EpaperLHR_2020-08-05

Wednesday, 5 August, 2020 I 14 Dhul-Hijjah, 1441 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XI No 36 I 12 Pages I Lahore Edition

PM unveils new PolitiCal MaP of Pakistan g

imran says the new map is fully baCKed by the entire politiCal leadership of the Country

ISLAMABAD staff report

P

rime minister imran Khan on tuesday unveiled the new political map of the country that “truly represents aspirations of the people of the country”. the premier’s announcement came a day ahead of the first anniversary of india’s controversial unilateral decision to revoke the area’s semi-autonomy. in a televised address alongside foreign minister shah mahmood Qureshi, he said that the new map supports the principled stance of the people of pakistan, as

Pakistan

CONFIRMED CASES:

280,843

15

NEW CASES:

432

RECOVERED:

DEATHS:

SINDH:

PUNJAB:

249,397 6,009

122,016 KP:

34,324 AJK/GB:

Qureshi says india’s illegal august 5 aCtion has been totally rejeCted in the map

well as the indian occupied Kashmir (ioK), about the Kashmir issue. he added that the new map also negates india’s illegal action of august 5, 2019. he also said that the map, which has been endorsed by the federal cabinet, is fully backed by the entire political leadership of the country. he added that this new official map will henceforth be used in the curriculum. the prime minister reiterated that implementation of the united nations security Council (unsC) resolutions is the only solution to the Kashmir dispute. he said that pakistan will continue its political and diplomatic efforts for resolution of the long-

Coronavirus in

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

g

93,336 BALOCHISTAN:

11,777

ISLAMABAD:

2,097/2,198 15,095

standing dispute. he hoped that the nation would achieve this goal one day. explaining the main features of the new political map, the foreign minister said that the map clearly shows Kashmir as a disputed territory, which is required to be resolved under the united nations (un) resolutions and as per aspirations of the people of occupied Kashmir. he said that india’s illegal action of august 5, 2019, has totally been rejected in the map. the fm said that it has been declared that “siachen is part of pakistan, and we challenge india’s position on it”. similarly, he said, india’s claim about sir Creek has also been rejected in the map. he added that the map also shows that erstwhile federally administered tribal areas (fata) have become part of Khyber pakhtunkhwa (Kp) province. he further said the new map has given a message that the pakistani nation will continue supporting the Kashmiris for securing their inalienable right to self-determination. “this gives a clear message to the people of Kashmir, that the government of pakistan was with them in the past and will stand with them in the future.” “our destination is srinagar,” he said, adding that this was a “historic day”. in the map, jammu and Kashmir in its entirety, including gilgitbaltistan, has been shown in one distinct colour, the foreign office (fo) said. further, the line of Control (loC) has been marked with red dotted line. “the red dotted line represents approximately the loC in jammu and Kashmir. the state of jammu and Kashmir and its accession is yet to be decided through plebiscite under the relevant unsC resolutions,” the map reads. the map also contains an annotation for the area on the map marked “frontier undefined”. “actual boundary in the area […] would ultimately be decided by the sovereign authorities concerned after the settlement of the jammu and Kashmir dispute,” it adds.

Top judge vows to hold APS attackers accountable ISLAMABAD staff report

the supreme Court (sC) has directed to provide a copy of the judicial inquiry report on the 2014 army public school (aps) attack to the attorney general of pakistan (agp) Khalid jawed Khan and directed him to ask the government for further instructions in this regard. the direction came as a twomember bench, comprising Chief justice of pakistan (Cjp) gulzar ahmed and justice ijazul ahsan, heard the proceedings on the suo motu case on tuesday. during the hearing, the chief justice remarked that “we will not leave those who are responsible for the aps tragedy” as he expressed sympathy with the parents. the judicial commission, formed to investigate the deadly attack in which over 140 children and school staffers were gunned down, had submitted its report in the apex court on july 9. the commission, according to its spokesperson, had recorded the statements of 101 witnesses and 31 police and other officials of law enforcement agencies for its sixvolume report. the report was presented in the top court during today’s hearing. the parents of martyred students requested the court to provide a copy of the report [to them], to which justice ahsan replied that it was a “secret report which could not be given to them yet”.

Curfew imposed in parts of held Kashmir ahead of annexation anniversary SRINAGAR agencies

indian authorities clamped a curfew in many parts of occupied Kashmir on tuesday, a day ahead of the first anniversary of india’s controversial unilateral decision to revoke the valley’s semi-autonomy. shahid iqbal Choudhary, a civil administrator, said the security lockdown was clamped in the region’s main city of srinagar in view of information about protests planned by anti-india groups to mark aug 5 as a “black day”. police and paramilitary soldiers drove through neighbourhoods and went to people’s homes, warning them to stay indoors. government forces erected steel barricades and laid razor wire across roads, bridges and intersections. the curfew will be enforced tuesday and wednesday, Choudhary said in a government order. “a series of inputs have been received suggesting that separatist and pakistan-sponsored groups are planning to observe aug 5 as black day and violent action or protests are not ruled out,” he claimed. india has dubbed the Kashmiris’ struggle

“we have not read the report ourselves. we will see after the government’s response is received. there can be no contradiction in this. we will take action according to the law and the Constitution,” the chief justice remarked. “whatever happened should not have happened,” he said and assured the grieving parents that “carelessness would be dealt with according to the law”. “there is rule of law in the country […] we will not let go of anyone who was responsible. parents should have confidence in the judiciary,” he added. the top court directed the attorney general to ask the government for instructions and brief the sC regarding the next steps. the case was adjourned for four weeks.

JUDICIAL COMMISSION TO PROBE APS ATTACK: the judicial inquiry commission was constituted on oct 12, 2018, by the peshawar high Court (phC) on the order of the supreme Court and it had started functioning on oct 19, 2018. then Chief justice mian saqib nisar had taken notice of the issue in april 2018 when during his visit to peshawar several of the parents of the deceased students had approached him. subsequently, on may 9, 2018, an apex court bench headed by the chief justice ordered conducting of an inquiry into the occurrence through a judicial commission comprising justice muhammad ibrahim Khan of the phC.

more inside

Youm-e-Istehsal to be observed today to mark a year of IOK's military siege STORY ON PAGE 02

political, military leadership united on Kashmir issue: fm STORY ON PAGE 03 as “terrorism” abetted by pakistan — a charge islamabad denies. last year on aug 5, india’s hindu-nationalist government led by prime minister narendra modi downgraded occupied jammu and Kashmir’s status and divided it into two federally governed territories. since then, new delhi has brought in a slew of new laws that locals say are aimed at shifting the demographics in the muslim-majority region, many of whom want independence from india or unification with pakistan. the status of Kashmir has been a key dispute between pakistan and india since the two split after the end of british colo-

nial rule. after the aug 5 decision, indian authorities enforced an information blackout and a harsh security clampdown in Kashmir for months. thousands of Kashmiri youth, pro-freedom leaders and politicians who have traditionally supported indian rule were arrested. hundreds of them are still incarcerated.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 02

Military occupation of IOK warrants ICC intervention: report STORY ON PAGE 03

Massive blast in Beirut kills 10, sending shockwaves across city STORY ON BACK PAGE

army chief discusses security issues with serving, retired military officials STORY ON PAGE 03

02

Wednesday, 5 August, 2020

NEWS

Youm-e-Istehsal to be observed todaY to mark a Year of Iok's mIlItarY sIege ISLAMABAD

Y

APP

OUM-E-ISTEHSAL will be observed all across Pakistan on August 5 to mark 365 days of Indian military siege of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).

In this regard, the Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf (PTI) government has planned a range of activities to express solidarity with the oppressed Kashmiris and expose India’s brutalities.

According to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, “Pakistan is going to highlight Indian atrocities in Kashmir on this day.”

Prime Minister Imran Khan, who had committed to play the role of Kashmir’s ambassador, will address the Legislative Assembly of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) after a solidarity walk in which he will be joined by AJK president and prime minister in Muzaffarabad.

Besides solidarity walks across the country to be led by the political leadership regardless of the political divide, a oneminute silence would also be observed at 10 am after blaring of sirens.

The government has also decided to

change the name of Kashmir Highway in Islamabad to Srinagar Highway and has installed signboards on the roads to this effect.

A special postal stamp has been issued by the Ministry of Postal Services to highlight the Indian aggression and human rights abuses by depicting a minor sitting

missing Persons Commission disposes of 4,616 cases till July 30 ISLAMABAD INP

Missing Persons Commission has disposed of 4,616 cases up till July 30, 2020, as per monthly progress report released by Farid Ahmed Khan, the secretary of Commission of Inquiry of Enforced Disappearances (COIOED), on cases of alleged enforced disappearances for the month of July 2020. A total number of 6,686 cases were received by the commission up until June 2020. During July 2020, 43 more cases were received by the commission and the total numbers of cases reached 6,729. The commission disposed 23 cases in July 2020 and thus total resolved cases as of July 30, 2020 is 4,616, with a balance of 2,113 cases.

The commission will resume its hearings soon after review of lockdown policies announced by the federal government and provincial governments. The relatives of missing persons have lauded the efforts of Missing Persons Commission Chairman Justice Javed Iqbal, and other members of the commission, for taking a personal interest in locating their close ones.

soPs devised for reopening of schools LAHORE: The Punjab Education Department has devised standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the reopening to ensure the safety of students and teachers as the schools gear up to reopen after the closure of four months. According to the SOPs, maximum 20 students will be accommodated in a room and two students will sit on each disk. The schools have also been directed to operate in two or more shifts to ensure social distancing. It will be compulsory for the schools to arrange sanitisers for the students from their own budget. The temperature of each student and staffer will be checked before entering the facility. As per the SOPs, there will complete ban on any type of function, ceremony and recess during school timing. StAff REPoRt

over the body of his slain grandfather killed by the Indian troops in Sopore town in early July.

The government will enhance its diplomatic outreach on the day by writing letters to the United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG) and world leaders, besides interactions of the prime minister with the in-

ternational media whereas a memorandum would be presented to the United Nations Observer Mission.

Publication of special Op-eds in the foreign media, special campaigns through print, electronic and especially social media, and presentation of a memo to the UN representative have also been planned.

