early on Sunday, Beijing time, before being shut down after 22 minutes with the craft on a trajectory towards Earth, Xinhua said, citing a China National Space Administration statement. A successful landing in Inner Mongolia would make China only the third country to have retrieved lunar samples after the United States and the Soviet Union. The plan was to collect 2 kg (4.4 lbs) of samples, although it has not been disclosed how much was actually gathered. The Chang’e-5 was launched on November 24 and a lander vehicle touched down on the moon on December 1. The mission was expected to take around 23 days in total.

AGENCIES

U Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed on Sunday to continue post-Brexit trade talks in search of an elusive deal.

In a joint statement that von der Leyen read out on EU television, the EU Commission president said she and Johnson "had a useful phone call" and that they had "discussed the major unresolved topics".

"After almost a year of negotiations, despite the fact that deadlines have been missed over and over we think it is responsible at this point to go the extra mile.”

"We have accordingly mandated our negotiators to continue the talks and to see whether an agreement can even at this late stage be reached."

Johnson said the two sides were “still very far apart on some key things". “But where there’s life, there’s hope we’re going to keep talking to see what we can do,” he said.

Negotiators from both sides were continuing to talk Sunday at the EU headquarters in Brussels, with less than three weeks until the UK leaves the economic embrace of the 27-nation bloc.

Sunday was just the latest in a string of supposedly hard deadlines for the negotiations but, with Britain due to leave the EU single market in 19 days, tensions remain.

On Saturday, Britain took the dramatic step of announcing that armed naval vessels will patrol its waters from January 1 to exclude European crews from the fishing grounds they have shared, in some cases for centuries.

Brussels' tone has been less bellicose, and von der Leyen has made it clear that the EU will respect UK sovereignty after the post-Brexit transition period, but neither side is yet ready to compromise on core principles.

Without a trade deal, cross-Channel trade will revert to WTO rules, with tariffs driving up prices and generating paperwork for importers, and the failed negotiation may poison relations between London and Brussels for years to come.

On Wednesday, after what von der Leyen described as a "lively and interesting" working supper with Johnson in Brussels failed to find a breakthrough, the EU chief said they had agreed to "come to a decision by the end of the weekend".

France's Minister for Europe Clement Beaune told the newspaper

Historic US Covid-19 vaccine campaign launches with convoy of trucks LANSING AGENCIES

The first shipments of Pfizer Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine left a factory in Michigan early on Sunday on a convoy of trucks, kicking off a historic effort to stop a surging pandemic that is claiming more than 2,400 lives a day in the United States.

Mask-wearing workers at a Pfizer factory in Michigan began packing the first shipments of its vaccine in dry ice shortly after 6:30 am (ET) on Sunday.

Three trucks carrying pallets of boxed, refrigerated vaccines rolled away from the Kalamazoo facility at 8:29 am (ET), escorted by body armor-clad security officers in a pickup truck and a SUV. The United States expects to immunize 100 million people, or about 30 per cent of its population, by the end of March, US Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr Moncef Slaoui said in an interview with Fox News Sunday.

In a novel process that will need to become daily routine, workers removed pizza-boxed sized cartons containing vaccine vials from a freezer.

They placed them in large, blue coolers, before these were boxed and labeled, as shown on a network television video feed.

The massive logistical effort is complicated by the need to transport and store the vaccine developed with

German partner BioNTech SE at minus 70 Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit), requiring enormous quantities of dry ice or specialized ultra-cold freezers.

Workers clapped and whistled as the first boxes headed to the trucks. The long-awaited moment comes as the US death toll was approaching 300,000 and infections and hospitalizations set daily records. It will take months before most US residents can get a Covid-19 vaccine.

The federal government plans to release the nation’s first 2.9 million doses to 64 states, US territories and major cities, as well as five federal agencies. Although the federal government is coordinating distribution efforts, states have the final say over who gets the first shots. The federal government is sending the first shipments to more than 600 locations.

Companies in a range of industries are lobbying state and federal officials to give priority to their workers as millions wait for the vaccine and a return to life free from the fear of the deadly illness.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in a large clinical trial was 95 per cent effective in preventing illness. It is not yet known if it prevents infection or transmission of Covid-19 by those who are vaccinated.

US regulators late on Friday authorized emergency use of the vaccine, following similar moves by the UK and Canada, less than a year after the first cases were reported in the United States.

After fires, Australia gets ready for floods SYDNEY AGENCIES

Just days after bushfires threatened an Australian World Heritage site, thousands were bracing for floods on the subtropical east coast on Sunday, with beaches closed and the authorities urging people to sandbag their homes.

With as much as 475 millimetres (18.7 inches) of rain in the previous 24 hours, the Bureau of Meteorology issued a “severe weather warning” for the border area between New South Wales and Queensland states, a heavily populated area that includes the Queensland state capital Brisbane.

A week earlier, nearby Fraser Island was evacuated due to bushfires, dashing hopes

Journal du Dimanche that if talks were to be extended again it would only be "for a maximum of a few days". "We're already in extra time," he warned.

In London, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Sky News he would not yet "close the door" on chances that the talks continue "if the EU can find its way to treat us like a normal independent country."

"I think that the EU is concerned that actually Britain might do rather well once we leave the EU and is worried about the competitive advantage even on the normal global rules that apply," he said.

Ireland stands to lose more than most EU members in a no deal future with its larger neighbour outside the bloc, and Irish Prime Minister Micheal

Martin told the BBC he was still hopeful of a breakthrough.

Martin said 97 percent of an agreement has been negotiated and "it seems to me that the remaining three percent should not be beyond the capacity of both sides to bridge".

"The fact that they negotiated into the night is an important sign in itself.

Where the dialogue continues, that gives me hope," he said.

Much of the text of a possible trade deal is said to be ready, but Britain has rejected Brussels' insistence on a mechanism to allow it to retaliate if UK and EU law diverge in a way that puts continental firms at a competitive disadvantage.

"The defence of the single market is a red line for the European Union.

What we have proposed to the United Kingdom respects British sovereignty.

It could be the basis for an agreement," a senior EU source said, echoing an earlier von der Leyen statement.

In London, a government spokesman stressed Britain was ready to leave the union and handle its own affairs after 47 years of close economic integration and that "as things stand, the offer on the table from the EU remains unacceptable.

"The prime minister will leave no stone unturned in this process, but he is absolutely clear: any agreement must be fair and respect the fundamental position that the UK will be a sovereign nation in three weeks' time," the source said.

On Saturday, Downing Street had said the government had a playbook that "maps out every single foreseeable scenario" for potential problems after December 31, and "no one needs to worry about our food, medicine or vital supply chains".

that wetter weather would make seasonal fires less catastrophic than last year. Scientists attribute the erratic weather in the early Australian summer to a La Nina pattern which typically features strong rain - combined with climate change.

Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand island, is now under the flood warning, which includes urging drivers to avoid roads where waters were already rising.

“These are dynamic weather systems and you should always expect the unexpected,” bureau senior flood hydrologist Justin Robinson told a news conference.

The warning comes soon after Queensland opened its border to the neighbouring state after months of closure due to Covid19. The authorities urged people travelling

for end-of-year holidays to exercise caution since they may not be familiar with floodprone areas.

“It is not a time to take a chance and drive through those floodwaters,” said New South Wales emergency services commissioner Carlene York. “Be aware of your surroundings and where you might be parking your caravan or you may be driving.”

Emergency services had rescued four people, including some from cars trapped on flooded roads, and received about 700 calls for help, she said.

At the heavily populated Gold Coast, south of Brisbane, the authorities closed beaches due to dangerous surf, while the emergency services set up several locations where people could stock up on sandbags.

“We have spent months strategizing with Operation Warp Speed officials and our healthcare customers on efficient vaccine logistics, and the time has arrived to put the plan into action,” Wes Wheeler, president of UPS Healthcare, said on Saturday.

Pfizer’s dry-ice cooled packages can hold as many as 4,875 doses. The first leg of their journey will be from Kalamazoo to planes positioned nearby. The aircraft will shuttle vaccine packages to United Parcel Service or FedEx air cargo hubs in Louisville, Kentucky, and Memphis, Tennessee, respectively.

From there, they will be trucked or flown to facilities close to the 145 US sites earmarked to receive the first doses.