Pakistani envoys across the world will engage with local media, think tanks and community to apprise them about the Indian aggression and blatant violations of repeated UNSC resolutions.

Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) and the world over will observe Youm-e-Istehsal to denounce the illegal, immoral and unconstitutional step which India took on this day last year to strip IOK of its special status by repealing articles 35A and 370 of its constitution.

August 5, 2019, added a new turn and chapter in the Kashmiris struggle as India tried to abolish their identity through demographic apartheid, which was rejected not only by the Muslims but also by the Hindu pundits and Buddhists.

On this day, the whole nation will give a message to their Kashmiri brethren that the people of Pakistan would always support their struggle for freedom.

President Alvi to address special senate session on Youm-e-Istehsal ISLAMABAD APP

President Dr Arif Alvi will address a special session of the Senate on Wednesday, called to express Pakistan’s resolve and commitment to Kashmir in addition to raising voice against the continuing Indian atrocities in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).

The aim of the special session is to draw the international community’s attention towards the fascist Indian government’s illegal actions of August 5, 2019, and put pressure on India to stop inhumane aggression in the occupied territory, said a press release issued by the Senate Secretariat on Tuesday.

The session will be held on a single point agenda on

Kashmir while parliamentary leaders will take part in a debate on Kashmir. A resolution will also be passed at the conclusion of the debate.

Ambassadors of different countries will also be specially invited to the session for which the Senate hall will be adorned with flags of Pakistan and Kashmir.

On this occasion, a special booklet will be prepared by the Senate containing information about its role played for the Kashmir cause over the years, including the conference held last year as well as resolutions passed among other steps. This booklet will be sent to 56,000 parliamentarians around the world and international human rights organisations. The members of Senate will also take part in the walk held to mark the day on Constitution Avenue on August 5.

Wheat shortage in KP increases to two million tonnes PESHAWAR AZIZ BUNERI

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Flour Mills Association Provincial Chairman Haji Iqbal on Tuesday said that KP currently faces a wheat shortfall of 2 million tonnes compared to its annual requirement of 4.6 million tonnes.

He said that the crisis has arisen since the provincial government did not procure wheat on time.

He further said that flour mills in the province had earlier gone on a strike after wheat was not supplied to them.

However, he informed that the government on Tuesday, accepted the demands of the flour mills after which they called off the strike.

He informed that for the next eight months, KP’s wheat requirements stand at 2.3 million tonnes, out of which 1.3 million tonnes will be purchased from Punjab while the remaining will have to be procured by the province.

Haji Iqbal said that the wheat shortage in KP arose due to the price differential of wheat in Punjab and KP. He said the price of wheat in Punjab was fixed at Rs3,500 per sack while the price in KP stood at Rs3,900 per sack after which farmers in Punjab started hoarding wheat.

Meanwhile, During the session of KP provincial assembly on Tuesday, Speaker Mushtaq Ghani while expressing concern over the increase in wheat and flour prices in the province said that the chief secretary has lost control over the deputy commissioners and has been unable to keep prices of essential commodities under control.

He urged for strict action to be taken against shopkeepers and traders who are selling food items at inflated rates. “Shopkeepers selling expensive food items should be arrested and the concerned deputy commissioners should be suspended,” he said.

On the other hand, KP food minister Qalandar Khan Lodhi once again rejected any shortfall of wheat in the province and said that at present the provincial food department has 145,000 metric tonnes of wheat in store and the province's flour mills are being supplied 2,000 metric tonnes of wheat on a daily basis. He further said that the delivery of 100,000 metric tonnes of wheat from Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) is also underway.

He said that an agreement has also been signed with PASSCO for another 300,000 metric tonnes of wheat and that a plan is being worked out to import an additional 300,000 metric tonnes of wheat.

Citizens appreciate PM's decision of involving NDMA in needed interventions KARACHI APP

Local citizens have appreciated Prime Minister Imran Khan for acknowledging their plight during monsoons and engaging the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for the urgent removal of different forms of debris from storm/rain drains.

Acknowledging the work initiated by NDMA and Frontier Works Organization (FWO) on the directives of prime minister, at a time when more showers were being forecast with the possibility of urban flooding in the metropolis, the citizens appreciated that the severity of the situation was duly gauged and the concerning work was started immediately.

“Work began as per schedule on Monday at a time

when the vast majority of the citizens were celebrating the festival of Eidul Azha, thus delivering a clear message that priorities have been set right without any compromise,” said Mrs Kamal Wasim, a senior citizen and a retired school teacher.

Urging all stakeholders, including the citizens, she said that while work was in progress, a huge responsibility lies upon them to ensure that nobody was allowed to practice dumping of discarded goods and waste (domestic, construction, industrial, etc.) into the storm drains.

“We are the ultimate sufferers,” said the lady residing in North Nazimabad. She hoped that both federal and provincial governments along with staffers associated with essential services would also ensure that momentum was maintained through regular cleaning of the wastewater

drainage with equal care and ensuring that encroachments were not allowed over, or close to the drains.

Agha Dabir Hussain, referring to the latest weather advisory issued by the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said that a monsoon low pressure from the Bay of Bengal was likely to approach Sindh on Thursday, with every possibility of widespread and heavy showers in Karachi as well as in other parts of the province and that much work has to be done in a little time.

“This definitely needs coordination at every level,” he said and hoped that better sense would prevail in the interest of citizens.

Reminding that urban flooding witnessed only a few weeks ago was a grim reminder of lack of political coordination, he opined that things presently seem to be taking a turn for good.

Curfew imposed in parts of held Kashmir CoNTINUED FoRM PAGE 01 Human Rights Watch asked that India reverse its “abusive policies” in the region and said it was dismayed India persisted with “its repression of Kashmiri Muslims” despite the pandemic forcing the world to address discrimination and inequality. “Indian government claims that it was determined to improve Kashmiri lives ring hollow one year after the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s constitutional status,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, the global rights group’s South Asia director, in the statement made on Tuesday. “The authorities instead have maintained stifling restraints on Kashmiris in violation of their basic rights.”

LIFE REMAINS HARD: As few of the restrictions were eased, India enforced another harsh lockdown in March to combat the spread of the coronavirus, deepening the social and economic crisis in the region. Life remains hard in occupied Kashmir, with hundreds of checkpoints still in place and internet coverage patchy and slow. The economic effect has been dire, with half a million jobs lost in the region by the end of 2019, the Kashmir chamber of commerce says. Coronavirus lockdown measures have only added to the hardship, both for the economy and people’s lives. Children have had barely any schooling for a year. Security operations against Kashmiri fighters have accelerated, putting 2020 on course to be one of the bloodiest years for some time. India has also granted tens of thousands of people from outside the region the same rights as Kashmiris, meaning they can now buy land for the first time. Critics say this is an attempt to change the demographic makeup of the region.

Companies from outside India have also been given a string of mining concessions, often riding roughshod over environmental rules in the region, critics say.

Zardari’s indictment in thatta water supply reference deferred yet again ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Islamabad Tuesday once again postponed the indictment of former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari in Thatta water supply reference till August 7. At the outset of the hearing, accountability judge Muhammad Azam Khan, who was presiding over the hearing, sought a reply from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Zardari’s petition seeking dismissal of the reference against him. The judge subsequently deferred Zardari’s indictment besides giving exemption from appearance on the pretext of coronavirus pandemic. The reference accuses the suspects of misusing authority for the illegal award of different contracts to private contractors. The reference was filed in April last year and also nominated 13 other individuals in addition to Zardari.

The reference alleged that some accused persons created fake accounts and purchased plots from illgotten money. Zardari was released after being granted bail by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in December last year on medical grounds. APP

IhC provides 3 weeks to interior ministry in Cynthia's deportation case ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday granted the Interior Ministry three months for deciding on the deportation case of American citizen Cynthia Dawn Ritchie. IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah conducted the hearing on the petition filed by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Iftikhar Choudhary for the deportation of Cynthia who had given illicit remarks against his leadership earlier in June. At the outset of the hearing, Justice Minallah said that it was yet to be ascertained if Cynthia was working with the government or any other institution, adding that there was a dire need to dispel the impression that any institution was behind the issuance of her remarks. Officials from the Interior Ministry asked for some time more to make a decision on the matter to which the court awarded it with three weeks’ time. APP

Wednesday, 5 August, 2020

NEWS

PolItICal, mIlItarY leadershIP unIted on kashmIr Issue: foreIgn mInIster ISLAMABAD

f

APP

OREIGN Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday expressed strong support for Kashmiris’ just right to self-determination. “Pakistani nation, including the political and military leadership, has the same stance on the Kashmir issue,” he said while chairing a conference on the Kashmir situation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The conference was attended by many prominent figures including Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, National As-

sembly (NA) Speaker Asad Qaiser, Information Minister Senator Shibli Faraz, Law Minister Barrister Farogh Naseem, and Minister for Kashmir Affairs Ali Amin Gandapur.

Qureshi said that Pakistan has exposed the ongoing human rights violations in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) at every international forum.

He mentioned that India tried to change the demographic ratio in the IOK by amending the domicile laws, terming it as a “clear violation of international law”. He said that all the political parties of Pakistan were united on the Kashmir issue.

army chief discusses security issues with serving, retired military officials LAHoRE StAff REPoRt

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa Tuesday discussed security and other professional matters in a meeting with serving and retired military officers including former army chiefs, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. According to the ISPR statement, the army chief “had an interactive session on [wide-ranging] issues including professional matters, [the] security situation in the region, measures to optimise dividends of peace and stability and also the challenges and opportunities”. The meeting comes a day before the first anniversary of Indian annexation of held Kashmir which Pakistan has announced to observe as Youm-i-Istehsal (Day of Exploitation). The meeting took place at Corps Headquarters, Lahore in which the participants gave “multifarious suggestions” to Gen Bajwa and “thanked him for the candid discussion”. It was attended

by General (r) Raheel Sharif, General (r) Jehangir Karamat, General (r) Ahsan Saleem Hayat, General (r) Tariq Majid and General (r) Rashid Mahmood among others.

financial close of thar block-2 power plant by sept end, says asim bajwa NEWS DESK: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Lt Gen (r) Asim Saleem Bajwa said on Tuesday that the financial closes of 330 Megawatts (MW) Thar Block-2 power plant was expected by the end of September. Taking to Twitter, he stated that the project, which would be executed by Thal Nova and HUBCO, was launched recently with an investment of $500 million. Bajwa, who is also the chairman of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), said that the project has created 305 local jobs so far, and that it was being pushed by the company's own equity to prevent time loss.