Familiar UPS and FedEx package delivery drivers are giving the vaccine top priority over holiday gifts and other parcels. They will deliver many of the “suitcases” into the hands of healthcare providers on Monday. The shipments are the first of three expected this week.

Both companies have expertise handling fragile medical products and are leaving little room for error.

They are providing temperature and location tracking to backup devices embedded in the Pfizer boxes, and tracking each shipment throughout its journey.

Healthcare workers and elderly residents of long-term care homes are first in line to receive the inoculations of a two-dose regimen given about three weeks apart.

Monday, 14 December, 2020

HolDEr HolDS ForT BuT WI STArE AT ANoTHEr INNINgS DEFEAT AgAINST NZ WELLINGTON

W

AGENCIES

EST Indies captain Jason Holder held off a venomous New Zealand attack as the tourists survived to be 244-6 at stumps Sunday on day three of the second Test in Wellington. They require a further 85 runs with four wickets remaining to make New Zealand bat again and avoid a second innings defeat.

Against a four-pronged pace attack, rated by the West Indies as “one of the best” in the world and who continued to get bounce and movement off the pitch, the tourists lost seven wickets in the first two sessions but only one after tea as Holder launched into the bowling. He was not out 60, with eight fours and two sixes, when bad light ended play an hour early.

Joshua da Silva, in his debut Test, was not out 25 with the pair adding an unbeaten 74 for the seventh wicket.

New Zealand quick Trent Boult said they were targeting an early finish on day four with the new ball 14 overs away.

“It’s all set up nicely for us tomorrow,” he said. “Hopefully we can scratch out a couple before the new ball and set it up nicely. We don’t need to go looking to do too much. Keep it nice and simple like we have done throughout the innings and draw the error and I’m pretty confident we can

do it.” West Indies opener John Campbell eked out 68 runs in the second innings but said it was hard going in New Zealand conditions where the ball does a lot.

“It is difficult. It is one of the best bowling attacks in the world right now in Test cricket and in their own conditions,” he said. “When they bowl they put us under tremendous pressure.”

Westwood crowned European number one, Fitzpatrick wins in Dubai DUBAI AGENCIES

Englishman Lee Westwood was crowned Europe’s number one golfer for the third time in his career with a second-placed finish on Sunday behind compatriot Matthew Fitzpatrick, who won the European Tour’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship. Westwood won the Harry Vardon Trophy again 20 years after he first lifted it, with a steady final-round 68 at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai to go 14-under for the tournament and finish one stroke behind Fitzpatrick, who took home $3 million for his victory. Westwood won $2 million for finishing at the top of the Race to Dubai leaderboard, while overnight co-leader Patrick Reed lost the chance to become the first American to claim the honour as he ended tied in third place with Viktor Hovland at 13-under. “It’s been a bizarre season... The European Tour have done an incredible job to pick the season up again from July and have tournaments on every week,” Westwood, who made five birdies and had one bogey, said. “The culmination of it all here, it was a great finish, sat there watching it. Thrills and spills, the Race to Dubai up for grabs and the tournament up for grabs. “It is been 20 years since I sat there at Valderrama, to win the Order of Merit as it was then. It is not getting any easier, I’m not getting any younger.”

Westwood said he would love to play in the Ryder Cup again, with the event pushed to next year due to the Covid-19 crisis. “At some point I’m hoping the captaincy is going to be offered,” Westwood added. “I have played 10 Ryder Cups, at certain times you have to move into different chapters of your life. If I did qualify, I would give it my all and be ready for it.”

New Zealand needed less than five overs at the start of the day to take the remaining two wickets and end the West Indies first innings at 131.

Tim Southee mopped up the tail to finish with 5-32 to go with the 5-34 by Kyle Jamieson, who was not required to bowl on the third morning.

Faced with a 329-run deficit, the West

Indies second innings was already wavering at 73-2 by lunch with Boult accounting for Kraigg Brathwaite (24) and Darren Bravo (4).

Campbell and Shamarh Brooks put on 89 for the third wicket but just as they looked comfortable the West Indies lost their way losing three wickets for three runs.

Chelsea lose at Everton as Manchester derby ends in stalemate MANCHESTER AGENCIES

Chelsea’s 17-match unbeaten run came to an end with a 10 defeat at Everton, while the Manchester derby between United and City ended goalless in the Premier League on Saturday. The results leave Tottenham Hotspur top of the table on 24 points level with Liverpool. Jose Mourinho’s Spurs visit Crystal Palace while Juergen Klopp’s champions are at Fulham on Sunday.

Chelsea hoped to grab first place, for 24 hours at least, but a first-half penalty by Iceland’s Gylfi Sigurdsson gave Everton victory on the return of 2,000 fans at Goodison Park. The home side went ahead in the 22nd minute when Dominic Calvert-Lewin was brought down in the box by Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy and Sigurdsson stroked home the spot kick.

Chelsea’s Reece James hit a post with a low first-half drive while a Mason Mount free kick also hit the woodwork with 10 minutes left in the second half as the visitors’ normally potent attack misfired on Merseyside.

Everton moved up to seventh in the standings on 20 points while Chelsea remain third on 22 after 12 games.

The Manchester derby at an empty Old Trafford lacked its usual excitement with both sides cautious and few chances. The only major incident saw United awarded a penalty in the 48th minute when Kyle Walker kicked Marcus Rashford’s foot in the box but the decision was overruled after VAR found the England striker had been in an offside position.

The nearest an unusually flat City came to scoring was a first half effort from Riyad Mahrez that was well saved

by David De Gea, with Kevin De Bruyne unable to make

the most of the loose ball.

After their Champions League exit at the hands of RB Leipzig on Tuesday, United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer needed to avoid the kind of result that might have raised serious questions about his role and was pleased with his team’s display. “The glass is always half-full with me. That is just the way you have to look at it. In my time against Man City, that’s the best performance we have had. Not the best result but it is the best performance. I think so,” said the Norwegian. A stoppage-time penalty by Anwar ElGhazi gave Aston Villa victory at Wolverhampton Wanderers in a Midlands derby which saw both teams finish with 10 men. Villa had Douglas Luiz sent off in the 85th minute and Wolves midfielder Joao Moutinho was dismissed shortly after the visitors scored against the run of play to register their fourth away win of the season.

Nelson Semedo hauled down John McGinn in the penalty area and El-Ghazi made no mistake with the spotkick as he blasted the ball past keeper Rui Patricio.

Newcastle United shook off the effects of a Covid-19 outbreak at the club when Miguel Almiron netted the fastest Premier League goal this season and Dwight Gayle scored a late winner in a 2-1 home victory over West Bromwich Albion. Almiron fired Newcastle ahead after 20 seconds when a mistake by defender Branislav Ivanovic allowed the hosts to counter-attack and Joelinton found the Paraguayan midfielder unmarked in the box as West Brom scrambled to recover. The visitors equalised five minutes after the restart when Matt Phillips’s cross was met by Darnell Furlong who stretched to volley into the bottom corner. Gayle grabbed the winner against his former club in the 82nd minute when he connected with fellow substitute Jacob Murphy’s cross and his bullet header crashed in off the bar.

SPORTS 11 Babar Azam ruled out of New Zealand T20Is LAHORE NEWS DESK

Pakistan captain Babar Azam has been ruled out of the three-match Twenty20 series against New Zealand after suffering a fracture in his right thumb during Sunday morning’s practice session. Babar will be unable to attend nets for at least 12 days, meaning he will not be available for the December 18, 20 and 22, T20Is to be played in Auckland, Hamilton and Napier, respectively. “I have spoken with Babar and he is sad to miss the T20I series, as he was fully focused and keenly looking forward to the T20Is. We have a long season of cricket ahead and we now hope that he regains complete fitness as early as possible so that he can return to competitive cricket,” Pakistan head coach Misbah-ul-Haq said. “Injuries are part and parcel of professional sport and while it is hugely disappointing to lose a player of Babar Azam’s caliber for the T20Is, this opens up opportunities for the other highly talented and exciting players to stepup, understand their responsibilities and try to prove that the Pakistan side is a complete package.” He further said that the medical team is monitoring Shadab Khan’s groin niggle. “We are optimistic that he will be available for the T20Is. But we will neither put him nor the team’s chances on risk, if we feel he needs a few more days to be back to his complete fitness.” The first T20 will be played in Auckland on Friday.