Qureshi said following the footsteps of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) government, because of its Hindutva thinking, had sown the seeds of hatred in the hearts of Kashmiris and Indian minorities.

He stressed that India could not demoralise unarmed Kashmiris, despite continuous torture and imprisonment.

“Today, the real face of the Indian government has been exposed to the world”, he said.

The foreign minister promised Pakistan’s support for Kashmiris until they get their due right to self-determination.

Govt mulls reopening marriage halls, recreational spots ISLAMABAD StAff REPoRt

The government has started consultations with provinces to reopen the tourism sector, marriage halls, and recreational spaces, said Minister of Industries and Production Hammad Azhar on Tuesday.

The government had earlier prepared a negative list, comprising businesses that were not allowed to operate out of fear of the spread of coronavirus.

Azhar, through a tweet, said that the federal government has started consultations with provinces on “review and possible revision of sectors” on the negative list. “Started consultations at NCOC [National Command Operation Center] with provinces on review and possible revision of sectors (subject to SOPs) on Negative List of opening up. These include tourism, restaurants, marriage halls, parks etc,” he said.

The minister disclosed that the government was

also mulling over the timings of the markets and industries. He added that once the provinces had finalised their recommendations, it would be referred to Prime Minister Imran Khan for the final decision.

GOVT URGED TO REOPEN MARRIAGE HALLS: Earlier in the day, owners of marriage halls, lawns and marquees requested the government to allow them to resume operations as the industry and its allied sectors were suffering hefty losses.

“During the season when the business is at its peak, every vendor associated with the [marriage halls] business earns Rs3,000 to Rs5,000 per day,” a marquee owner said.

He urged the government to “understand that just like the construction industry, the wedding industry also works exactly like an engine and the driving force for several other allied industries”.

Industries such as garments, cosmetics and livestock are all interconnected, he said.

SC allows suspension of cellular services under specific circumstance ISLAMABAD StAff REPoRt

Setting aside the Islamabad High Court (IHC) verdict declaring the suspension of mobile phone services illegal, the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday allowed the government to do so on the pretext of “national security”. It is common practice for mobile cellular to be suspended in cities on religious events. The IHC, in a February 2018 judgement, had declared the practice “illegal” and tantamount to “exceeding constitutional authority”.

However, the apex court, in its short order, declared the IHC verdict null and void and directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the Ministry of Information and Technology to devise

standard operating procedures (SOPs) in this regard.

The IHC verdict was challenged by PTA in the apex court where a division bench had on April 22 deemed it justified to suspend the mobile service on sensitive events.

“These protective measures are taken on the request of law enforcement authorities in view of past experience of terrorist activities at similar events. If such events caused the issuance of the impugned directions then the same would be in the public interest, reasonable, fair, consistent with the object of the law and therefore valid,” a nine-page written judgment authored by Justice Umar Ata Bandial had said.

“Accordingly, the exercise of power by PTA under the policy directive dated 26.12.2009 ought to be evaluated in the light of the threat that is anticipated.”

03

Police martyrs are the pride of the nation: faraz ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz on Tuesday said that police martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty are the pride of the nation. In a tweet on the occasion of Police Martyrs Day, he said that the entire nation was paying homage to the brave martyred officers and youth of the police force.Faraz said that those sons of the soil who sacrificed their lives for the eradication of terrorism, establishment of peace and protection of the lives and property of the people were national heroes.

The nation saluted the heroes who were fighting against criminals and anti-social elements, he added. APP

bilawal pays homage to martyred policemen ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Tuesday paid tribute to police officials who laid their lives in the line of duty.

The country observed Police Martyrs Day to commemorate the sacrifices police offered during over a decadelong war against terrorism. In his message, the PPP chief said that police personnel who embraced martyrdom fighting the terrorists and criminals were heroes of the nation and the entire country was proud of them.

Bilawal said the police force has always fought valiantly against the terrorists and hardened criminals as evident from their brave resistance to the June 30 attack on Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). He also expressed solidarity with families of martyred policemen and asked the government to make every effort for their welfare and well-being including the provision of education and health facilities to their children. Bilawal said that law enforcement agencies including the police have rendered great sacrifices for protecting lives and properties of the citizens. StAff REPoRt

army pays tribute to police martyrs RAWALPINDI: The Pakistan Army paid tribute to the police personnel on Police Martyrs Day, which was observed across the country on Tuesday. “On Police Martyrs Day, tribute to martyrs of Pakistan Police,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a tweet. “In the line of duty, they have been the 1st responders to every cry for help and answered every call with purpose and pride,” it added.

The Police Martyrs Day is observed on August 4 across Pakistan every year to pay homage to the martyred heroes of the force. StAff REPoRt

Coas, egyptian envoy discuss bilateral ties RAWALPINDI: Egyptian Ambassador to Pakistan Dr Tarek Mohamed Dahroug called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Tuesday. Matters of mutual interest and cooperation in various fields were discussed during the meeting. COAS and the ambassador also expressed mutual contentment on the trajectory of the bilateral relations between the two countries. The visiting dignitary also appreciated Pakistan's continuous efforts for peace and stability in the region. StAff REPoRt

Military occupation of IOK warrants ICC intervention: report ISLAMABAD INP

A legal fact-finding report released on Tuesday necessitates setting up of an independent war crime tribunal to investigate atrocities committed by the Indian occupying forces in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and intervention of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to initiate proceedings against all perpetrators.

It also calls upon the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to refer to India’s illegal annexation and demographic change to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). These findings are part of a legal factfinding report titled ‘Kashmir’s Statehood Abrogated’, co-published by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and Legal Forum for Oppressed Voices of Kashmir (LFOVK).

The report finds that India’s military intervention fulfills the definition of occupation under Article 42 of The Hague Regulations 1907; the illegal annexation stands

in violation of the fundamental rights of civilians under The Hague Regulations and Geneva Convention IV Articles 47-48, Additional Protocol 1, Article 75. India also stands liable for committing the crime of aggression via unilateral annexation in contravention of Article 8 bis2(b) of the Rome Statute and has violated all four Geneva Conventions, the report added.

It also provides in-depth information about the situation in J&K during the past one year since India abrogated Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution, revoked the region’s special status, and annexed it illegally.

India has been perpetrating atrocities in J&K that come under crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression, and war crimes, according to international laws.

These actions have made the situation even worse in Indian Occupied Kashmir that is under lockdown since August 5, 2019.

According to the report, the human rights abuses perpetrated by India include curtailment of religious

rights, constraints on economic development, curbs on freedom of communication via the internet and telephone lines, restrictions on journalists, denial of the right to education, banning freedom of movement, along with the imposition of curfews, infliction of torture and arbitrary detentions. Furthermore, India stands in violation of International Humanitarian Law due to the use of lethal weapons, sexual violence against women, illegal change in the demographic structure by bringing in people from outside the region after changing the provisions for domicile, inadequate response to the Covid-19 pandemic and destruction of civilian property.

The report, while citing scholars, says India’s introduction of the new domicile laws during the Covid-19 pandemic has created implications of demographic change and delimitations. It further adds that these implications will redraw the parliamentary and assembly constituencies in favour of those regions more receptive to the Indian government such as Ladakh and Jammu,

thus tilting the balance of power from the historically majority Muslim Kashmir state to Jammu.

The report explains that Article 7 (1)(d) of the Rome Statute defines deportation or forcible transfer of population as a “crime against humanity”. ILC Draft Code of Crimes against the Peace and Security of Mankind 1991 and 1996 term changes to the demographic composition of an occupied territory as an “exceptionally serious war crime”.

The report further pressed that the international community should demand India to improve the avenues of internal self-determination by providing justice to the human rights victims, revoking the discriminatory laws, providing mechanisms for representative governance, and restoring the autonomy of the region. Setting Kosovo and East Timor as precedence, the report says the people of J&K have the right to external self-determination through remedial secession because of the absence of opportunities for internal self-determination.

04

Wednesday, 5 August, 2020

NEWS

IndIa pushInG ReGIon to bRInk of waR, waRns Masood MUZAFFARABAD

a

TLTP

zAD Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has warned that Indian rulers, through their warmongering, ceasefire violations, and threats to attack AJK and Pakistan are pushing the region to the brink of war.

In a message on completion of one year of India’s illegal action of August 5, 2019, the AJK president said, “This past year, the people of the Indian Occupied Kashmir, have suffered most grievously. On August 5

last year, 900,000 Indian occupation forces invaded Kashmir and re-occupied it. Ever since they have been brutalising the people and colonising the territory.”

The Indian occupation army, he said, has killed hundreds of young men, incarcerated thousands of boys and children and forcibly disappeared Kashmiris.

“All pro-freedom leaders are under illegal detention. Concentration camps have been set up in the IOK and India to force political activists to discard their quest for liberty,” he said, adding that the occupied territory’s economy has been ruined.

He said that late last year, illicitly, India

Rs6.73bn approved to set up teaching hospital in Gujranwala LAHORE: The Punjab Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) Tuesday approved upgradation of DHQ Hospital Gujranwala to a teaching hospital and construction of police training school Rawalpindi. The PDWP approved Rs7,452.862 million for these schemes in its 3rd meeting of the current fiscal year 202-21 presided over by P&D Board Chairman Hamed Yaqoob Sheikh. All members of the Planning & Development Board, provincial secretaries of concerned departments, Senior Chief (Coord) Javed Latif, Assistant Chief Coordination Shahid Idrees and other senior representatives of the relevant provincial departments also attended the meeting. The approved development schemes included provision of missing specialties for the upgradation of DHQ hospital to teaching hospital, Gujranwala, at the cost of Rs6,731.049 million, construction of police training school at Rawat, Rawalpindi has been approved at the cost of Rs721.813 million. TLTP

bifurcated the disputed territory into two parts and declared that they would be ruled

by Delhi, without the consent of the people.

“In another sinister move this year, India has launched massive import and transfer of Hindus from India to settle them in the occupied territory in order to change the demographic composition of the state. This is a flagrant violation of the 4th Geneva Convention and international law,” the president stated.

Khan said that the scale at which these atrocities are going on have been rightly called genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Kashmiris are being exter-

minated; they are being made aliens in their own land and homeless in their own homeland. “Full-fledged aggression against Kashmiris is driven by the Neo-Fascist Hindutva doctrine and settler colonialism as we see a replication of Nazi policies in the occupied territory,” he said.

Referring to the reaction of the global community over illegal actions of India on August 5 last year, President Masood expressed his deep gratitude to the international media, world parliaments, international civil society and human rights organisations for calling out India’s revolting and despicable crimes against human-

ity and for speaking up for the oppressed and besieged Kashmiris.

However, the AJK president regretted that with the exception of China, Turkey, Malaysia, Iran and West European countries, the response of the most powerful nations has been disappointing and faltering. They have not fulfilled their obligations to save Kashmiris and to stop a drift toward turbulence in the region, he added.

“We thank the Organisation of Islamic Conference for its strong solidarity with the Kashmiris; and the periodic statements issued by the UN [United Nations] leadership.

But this is not enough. We demand action,” Khan said.

“We salute unarmed but valiant Kashmiris for their resilience in the face of India’s scorched-earth policy and their resolve to resist Indian colonialism and foreign occupation. We are with them until, together, we repulse the Indian invasion and wrestle down the monster of Hindutva which is feeding on Kashmiri lives and rights,” he concluded.

Peshawar BRT project completed, says Yousafzai PESHAWAR TLTP

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Labour and Culture Shaukat Yousafzai on Tuesday said that the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) project has been completed and it could be inaugurated at any time.

Addressing a press conference after distributing scholarships worth Rs50,400,000 among various educational institutions for free education of children of labourers, he said that Labour Department has its own 62 hospitals and 45 schools in the province where labourers and their families can receive

free medical treatment and free education.

He said that 2,056 flats are being constructed in Regi Lalma to provide accommodation to the labourers while practical steps have been taken to collect data of laborers in the province. He added that Rs241 million have been kept for child labour survey in the province.

The provincial minister said that scholarships worth about Rs600 million could be distributed among the children of laborers in the province but due to non-availability of proper data of labourers, workers are deprived of these benefits and unfortunately, previous

governments did not pay attention to collect data.

At present, 51,000 workers are registered with ESSI and it will be taken up to 90,000, Yousafzai, adding that after registration with EOBI and ESSI, labourers would be able to avail free treatment and education, as well as other benefits. Apart from scholarships, Rs7.1 million have also been allocated as pocket money for children of registered labourers, he further said.

The provincial minister said that the death grant for registered labourers has been increased from Rs300,000 to Rs700,000 and the marriage

grant to Rs200,000. He said that illegal recruitments were made in the Labour Department in the past and unrelated staff was recruited in the schools which could affect the quality of these schools. The issue of illegal recruitment is also pending in the Supreme Court (SC), he added.

Talking about Karachi, he said, “Even today, after the rain, the whole of Karachi is submerged in water but the PPP [Pakistan People’s Party] leadership does not feel any shame for its deeds and incapabilities.”

Secretary Labour Kamran Rehman was also present on the occasion.

LAHORE: A massive banner has been placed in front of the Punjab Assembly in connection with ‘Black Day’ which will be held today to condemn India’s illegal move on August 5, 2019, to usurp the Kashmiris’ just right of self-determination. ZUBAIR MEHFOOZ

Aleem directs strict monitoring of flour mills to curb wheat smuggling LAHORE TLTP

Punjab Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan has directed district food officers to ensure strict monitoring of flour mills in their respective areas so that the official release of wheat does not go to provinces other than Punjab and all the subsidised flour should be provided in the market.

He warned that if the officers of the food department show negligence, stern action would be taken against them without any discrimination.

He added that he would personally visit different districts this week to take on the spot notice of the situation and action would be taken where complaints would be found.

Presiding over a video link meeting of all the district food officers and deputy directors from across Punjab, on Tuesday, Aleem said that the Punjab government is giving a huge subsidy of billions of rupees for low price flour which should directly benefit the common man.

He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan is personally aware of the situation of wheat and flour in Punjab and no negligence will be tolerated in this regard. He added that he is getting reports on subsidied flour through his private teams while Special Branch and other agencies are also giving their feedback in this regard.

He directed the food officers of border districts including Attock and Rahim Yar Khan to keep a close watch on flour smuggling in other provinces. He said that he would not allow anybody to purchase the atta of the Punjab government and sell the same flour at high prices in other provinces.

The food minister said that low-priced flour should not be transported directly from any other flour mill or through an agent for sell in other provinces and if it goes out, its responsibility will fall on the food department and local administration.

He pointed out that the supply of subsidised flour is 90 per cent available and the remaining 10 per cent should be ensured and immediate action be taken where there is

any complaint. He clarified that he would fully support the innocent officers and go to every forum to help them out but there will be strict action against the officers and personnel involved in bogus activities so all the district officers of the food department should be vigilant and perform their duties and send report on a daily basis of lowpriced flour. He said that the price of flour has been fixed after the consultation with flour mills and now it is the responsibility of the administration to provide a 20-kg bag of flour to every citizen at Rs860 and 10-kg bag at Rs430 in Punjab. He directed the district food officers that they should identify the mills from where the subsidized government wheat flour is being sent to other provinces through collusion so that they can be blacklisted.

Secretary Food Dr Asadur Rehman Gillani, Punjab food director and senior officers also attended the meeting and gave detailed briefings to the minister on the present situation of wheat and flour in the province.

Wednesday, 5 August, 2020

SECP aSkS PSX tO inquirE allEgEd inSidEr trading at trg PakiStan ISLAMABAD

t

SHAHZAD PARACHA

HE Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has asked the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) to inquire regarding the alleged insider trading at TRG Pakistan Limited and submit a report regarding the issue. According to sources, investors forwarded various complaints to SECP with regard to unusual share trading of TRG. Sources said that initially the department did not pay heed to these complaints, however SECP asked PSX to investigate the matter after complainants used the Prime Minister (PM) portal to lodge a complaint.

According to a letter obtained by Profit, the complainants have submitted the following statement to the SECP and PSX, through the PM’s portal: “As you know stock market is the backbone of any country's economy and via stock market foreign investment comes in any country but unfortunately few stock players damage PSX’s name due to worst manipulation and insider trading”.

The letter also alleges that TRG Pakistan’s stock was recently manipulated by some players due to which it rose from Rs12 to Rs50 per share.

“When the stock was trading at Rs44 (after an increase of about 400 per cent) the company issued a letter dated July 21, 2020 saying that TRG is going to be listed on NASDAQ (American stock exchange) US market which shows insider trading,” read the letter.

The letter further alleged that TRG used similar kinds of practices several times to trap investors.

The letter urged SECP to investigate the matter under the SECP section 139 of 2015. The complainants further alleged that more than Rs2 billion were generated from illegal trading of TRG’s shares.

SECP on Tuesday also discussed TRG’s alleged insider share trading matters in detail. The department has also decided to ask questions from the company with regard to TRG’s possible listing on NASDAQ. According to law, TRG was supposed to inform PSX and SECP, if the news of its listing on NASDAQ was true. On the other hand the company had to issue a rebuttal if the news of its listing was false.

However it failed to do either.

According to sources, insider trading is being commonly done by big players under a common notion that the SECP never takes such matters seriously nor imposes big penalties for such acts.

SECP in its official response said that it is SECP’s Policy to thoroughly examine and investigate all bonafide complaints. Regarding complaints pertaining to insider trading at TRG the regulatory body said that it will follow all standard operating procedures, however it refused to comment further on the issue prior to completion of the investigation.

Profit also reached out to TRG, but received no response till the filing of this story.

However, a letter written by the TRG company Secretary to the PSX general manager said that: “..TRG Pakistan would like to announce that one of its indirect portfolio companies, IBEX Limited, has initiated a listing process on NASDAQ. The valuation range that IBEX is seeking is $20 to $22 per share, implying a pro-rated stake for TRG Pakistan of Rs20 billion.”

“Given the volatility in the financial markets as well as the current outlook for the global economy, there is no certainty as to the potential success of this listing,” the letter read.

In another letter written on May 21, 2020 the company had also informed that one of its portfolio companies in the enterprise software industry has signed a pay for performance five year service agreement with a US telecommunications provider.

FO rejects Indian MEA’s statement on Pakistan’s political map ISLAMABAD APP

The Foreign Office (FO) on Tuesday categorically rejected Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ (MEA) statement on the political map of Pakistan by saying through sophistry and obfuscation, India could not create a smokescreen for its illegal and unacceptable actions in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir, including those taken since August 5, 2019.

“It is preposterous for a country that is compulsively expansionist,

and a brazen practitioner of stateterrorism, to level charges against others,” the FO spokesperson said in a press release.

India had been in illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir since 1947 and had continuously violated the United Nations Security Council resolutions for decades. Despite its brutal suppression of Kashmiris for over 72 years, India had been unable to force them into submission, it added.

“Pakistan’s position remains clear and unambiguous. The solution of the Jammu and Kashmir dis-

pute lies in the realization of the Kashmiris’ inalienable right to selfdetermination through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations,” it said.

The FO said that the government, leadership and people of Pakistan remained firmly committed to the solution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

“The political map issued by Pakistan emphatically reaffirms this abiding commitment,” it added.

UN remains concerned over situation in IOK, reaffirms stand on dispute UNITED NATIONS: On the eve of India's August 5, 2019, actions to strip the Indian Illegally Occupied Kashmir (IOK) of its special status and to place the territory under a military lockdown, the United Nations (UN) on Tuesday reiterated its concern over the deteriorating situation in the disputed state. "The positions that we articulated at the time still stand and of the concerns that we had about this remain the same as we have previously stated," UN Secretary General's Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq said in the response to a question at the regular news briefing in New York. The spokesman was asked by APP correspondent for the UN chief's comments one year after he had underlined that the world body's position that the region was governed by the Charter of the UN and applicable United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution that call for the exercise of by the Kashmir people of their right to selfdetermination. APP

CMYK

NEWS

05

Punjab CM says more businesses will be opened under Covid-19 SOPs LAHORE APP

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Bazdar on Tuesday said that the provincial government is considering opening up more businesses while ensuring the implementation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to contain the spread of Covid-19.