Starc to rejoin Australia team after family illness SYDNEY AGENCIES

Fast bowler Mitchell Starc will rejoin Australia’s squad in Adelaide on Monday to prepare for the first Test against India after he withdrew from the Twenty20 series due to a family illness. Starc will travel to Adelaide with several other members of the Australian side and the Indian team on a charter flight, Cricket Australia said on Sunday. “We feel for Mitch at this difficult time and were happy he has taken time out to spend with his family,” Australia coach Justin Langer said in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming him back into the squad on Monday (today).” Starc’s return was also welcomed by fellow fast bowler Josh Hazlewood as the home side continue their push for a spot in the International Cricket Council’s world Test championship at Lord’s next year. “It’s obviously great news for us to have Starcy come in tomorrow,” Hazlewood told reporters on Sunday.

Verstappen wins from pole in Abu Dhabi ABU DHABI AGENCIES

Max Verstappen won the season-ending Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix from pole position for Red Bull on Sunday. Champions Mercedes completed the podium places in a processional race with Valtteri Bottas second and seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton third. Verstappen’s success under the Yas Marina floodlights ended a run of six successive Abu Dhabi Grand Prix wins by Mercedes and was the 23-year-old Dutch driver’s second victory of the season and 10th of his career.

Joshua KOs Pulev to retain heavyweight titles, eyes Fury next LONDON AGENCIES

World heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua produced a devastating finish to knock out Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev near the end of the ninth round to retain his IBF, WBO and WBA belts at Wembley Arena on Saturday.

The 31-year-old Briton had looked close to winning when he floored Pulev in the third round but the challenger recovered to test the home favourite in front of a limited crowd of 1,000.

But there was no escape for the chal-

lenger in the ninth round as Joshua landed a clubbing right upper-cut which sent Pulev to the canvas. The 39-year-old got up but Joshua connected with another straight right hand to end the contest.

The champion’s 24th win from 25 professional fights sets up the prospect of a mouth-watering unification clash next year with fellow Briton Tyson Fury who holds the WBC belt. “I stuck to what I know best, looking at where I’m going to put my shots,” Joshua said at ringside. “When they are successful they are successful. It is less talk and more action.”

Asked about fighting Fury, Joshua put

the question to the audience: “Who wants to see Anthony Joshua fight Tyson Fury in 2021,” he said, to which the crowd roared their approval.

The 32-year-old Fury, whose brother Hughie was fighting on the undercard, was quick to respond on Twitter. “I want the fight, I want the fight next, I’ll knock him out inside three rounds,” he said.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn was eager to get the pair together, saying: “Starting from tomorrow, we make the Tyson Fury fight straight away. It’s the only fight to be made in boxing. It is the biggest fight in British boxing history.”

The Joshua-Pulev fight, which was originally scheduled for the Tottenham Hotspur Football Stadium in June but postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, was fascinating, if not a classic.

Pulev’s only defeat in his previous 29 contests came in 2014 against Wladimir Klitschko and the gritty Bulgarian proved a worthy challenger for Joshua’s belts.

After a cagey opening round, Joshua unleashed a powerful combination in the second, which was greeted with a smirk by Pulev. There was no smiling from the Bulgarian in the third round though as he walked onto a right upper cut.

Joshua looked one punch away from finishing it but Pulev somehow survived an onslaught to make it to the bell. Pulev regained his poise in the fourth, however, and Joshua looked slightly hesitant, despite his superior firepower.

Joshua was caught by a couple of rights in the fifth but by the time the ninth began he had won every round. Still, it was going to take something special to stop Pulev and that moment arrived near the end of the ninth as Joshua produced a devastating finish to a fight that was a potential tricky hurdle to a Battle of Britain showdown with Fury.

Monday, 14 December, 2020

PrAyEr TImINGS

NEWS

ScoreS killed after taliban attackS on military checkpointS in kandahar

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AGENCIES

OzENS of Taliban fighters were killed in fierce overnight fighting between Afghan forces and militants who attacked multiple checkpoints in the insurgent bastion of Kandahar, officials said Sunday.

Taliban militants attacked checkpoints in five districts surrounding the city of Kandahar, which Afghan forces countered with heavy air and ground assaults, the ministry of defence said in a statement.

"The security forces repulsed the attack, killing 51 terrorists and wounding nine," the ministry said, without offering details of any casualties among government forces.

Seven members of a family were also killed in an Afghan air strike in one of the districts, a local official said on condition of anonymity.

"The Afghan air force wanted to target

a car filled with explosives... when they hit the car it detonated and caused civilian fatalities," he said. The ministry of defence said it was investigating the incident.

The fighting lasted for several hours through the night, marked with continuous gun battles and heavy bombardments, an correspondent reported from Kandahar.

When contacted the Taliban did not offer an immediate comment.

The southern province of Kandahar is the birthplace of the hardline Islamist movement, and over the past few weeks militants have launched attacks in districts on the outskirts of the city of Kandahar, the provincial capital.

The Taliban launched a similar offensive in the neighbouring province of Helmand in September that sent tens of thousands of residents fleeing. That attack, which also targeted the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, prompted the US to call in air strikes to defend Afghan forces.

FAJR SUNRISE

ZUHR

ASR MAGHRIB ISHA

5:27

11:57

3:24

6:54

5:01

6:28

India farmers intensify protests as deadlock over new laws continue MUMBAI AGENCIES

Since a US-Taliban deal in February, the insurgents have not carried out major attacks on key cities but have launched near-daily assaults against Afghan forces in rural areas.

The surge in violence in recent months comes as the Taliban and Afghan government engage in peace talks. The negotiations started on September 12 in the Qatari capital of Doha, but on Saturday the two sides announced a pause until January 5.

The insurgents and the government side both tweeted they had exchanged "preliminary lists of agenda items for the interAfghan talks and held introductory discussions on the topics" to be covered when the meetings restart.

In recent months, Kabul has seen several deadly attacks, including a rocket attack Saturday that killed one civilian. On Sunday, a bomb planted on a vehicle killed two civilians in the capital, police said.

Tens of thousands of Indian farmers on Sunday intensified their protests against three new agricultural laws aimed at overhauling food grain procurement and pricing rules by allowing private companies direct access to the vast agrarian sector.

Angry farmers staged demonstrations near New Delhi after rejecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assurances that the laws would double farmers’ income.

Six rounds of talks between government officials and farmer union leaders have failed to resolve the challenge faced by Modi’s government.

“Hundreds of farmers will launch a tractor trolley march to New Delhi to voice our grievances against the new laws,” said Kamal Preet Singh Pannu, a leader of Sanyukta Kisan Andolan (United Farmers’ Protest), one of 30 groups against the laws.

“Government wants to discredit and crush our movement, but we will continue to

protest peacefully,” Pannu said.

Local authorities increased security measures, deploying police and putting up barricades to prevent farmers from entering New Delhi in large numbers. Opposition parties and some senior economists have lent support to the protests.

“I have now studied India’s new farm bills and realize they are flawed and will be detrimental to farmers,” Kaushik Basu, a former chief economic adviser to the federal government, wrote on Twitter.

“Our agriculture regulation needs change, but the new laws will end up serving corporate interests more than farmers. Hats off to the sensibility and moral strength of India’s farmers,” Basu said.

The farmers are protesting the three laws that the government says are meant to overhaul procurement procedures and grant them more options to sell their produce.

Ministers from Modi’s government at an industry event on Saturday in New Delhi appealed to leading industrialists and businesses to explain the benefits of the new laws to farmers.

Pro-Trump protests decry election loss, opposing groups clash in Washington WASHINGTON AGENCIES

Conservative groups claiming without evidence that the November 3 election was stolen from President Donald Trump staged protests across the country on Saturday, with one in Washington turning violent at times as police broke up sporadic clashes after dark.

Organisers of Stop The Steal, linked to pro-Trump operative Roger Stone, and church groups urged supporters to participate in “Jericho Marches” and prayer rallies. But groups of pro-Trump “Proud Boys” protesters and “Antifa” counterprotesters brawled in downtown Washington on Saturday night. Police moved in quickly to separate them, using pepper spray on members of both sides, Reuters witnesses said.