The Punjab chief minister while talking to a delegation of different trade chambers, led by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, said that issues being faced by the business community will be resolved on a priority basis. The Punjab government had earlier announced a lockdown in the province till August 5. However, the chief minister said that the government lifted the lockdown three days earlier keeping in mind the interest of the business community. He further said that the departments of industry, labour, social security, police and district management are being directed to extend maximum cooperation to the business community and added that all decisions would be taken in consultation with the stakeholders. Usman Buzdar further informed that the test run for the Orange Line Metro Train project in Lahore has already been completed and the project will be launched soon. He said that the Punjab government will approach the federal government in order to link Gujranwala to the Motorway. He also informed that the Gujranwala to Sheikhupura road will be built under a public-private partnership. He further said that immediate measures would be taken for the development of Faisalabad city. LCCI President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh said that Punjab being the largest province of the country has a fundamental role to play towards economic stability of the country. He said that Punjab is the biggest contributor Pakistan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and agriculture and services sectors He urged the provincial government to take all stakeholders on board before taking major decisions.

Wednesday, 5 August, 2020

06 COMMENT

A year of savagery

The PTI needs to dial back As opposition limbers up for action

O

NE of the major failures of the PTI government is its inability to keep the prices of the commodities of daily use under control. Those hired from abroad to look after the economy displayed little understanding of the impact of their policies on the common man’s life. The Prime Minister is not knowledgeable about the working of the economy. While it was convenient to blame the rising prices and shrinking taxes on the corruption of the former ruling parties, the PM is at wits’ end when required to resolve the same issues. For two years he has blamed his predecessors for his own failures. Now he is setting up a PTI’s Digital Media Wing, manned by party’s cyber warriors, at the state’s expense to glorify the PTI government and demonise its opponents. But can empty words fill stomachs?

The shortage of wheat in Punjab is the outcome of the government’s own incompetence exemplified by Food Security Minister Fakhar Imam’s bizarre remark on the National Assembly floor wondering where more than six million tons of wheat purchased by the government had “vanished in the market”. Despite reducing its wheat procurement target to 3.81 million tons from 4 million tons, Punjab managed to purchase only 3.62 million tons this year. The government of Sindh on the other hand surpassed the procurement target of 3.8 MMT by purchasing 3.852 MMTs. The Sindh government is being treated as a new whipping boy. Two PTI ministers have demanded the release of Sindh’s stock of wheat, failing which the Sindh government could be sent home and Governor’s rule imposed. A few days back the PTI government increased the prices of petrol and HSD within weeks of a major rise in their prices. This has already raised the price of every commodity of daily use making people’s lives miserable and further bringing down PM Imran Khan’s ratings.

It would be suicidal for the PTI government to impose Governor’s rule in Sindh. The PPP, being the only opposition party ruling a province, has been hesitant to join hands with those keen to overthrow the government at the earliest. The removal of PPP’s government could be the harbinger of a countrywide change.

A year has passed, but the barbarity has not lessened Farooq alay

5

th August 2020 makes it one year of the siege of Kashmir; a full year of making the Valley of Kashmir the biggest prison for the oppressed Kashmiris and 365 days of unimaginable living in the curfew, and nonstop cruelty at the hands of Indian occupation forces.

Shall we ever forget such days and the part of our land, which the Quaid called Pakistan’s jugular vein– Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK)? Isn’t it still in the chains; struggling for freedom? Don’t you think the ordeal being faced by our Kashmiri brothers and sisters has become more aching, particularly in the aftermath of 5 August 2019 when the already flawed IIOJK’s special status was revoked? Hats off to the Kashmiri people’s unconquerable will and unstoppable sacrifices that have sent shockwaves to the Indians. Is this indicative of the dawn of independence to herald sooner than later?

Last year, on August 5, India revoked the special status of Jammu & Kashmir granted by the Indian Constitution. This special status gave IIOJK a privilege to safeguard the interests of Kashmiris as they could have their own flag, own constitution and their own freedom to make certain laws. It also ensured that the Kashmir land was owned only by the Kashmiris, and non-Kashmiris couldn’t get settled there. The revoking of the special status shocked the world. India sent more troops in the region and with a million troops imposed curfew to contain any confrontation. Since then India is playing a free hand to oppress the Kashmiris, especially the youth, in every possible way.

Gone are the days when the Indian Constitution had enshrined the country to be a secular state. No more. It is no more a secular state in today’s India, rather it is now a Hindu extremist, RSS terrorist state that sponsors terror, not only perpetrates it inside India but also in neighbouring countries, including Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Maldives. On 5 August 2019, the Modi government revoked Articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution, which gave an already flawed special status to the

The new normal

Online teaching challenges for public sector colleges faculty

Moving forward safely and with caution

P

AKISTAN, through some miracle, has pulled off an impressive recovery from the coronavirus pandemic that hit the country hard, reaching its peak in mid-June. The PTI government’s response prior to that point had left much to be desired. When the first cases emerged there was a gross underestimation in the assessment of the lethality of the virus, a resistance towards an enforced national lockdown, a generally lax attitude when it came to containment before deaths started to increase and a propensity to blame the ‘people’s ignorance’ for not taking the pandemic seriously that allowed it to spread. The number of fatalities has continued to drop for weeks, with only 9 deaths reported yesterday while only 330 new confirmed cases were recorded. Even if one were to aggressively multiply these figures to adjust for under-reporting, it still translates into a commendable achievement given how countries in the region that are comparable to Pakistan are not faring so well. Prime Minister Imran Khan fiercely rejected recommendations of a curfew-like lockdown, fearing that it would destroy the economy and many would die hungry, going instead with a ‘smart lockdown’, allowing essential industries to remain open.

With the pandemic now receding, perhaps it is time to open up other industries as well. The service sector has taken a severe beating during the pandemic worldwide and Pakistan is no exception. Businesses such as hotels and restaurants have been shut down for months and only those with enough savings have been able to pay the fixed costs with minimum revenue coming in, while others have been forced to close shop. Sectors that have been allowed to operate relatively freely, so long as they follow state-recommended SOPs that aren’t enforced, have not had to face such financial distress. It seems unfair then that a sector of the economy that employs millions is not being offered an opportunity to open up under strict guidelines, now that it is relatively safer to do so. Not only would this generate much-needed economic activity but also save a lot of businesses from going bankrupt. All this would have to be done conservatively, safely and with input from relevant stakeholders. Only then a move towards the new normal can begin.

Sheheryar NaSir

T

HE covid-19 pandemic has crippled the conventional educational methods globally.

This overwhelming impact also echoed in Pakistan with stern challenges. The government of Pakistan has responded according to its resources and economic capacity to ensure continued support to the students from elementary to secondary, post-secondary, and higher education levels.

This includes the support extended to colleges and universities of the public sector for uninterrupted online academic operations. Educational institutions of both private and public sectors responded and complied with the directions of concerned authorities to sustain educational activities. A lot of material has been published and stuff has been widely discussed on different forums about the pros, cons, and challenges that faculties and students are facing since this transition. This piece will focus on problems faced by professors and lecturers of public sector colleges while carrying out online teaching.

Educational institutions across the country have shifted the teaching methodologies to online education by using the different available technologies. Private schools, colleges, and universities are using their unified learning management systems. Unlike in public sector colleges that lack any centralized learning management systems, so lecturers and professors are using different teaching methods and facing multiple difficulties. The professors’ and lecturers’ fraternity wants to bring their concerns to the knowledge of the Punjab’s Higher Education Department high-ups.

A digital divide still exists in society; teachers and students living in remote areas still facing connectivity issues due to poor and limited internet services. Teachers and students were not accustomed to working in such scenarios and no formal IT pieces of training sessions were held for teachers to use the supported gadgets and relevant apps. Most of the teachers and students are not tech-savvy and not familiar with the use of Google Meet and Zoom applications. Most of the online teaching sessions are carried out on a WhatsApp group established for particular classes and semesters. Students have interacted with live chat, lessons are delivered through recorded voice messages and course material is shared in documents and pictures format. The concerned department recently directed the teachers to submit video recording proofs of their online class sessions along with the timetable with the verification

Arif Nizami Editor Umar Aziz

Asher John

Joint Editor

Executive Editor

Deputy Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965

avoidable factor. The stress level of the teachers is also raised a few of them went through the covid-19 and lost their loved ones. It is hard for teachers to focus on four to five online classes daily without physical interaction and while facing the above-mentioned challenges.

Besides, another important issue that needs the Higher Education Department’s immediate attention is the redtapeism by employees working in its Secretariats that unnecessarily prolongs petty tasks like issignature of the concerned principal in a USB storage suance of retired employees’ notifications, MPhil allowances, and transfer orders, and so on. device to the concerned directorate.

The Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association The management did not consider the fact that the majority of the teachers are not aware of the (PPLA) has suggested the following possible soluusage of technical aspects of the apps and recording tions to the Higher Education Department to cope option in Zoom app is only available for the paid with the prevalent issues of online classes. The desubscribers. The Google meet has a recording option partment should trust the professors, as they are builders of the nation, and available but with some provide relaxation on the limitations for a limited perecording of daily online lecriod. Student’s attendance tures in the light of the inratio is 25 to 30 percent, There is an indispensable evitable technical difficulties that clearly shows the stumentioned earlier. The reledents lack interest in online need to cut short the daily vant Subject Head of Departsession due to limited acment can monitor online cess to digital resources. timetable to three or a classes by assigning proctors The social gap is anmaximum of four lectures to the zoom meetings; Whatother challenge, which is groups and Google hampering the fruitful outdaily, as it will help teachers to sApp meet and report to the higher comes of online learning. A on a weekly or huge proportion of students deliver lessons effectively in a authorities fortnightly basis. studying in government colThere is an indispensaleges belong to poor famitense environment and ble need to cut short the lies and cannot afford students to consume less daily timetable to three or a laptops, smartphones, and maximum of four lectures expensive internet packinternet data. E-learning and daily, as it will help teachers ages. Connectivity chalto deliver lessons effectively lenges faced by students in internet allowances must be in a tense environment and remote areas due to poor inapproved to help teachers students to consume less internet speed and power outternet data. E-learning and ages further obstructs their especially in the time when internet allowances must be ability to keep up. Even approved to help teachers eswhere these challenges are they did not get pay raise in pecially in the time when somehow dealt with, the the recent budget. Government they did not get pay raise in quality of online teaching budget. and the credibility of online should re-introduce the Laptop the recent Government should reexams and evaluation introduce the Laptop processes are also questionSchemes at college levels to Schemes at college levels to able. Likewise, most of the cover the gap for students professors and lecturers do cover the gap for students with limited access the diginot have laptops. Expenses with limited access the digital tal learning resources. Subsiof internet packages, along dized internet packages can with increasing Inflation, learning resources. enable students to access the price hike of essentials high-speed internet too. and utility bills is an addiProfessors’ and lecturtional burden on economiers’ community is looking cally marginalized communities especially at the time when their con- forward for an empathetic response from concerned veyance allowance has been also pulled out since authorities in the light of above suggestions; it will March 2020. They are on duty even during the pan- be helpful for teachers and students for uninterrupted demic and have been called upon in colleges fre- education until September 15, which is proposed date of re-opening of educational institutions. quently for the different management tasks An emotional trauma immensely produced by the Sheheryar Nasir is a freelance columnist prevalence of the coronavirus pandemic is an un-

Solutions are needed by September 15, when colleges re-open

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

are innocent, don’t beat us, just shoot us. I was asking God to take me, because the torture was unbearable.”

The international community is pained. The UN’s special rapporteurs said: “We remain deeply concerned about the ongoing human rights violations, excessive use of force, torture and other forms of ill-treatment reportedly committed during the arrest and detention and death in custody… We have asked disputed territory of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. the Indian government to investigate killings of sevThis way, Modi sarkar through illegal action and eral Muslim men since January 2019. A report was with one stroke of pen turned the Kashmiris’ Muslim sent to the Indian government on May 4 over the continued deterioration of human rights conditions in ocmajority into a minority.

On 31 October 2019, New Delhi issued a map cupied Kashmir”. Amnesty International said: It is showing IIOJK bifurcated into two union territories– “deeply concerned about the disregard for the lives Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The map identified of people in Jammu and Kashmir.”

Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister the Pakistani side of Azad Jammu and Kashmir as well as certain areas of Gilgit-Baltistan as Indian ter- Qureshi took exception to the world community’s inaction for “financial interritory. China rejected the ests”. During his visit to the malicious act saying it was USA last year, the PM said: “unlawful and void”. India’s “The Indian occupied region decision to “include” some Pakistanis as well as has been facing a clampdown of China’s territory into its since August 5. Nearly administrative jurisdiction Kashmiris living in Pakistan 100,000 Kashmiris have died “challenged” Beijing’s sovand abroad are observing 5 in the past 30 years. I am disereignty. Border dispute beby the internatween China and India has August as ‘Youm-e-Istehsal-e- appointed tional community. If eight increased tension between million Europeans, or Christhe two countries.

Kashmir’. Conferences and tians or Jews or Americans Narendra Modi, the were put under siege, you leader of the ruling BJP, has rallies will be held reminding can imagine the action. The accelerated anti-Kashmir the world that the Kashmiris only reason why Kashmiris moves. He has taken varisubjected to this is, ous other measures such as have not been given the rights are they’re Muslims”. COAS issuance of domicile certifiGen Qamar Bajwa repeatcates to 40,000 non-Kashof self-determination which edly warned India against the miris. was guaranteed by the UN. Will illegal action. The DG ISPR His cruel actions against in a statement said: “Indian Kashmiris reached its peak the world wake up? ceasefire violations along the on August 5, when he imLoC have witnessed a surge posed strict military siege since the abrogation of the deploying more than constitutional status of Indian 900,000 troops. Indians have martyred so far hundreds of Kashmiris, includ- Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The situation along ing women and children. Curfew and military siege LoC is worrisome and India has violated the ceasefire has resulted in shortage of food, medicines and other agreement many times during recent times.”

Pakistanis as well as Kashmiris living in Pakistan items. This is in addition to the media blackout as and abroad are observing 5 August as ‘Youm-e-IsKashmir has been cut off from rest of the world.

According to BBC: “Unprecedented restrictions tehsal-e-Kashmir’. Conferences and rallies will be have put Kashmir into a state of lockdown. In one vil- held reminding the world that the Kashmiris have not lage the residents said two brothers were woken up been given the rights of self-determination which was and taken to an outside area. They kicked us, gave us guaranteed by the UN. Will the world wake up? electric shocks, beat us with cables. We screamed, Farooq Alay is a freelance columnist they sealed our mouth with mud. We told them we

I

Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

I

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

I

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

I

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Wednesday, 5 August, 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

Karachi rain: blessing or flooding?

KARACHI, the largest city of Pakistan which gives 70% of the revenue to the country. It is the most linguistic, ethnic and diverse city. Since past few times Karachi has not been stable. Recent example includes the monsoon spell of July 2020. This rain caused complete breakdown to urban life.

Issues can be counted as mismanagement of roads, poor drainage systems, underground sewers and sidewalks. This overspill of drains caused flow of rain water, streets and lanes rendered unusable. 27 people died and many more injured. Snapping of wires and poles caused separate deaths too.

People were stuck in their cars under the drained water for several hours.

While, half a dozen cars were damaged and destroyed badly. Power was not even supplied in many areas due to electricity supply networks breakdown.

However, Karachi needs a little care and attention from the government who should provide valid funds, infrastructure plans and manpower. It builds itself, and it has the ability to build whole Pakistan if government provides a complete package. Government needs to take all necessary actions to save the city from the pollution and rain floods.

People of Karachi have faced enough of dilemmas. And now this needs to STOP. NOW. YUSRA FATEH KARACHI

The Blackest Day The world’s conscience is unshaken even though a year has passed

Malik MuhaMMad aShraF

T

ODAy marks the completion of one year of siege and complete lockdown in Indian-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and the manifestation of unparalleled brutality by the Indian security forces.

The confinement of the entire population of Kashmir to their houses and the continuation of extra-judicial killings during the search and cordon operations, has created a humanitarian crisis of behemoth magnitude. No wonder that the veteran leader of the All-Parties Hurriyet Conference has termed August 5 as the blackest day in the history of the Subcontinent and made a call to the people of Indian-Occupied Kashmir to observe it as ‘Awareness Day’. He was also right on money to observe “The conversion of the territory into the world’s biggest jail for several months posed an open challenge to the international community. However, the criminal silence maintained by the world is no less than a human tragedy”. Like always the call given by Ali Gilani will not only be overwhelmingly responded by the people of Indian-Occupied Kashmir, but also by the entire Kashmiri community living throughout the world. Pakistan has also decided to observe August 5 as ‘youme Istehsal’ to express solidarity with people of Kashmir.

The Modi regime, since its advent, has not only been pursuing anti-Muslim policies within India but it has also decimated the special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir through repeal of Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution, paving the way for its annexation into the Indian Union through the Jammu and Kashmir Re-organization Act 2019 which became effective from 31 October 2019.

Though the situation in India and Indian-Occupied Kashmir has not gone unnoticed by the international community and the UN, as observed by Ali Gilani, they are maintaining a criminal silence. They have not gone beyond showing muffled concern. Reportedly four special rapporteurs of the UN have recently sent a report to the Indian government about the continued deterioration of human rights conditions in occupied Kashmir, documenting several cases of arbitrary detentions, violations of the prohibition of torture, ill-treatment and suppressing the rights of people belonging to minorities, particularly Muslims. They also expressed regret that they had received no response to two earlier communications sent to the Indian government

on 16 August 2019 and in February 2020. They Kashmir to protect their strategic and commerhave also asked the Indian government to inves- cial interests surely denudes the myth about their tigate the alleged torture and custodial killings of humanitarian credentials. Their material interseveral Muslim men since January 2019. In the ests are dearer to them than human rights and report shared on the website of the Office of the humanitarian causes enshrined in the UN CharUN High Commissioner for Human Rights ter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

(OCHCR), they said, “We remain deeply con- They raise a hue and cry on their violation only cerned about the ongoing human rights viola- when it suits their interests. It will not be wrong to say that these powers, particularly the USA, tions” The foregoing contents of the report not only have been responsible and connected to almost depict the horrendous act of ethnic cleansing by all the conflicts around the world in which hunthe Indian security forces but also the disdainful dreds and thousands of people have been killed, arrogance of the Indian authorities in not re- what to speak of their human rights. A report in sponding to the UN communications, because The Washington Times said that India took the they feel that with the support of their western USA into confidence before making moves in strategic partners, they can get away with what- Indian-Occupied Kashmir.

It is a world of the powerful. Human rights ever they do in Indian-Occupied Kashmir like and internationally recognized principles as enIsrael in Palestine.

It is pertinent to point out that two reports shrined in the UN charter as well as diplomacy are all rubbish. It is the on human rights situaworth and strength of a tion in Indian-Occupied country or group of Kashmir compiled by countries that carries OCHCR had also corThe reality is that the UN was the day. It is amply corroborated blatant violaroborated by the behavtion of human rights by created by the triumphant iour of the USA and its the Indian security forces suggesting the nations of the World War-II and allies who have shown no respect for them constitution of a UN Inthe charter drawn by them was whenever they decided quiry Commission to that it was in their hold a thorough probe actually meant to promote strategic and national in the matter. Regrettably no progress has their own interests and fashion interests to defy them.

Their power and status been made in that rethe world accordingly. Their is such that they can gard so far. manipulate things their Ever since the selective approach to way even at the UN launch of freedom movement by Kashprinciples enshrined in the UN and other international forums where they use miris in 1989 to win Charter is actually the roottheir coercive clout to their freedom and the win support for their right to self-determinacause of all the conflicts and imperialist actions. tion, the Indian security India is being reforces have killed more disputes around the world. warded for her role in than 100,000 people promoting the objective there, mostly civilians, Peace, security and human of their ‘contain-China and raped thousands of rights will remain a hostage to Policy’. The people of women. Amnesty InterKashmir are victims of national, Human Rights their inhuman indiscretions global politics and the Watch and other human supremacist ideology of rights organizations the BJP government have been regularly headed by Narendra compiling reports on the extra-judicial killings and blatant violation Modi. If principles and diplomacy really mattered in the management of international affairs then of human rights.

The international media, in spite of lack of the way Pakistan conducted its diplomatic offenaccess to the Valley, has also been reporting acts sive and sensitized the world about the human of bestiality by the Indian security forces, in- rights situation in Indian-Occupied Kashmir and cluding the massacre of 53 people in Sopore on warned the UN and the international community 6 July 1993. The media has also come up with about the threats to peace and security in the redetailed reports on the plight of besieged Kash- gion, the world would have sprung into action to miris and continued killings in Indian-Occupied stop India in her tracks and used its pressure to Kashmir since August 5. The Pakistan govern- have the UN resolutions implemented.

The reality is that the UN was created by the ment has also been sensitizing the world and the UN about the snowballing crisis in Indian-Oc- triumphant nations of the World War-II and the cupied Kashmir and the likely repercussions of charter drawn by them was actually meant to promote their own interests and fashion the the actions of Modi government.

One wonders where are the champions of world accordingly. Their selective approach to human rights and the right of self-determination principles enshrined in the UN Charter is actuwho lose no opportunity to cry hoarse from ally the root-cause of all the conflicts and disevery convenient rooftop to condemn the alleged putes around the world. Peace, security and human rights situation in China and her promul- human rights will remain a hostage to their ingation of the Security Law in Hong Kong which human indiscretions. they perceive as oppressive in regards to the funMalik Muhammad Ashraf is an academic. damental rights of its citizens? Their criminal indifference to the situation in Indian-Occupied He can be contacted at: ashpak10@gmail.com

Kashmir’s oppression ExACTLy one year ago, Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status was scrapped by the presidential order and still today, the situation in the valley remains a powder keg of repression and fury. The boastful claim of the BJP-Led RSS inspired government in India that revocation of Article 370 and 35A will bring peace, prosperity and development in the region has turned on its head as the region continues to remain ravaged by daunting military presence and complete lockdown that has severely hampered, detained and obscured freedom of speech and movement. In other words, all kinds of dissent is brutally crushed. As the brutally by the Indian forces refuse to move an inch, so has the spirits of the Kashmiris as they stand defiant in this uphill battle against India for freedom and liberation.

No prizes for guessing that the real motive of BJP-led government headed by Modi was to bring the demographic change in the Kashmir Valley and make the Muslim majority chunk a minority in their own land. As the revocation of these two prime Articles in Indian Constitution has proved to be precursor for the passing of two controversial bills such as CAA and NRC, the largest democracy in the world has paved way for its own demise. As the rhetoric of the BJP government Although the government in India and plaint media continue to rant that all is well in the Kashmir valley with the return of normalcy, the very claim is juxtaposed by the fact that the Kashmiri leaders even the pro-Indian ones remain incarcerated, freedom of speech remains null and void and draconian steps such as total communication blackout is routinely employed to clamp down on resistance. To add with, gross human rights violation of despicable nature is commonplace feature of the oppressed valley.

There is no denying of the fact that the occupied Kashmir now stands at the crossroads of economic, political and demographic disaster. With livelihood of the residents of the valley is severely curtailed due to the influx of outsiders who make a strain on employment opportunities and curfew, the Covid-19 situation has made matters worse than before. It is because the pandemic has given the military presence in the valley an added opportunity to put reins on movement. As Pakistan has represented itself as an ambassador for Kashmir and raised its voice blatantly on every international platform available, it should remain firm in its stance and must not allow India to get away with this travesty. As Pakistan has resonated its narrative loud and clear through its recent political map, such determination should not remain in paper only.

HAdIA MUKHTAR KARACHI

Unpaid teachers THE schools in the Sindh have been closed since after the first case reported in the country of coronavirus. But there are many teachers like me who are working in private schools, and are still waiting for their salaries.

The school’s management has declined to pay the salaries for the month of March and giving the excuses like- the students didn’t pay them the fees of the month of March and will release the salaries the moment they think they are in a position to do so. Through the column of your esteemed newspaper, I want the education department authorities to look into the issue and all the private schools teachers should be paid on time.

RAbIA KHAn KARACHI

Child marriages CHILD marriages have been one of the serious issues, especially in developing countries. Pakistan also facing this problem, children under eighteen are forcefully contract into marriage by their family elders in rural areas. specially girls are going through this issue. The girls of the extremely poverty-ridden families in the slums of the towns and cities of villages are found to be married before 15. According to research every year at least 12 million girls marry before the age of 18. It's due to poverty and illiteracy. The parents of their families can't afford to send their girls to high schools and can't provide them with job.

This later causes different types of health issues such as obstetric fistula, cervical cancer and many other sexually transmitted infectious diseases like HIV. There is a high chance of death during childbirth.

Human Rights and many other organizations are working against child marriages by doing awareness programs, sessions etc, But still there are no such fruitful results. Child marriage is still in practice and situation is becoming worst day by day.

Government should make strong law against child marriages, and also develop educational institutes in backward areas because illiteracy and poverty is the main reason of child marriage.

JAvERIYA KHAn KARACHI

Wednesday, 5 August, 2020

08 WORLD VIEW

Handmaidens of Hindutva THE INDIAN POLICE HARASS, TORTURE, AND KILL MUSLIMS WITH IMPUNITY

YEH ANDAR KI BAAT HAI / POLICE HAMAARE SAATH HAI, “IT IS AN OPEN SECRET THAT THE POLICE SIDES WITH US,” WAS THE TAUNT THAT ROVING HINDU MOBS RAISED WHEN PLUNDERING, RAPING, AND BURNING THEIR WAY THROUGH MUSLIM NEIGHBOURHOODS

The BaFFler MAnIshA seThI

i

T is an oft-repeated complaint that there are more police stations than schools in India’s Muslim neighborhoods, a suggestion of how Muslims apprehend and experience the state. Over seventy years after independence, they remain more familiar with the heavy hand of police machinery than with institutions of welfare and care.

To understand the relationship between Muslims and the police today, it is necessary to return to the force’s origins in the colonial period. Modeled on the Irish constabulary, the Indian police force was set up by the British in 1861 to control and surveil a recalcitrant subject population. The quelling of political protest and detection of potential offenders trumped the prevention and detection of crime. At the same time, “offenses against the state” were privileged over crimes against persons and property in the Indian Penal Code.

Police work in India, then, has never been primarily about everyday crime solving. From the outset, the police have been a coercive force, backed by a harsh legal regime that viewed citizens with suspicion.

Neither the exit of the British nor the inauguration of the Constitution transformed the police into a “service.” It continued to operate under the logic that the people were to be governed by force. Violence was normalized, even legalized. Though Indian law expressly prohibits the admission of custodial confessions into evidence to prevent coercion, Section 27 of the Indian evidence Act effectively sidesteps this rule by allowing the entry of incriminating items recovered on the basis of confessions, even if they were made before the police.

This has virtually rendered custodial torture the primary investigative technique.

And it is near impossible to hold the police accountable for these crimes. Section 197 of Criminal Procedure Code requires government sanction for the prosecution of public servants for offenses such as murder, or causing grievous injuries, committed in the “discharge of their official duties.” If cases of police violence proceed at all beyond the filing of complaints, sanction is rarely granted.

In 1961, Anand Mulla, a judge of the Allahabad high Court, was moved to call the Indian police an organization “whose record of crime” remained unmatched by any “lawless group in the whole of the country.” The Indian police have continued to provide frequent occasions to justify Mulla’s remarks (which were later expunged by the Supreme Court). Marginalized groups bear the brunt of police lawlessness. Study after study has shown that for religious minorities, Adivasis, and so-called lower caste groups, law and its enforcers are a source of terror. Overrepresented in prisons, Muslims remain vulnerable to custodial assault and risk humiliating brutalization for seeking their rights. Muslim representation in police hovers below 4 percent even as they make up 14 percent of the Indian population. Since 2014, when the present regime first came to power, the National Crime Records Bureau has discontinued even the practice of publishing these figures.

In 2013, the Director Generals of Police in three states—Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu—submitted a report to the Central Government on the relationship between the police and minority communities, mainly Muslims. The report was never made public, but it concluded that a wide chasm existed between the community and the police, and that the relationship was marred by the former’s perception of the latter as biased.

These findings would have come as no surprise to anyone who had bothered to read the reports of various commissions established over the decades to inquire into the causes of communal violence, which has plagued India more or less continuously since independence. Without fail, these commissions have indicted the police for their partisan role in handling outbreaks of sectarian conflict: ignoring mounting tensions and communal sloganeering, turning a blind eye to the gathering of arms and open provocations made by hindus, as well as refusing to protect vulnerable minorities. Yeh andar ki baat hai / police hamaare saath hai, “it is an open secret that the police sides with us,” was the taunt that roving hindu mobs raised when plundering, raping, and burning their way through Muslim neighborhoods in Gujarat in 2002. The most charitable accusation that one could make against the Indian police would be laxity or dereliction of duty. In truth, it is difficult to ignore their criminal complicity with the rioters. how little things have changed, and how consistent the Indian police’s modus operandi has remained, can be gauged from two events, set fifty years apart. In 1970, the Madon Commission, instituted to investigate the antiMuslim violence that broke out in Bhiwandi in Maharashtra, recorded that police attitudes “encouraged the processionists in their misbehavior and led them to believe that either the police were powerless to stop them or were on their side.” More acerbic still were the Commission’s observation that the Special Investigation Squad, which had been set up to investigate riot cases,

partnered with hindu groups to concoct charges of criminal conspiracy against leaders and ordinary members of the Muslim community. The “working of the Special Investigation Squad, Bhiwandi, is a study in communal discrimination,” the report concluded.