Around 200 members of the Proud Boys, a violent far-right group, had joined the marches earlier on Saturday near the Trump hotel.

Many wore combat fatigues, black and yellow shirts and ballistic vests, carried helmets and flashed hand signals used by white nationalists.

Earlier, police in riot gear and on bicycles kept the opposing demonstrators apart by blocking streets. After dark fell, the protesters - including members of the aggressive far-left anti-facism movement - splintered into smaller

groups to roam the streets in search of their rivals. Protests were also held in other communities around the country, including Atlanta, Georgia, another state where Trump’s campaign has sought to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory, and Mobile, Alabama, according to local news coverage.

Local media in the Washington state capital of Olympia reported that one person was shot and three arrested after clashes between proand anti-Trump protest groups.

FLYNN SPEAKS: More than 50 federal and state court rulings have upheld Biden’s victory. The US Supreme Court on Friday rejected a long-shot lawsuit filed by Texas and backed by Trump seeking to throw out voting results in four states.

“Whatever the ruling was yesterday [...] everybody take a deep, deep breath,” retired Army General Mike Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, told protesters in front of the Supreme Court, referring to the court’s refusal to hear the Texas case.

Flynn who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with the former Russian ambassador, spoke in his first public address since Trump pardoned him on November 24. “My charge to you is to go back to where you are from” and make demands, Flynn told the crowd, without being more specific.

The US Constitution is “not about

collective liberty it is about individual liberties, and they designed it that way,” he said. Trump, a Republican, has refused to concede defeat, alleging without evidence that he was denied victory by massive fraud. On his way to Andrews Air Force Base and then the Army-Navy football game in New York, Trump made three passes in the Marine One helicopter over the cheering protesters.

During his first debate with Biden in September, Trump gave fuel to the Proud Boys movement by telling the group to “stand back and stand by.” He later said he condemned the group and “all white supremacists.”

MASKLESS PROTESTS: Trump’s supporters carrying his campaign flags and signs marched between the Supreme Court, the Capitol and downtown Washington, which was closed to traffic by police vehicles and dump trucks.

Few of the marchers wore masks, despite soaring Covid-19 deaths and cases, defying a mayoral directive for them to be worn outside. Several thousand people rallied in Washington, fewer than during a similar protest last month.

As some in the crowd echoed far-right conspiracy theories about the election, a truck-pulled trailer flew Trump 2020 flags and a sign reading “Trump Unity” while blaring the country song “God Bless the USA.”

UN chief urges leaders of every country to declare 'climate emergency' LONDON AGENCIES

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on every country to declare a “climate emergency” on Saturday, as world leaders marking the fifth anniversary of the Paris climate accord made mostly incremental pledges relative to the scale of the crisis.

Guterres made his call at a summit aimed at building on momentum behind the Paris deal, buoyed in recent months by renewed commitment from China and the prospect of US President-elect Joe Biden bringing the United States back into the pact. Nevertheless, the dozens of leaders who spoke mostly offered tweaks to existing commitments or promises of bolder moves before crucial talks in Glasgow in

late 2021, rather than breakthrough new policies to hasten the end of fossil fuels. “Can anybody still deny that we are facing a dramatic emergency?” Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister who has made climate change his signature issue, said via video.

“That is why today, I call on all leaders worldwide to declare a State of Climate Emergency in their countries until carbon neutrality is reached.” With the impacts of climate change increasingly stark since the Paris deal was struck - ranging from wildfires in Australia and California to collapsing ice sheets - popular pressure has grown on leaders to listen to warnings from scientists.

Britain, co-hosting the summit, made one of the clearest new commitments, announcing late on Fri-

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day it would stop direct government support for overseas fossil fuel projects. Campaigners hailed the move for putting pressure on other G7 economies to restrict support for oil and gas companies.

Renewed pledges to back Paris from countries such as India, Germany and France were welcomed less in terms of substance and more for keeping alive hopes of faster action to meet the monumental challenge of halving global emissions by 2030 in line with the Paris deal.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who surprised many in September when he announced the world’s biggest producer of climate-warming emissions would become carbon neutral by 2060, and unveiled targets to speed the expansion of wind and solar power.