Something eerily similar happened late last year, when protests against the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act began in New Delhi. On December 15, Delhi Police stormed the campus of Jamia Millia Islamia—a university with a predominantly Muslim student population—beating, brutalizing, maiming, and even blinding students. As the anti-CAA movement consolidated, refusing to cower to these police clampdowns, leaders of the running right-wing Bhartiya Janata Party leaders openly goaded violence against the protestors, often on public television. Their campaign culminated in the pogrom in Northeast Delhi in late February, which unfolded as Donald Trump was enjoying state hospitality during an official visit.

The brunt of the violence was borne by the Muslim community: over 75 percent of those killed were Muslim, schools and trading establishments destroyed were overwhelmingly Muslim, and religious structures razed to the ground were wholly Islamic. Yet again, complaints filed by Muslims have been disappeared, or sanitized to protect the hindutva leaders. Worse still, young Muslim activists and students involved in the protests have been arrested for allegedly conspiring and executing the attacks, often under the draconian terror law. Once again, the victims have been transformed into perpetrators—and perpetrators rendered victims.

These pernicious terror charges are in keeping with the long legacy of frame-ups, unjust arrests, and wrongful and protracted incarceration of Muslims in independent India. By defining “unlawfulness” and “terrorism” imprecisely, terror laws like the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) have given wide latitude to the police to harass and frame along sectarian lines. Muslims, subaltern caste groups, and tribal groups (the latter two are invariably lumped together as Maoists) have been routinely harassed under the UAPA. Their trials may result in acquittal—indeed, the conviction rates in terror cases have been paltry—but the continued invocation of terrorism in relation to certain groups marks them out as “enemies of the state.”

While other groups have been victimized in the past—India witnessed an anti-Sikh pogrom in the 1980s—it is Muslims who are today’s designated “other,” as indigenous communalism and global Islamophobia conjoined in the post-9/11 world. The past two decades or so have seen a spurt in so-called “special operations” in the war against “jihadi terror.” India’s credulous national media—and the public—do not question security agencies when they claim to have nabbed operatives and masterminds of terror groups, as long as those arrested fit the profile. The willful fabrication of evidence in these cases is often patently obvious; bulk of the arrests are not connected to any actual incident of violence. As in the United States, police officers and intelligence officials follow slippery, unfulfilled conspiracies, passing off the recovery of Urdu or Arabic literature as “Jihadi material.”

As for hindutva terrorism, that is deemed not to exist. A former police commissioner of Mumbai, confronted on television about the existence of hindutva terror groups, flatly responded, that “[terrorism] just does not exist in the hindu pantheon.” It should hardly be a surprise, then, that when a series of bomb blasts were carried out between 2006–2008—in the Maharashtrian town of Malegaon on the Muslim holy day of Shab-e-Baraat, at a mosque in hyderabad, and at a sufi shrine in Ajmer—investigators arrested and even extracted confessions out of Muslim men. One can well imagine the techniques that might have persuaded innocent men to incriminate themselves when the evidence all along pointed toward hindutva groups.

A survey last year revealed that one out of two policemen believe that Muslims are “naturally prone” to committing crimes. This attitude is not limited to the lower echelons of the hierarchy. When confronted by the disproportionately high numbers of Muslims lodged in jails, here is what retired DGP Prakash Singh had to say: “In cases of terror attacks or communal riots, if the police goes after the perpetrators of the violence, and they happen to be mostly Muslim, you cannot in the name of secularism, expect the police to act in proportion to their population.”

Prakash Singh is no ordinary police officer; in fact, he is seen as the torchbearer of “police reforms.” his idea of “reform” is to free police from the fetters of political control, rather than make the organization more accountable. Singh and others have repeatedly mocked human rights concerns, dismissing as “extreme” the National human Rights Commission and Supreme Court’s call for investigations into fatalities resulting from police shootings. he claimed these were producing a “chilling effect” on the police, who were apparently now fearful of being “faulted” for the use of force. It

is hardly a secret that these guidelines are followed only in their breach.

Some police officers suavely argue that encounter killings—really, staged, extrajudicial murders—are justified in cases of terrorism and extremism, and therefore should lie beyond the pale of judicial scrutiny. Singh has gone so far as to hail the Uttar Pradesh state government’s policy of eliminating suspects and alleged criminals without so much as an arrest or trial by arguing that “certain sections”—a dog-whistle for Muslims—which were allowed to run amok during previous regimes are now being reined in. It is revealing that Singh, who has campaigned for the depoliticization of police, should mimic the of rhetoric of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who has effectively turned his state into a laboratory of toxic hindutva. By ascribing guilt to the deceased, by gesturing to their religious and caste affiliations, cops like Singh are connecting certain social groups with criminality. This is how we have come to distinguish a genuine encounter from a fake one.

The bitter truth is that the fragile roots of the rule of law in our institutions are equally matched by a strong popular approval for vigilantism and summary justice. When he was chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi would often turn to crowds at his rallies to ask what the fate of “terrorists” should be. The crowd would jubilantly scream back: “kill them, kill them.” And it is not only terrorism but any crime that causes widespread moral revulsion which leads to demands for blood—often aired on prime-time television.

Last year, for instance, the brutal rape and murder of a young veterinarian in hyderabad sparked public outrage. In the days that followed the crime, a member of Parliament demanded that rapists be lynched in public; meanwhile, communal hate was openly expressed on social as well as regular media, when it was leaked that one of the accused was a Muslim. The accused were apprehended promptly, but instead of going through the judicial motions, the police shot them to death just days after their arrest. They then trotted out a tired and rehearsed story of the accused capturing police arms in an attempt to flee while being taken to the crime site. A large number of celebrities and politicians—extending far beyond the BJP—tweeted their appreciation of the police action; ordinary people burst firecrackers and distributed sweets. It wasn’t that they were persuaded by the police story of the exchange of gunfire. It was the naked brazenness of the killings that they were celebrating.

In a society as hierarchical and divided as ours, the pathologization and othering of some social groups renders them more expendable. A coercive police machinery backed by draconian laws and a culture of impunity feeds and plumps itself on societal bigotry, producing lynchable and incarcerable Muslim bodies.

A full year of military lockdown has taken a heavy toll on Kashmir LEGAL CHANGES TO ALLOW OUTSIDERS TO BUY LAND AND ACCESS GOVERNMENT JOBS POSE A NEW ECONOMIC THREAT

Financial Times

T

TARIQ MIR

he people of Indian occupied Kashmir have lived with a sense of loss, oppression and helplessness for as long as they can remember. When India and Pakistan gained independence from British rule in 1947, the Kashmiris found their state divided between the two rivals. There has since been a sustained struggle in the terri-

tory for independence from India.

Yet there is perhaps nothing in this calamitous history to match the present foreboding that pervades the towns and villages of the disputed himalayan region. The hindu nationalist government of India’s prime minister Narendra Modi has begun an assault on the land, natural resources, culture and people of the state, which comprises the Ladakh plateau, the lowlands of Jammu and the mountainous valley of Kashmir.

A year after India summarily annulled the autonomy of its only Muslim-majority state, the government has begun handing out “domicile certificates” to non-Kashmiris, making them eligible to buy land and access coveted government jobs in the state. An applicant for domicile must have resided in Kashmir for 15 years (or studied there for at least seven) and, by this measure, tens of thousands of Indians, mostly hindus, have already qualified. Pakistan, which insists that

the whole of Kashmir should be part of its own territory, has rejected the unilateral move.

The change has serious political and economic ramifications for Kashmiris in their homeland. An influx of non-Kashmiris to the state threatens to put natives at a disadvantage. Muslims account for 68 per cent of the 13m population of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, according to the latest census. But the threat of demographic change will become all the more real once India has begun granting domicile to the roughly 1.5m migrant workers from outside the state who have lived in Kashmir for more than a decade. A significantly reduced Kashmiri majority would be easier for the central Indian government to control and any future settlement could swing in India’s favour.

Land and natural resources have already become more scarce since a boom in the population of Kashmir from the 1980s. Syed

Shakeel Qalander is a well-known Kashmiri businessman who has been a vocal critic of India’s economic policy in the region. Last year, when the state was stripped of its autonomy by the Indian government, he was among the thousands of Kashmiris imprisoned to prevent organised protests. Set free after six months, he feels India’s policies will result in economic ruin for Kashmiris.

“The first impact of this change will be on the land on which we depend for our horticulture industry and food grains,” he says.

“The housing to accommodate these foreigners will be built on this land.” Local growers will be tempted to sell their land at an attractive price, he adds, but “that will only speed up our economic disempowerment”.

Kashmir’s business community estimates their losses to be more than $5bn since the government imposed a military lockdown a year ago. Nearly 400,000 jobs have been lost, they estimate. The internet has

been reduced to such a slow speed for the past year that it barely functions, affecting both students and businesses. Tourism, on which tens of thousands of Kashmiris rely for their livelihood, has been shuttered.

While a climate of uncertainty hangs over the future for Kashmiris, there are many who vehemently (and some violently) resist the Indian government. It is an unequal contest, but one loaded with symbolism. India’s revocation of Indian Occupied Kashmir’s autonomy last year was an acknowledgment of its failure to pacify decades-old Kashmiri resistance to its rule. The economic burden being forced upon the state will only exacerbate the problem. But the history of the region shows that, despite centuries of political persecution, the people of Kashmir have always resisted.

The writer is a Kashmiri journalist, based in Srinigar.

Wednesday, 5 August, 2020

BUSINESS 09 Oil falls as rising virus cases overshadow demand recovery LONDON: Oil prices eased on Tuesday amid concerns that a fresh wave of Covid-19 infections will see a global demand recovery stalling due to tighter lockdowns, just as major producers ramp up output. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 68 cents, or 1.7pc, at $40.33 a barrel at 1020 GMT, while Brent crude futures were 72 cents, or 1.7pc, lower at $43.43 a barrel. The slide comes after WTI rose 1.8pc and Brent climbed 1.5pc on Monday on better-than-expected data on manufacturing activity in Asia, Europe and the United States. "News from Asia and Europe are adding up to concerns that the infection crisis may now not be just limited to the US and Brazil, but also to the rest of the world via a second wave," said Paola Rodriguez Masiu from Rystad Energy. Denting fuel demand, cities from Manila to Melbourne are tightening lockdowns to battle new infections, while Norway has stopped cruise ship traffic in the latest European travel alarm. In a further sign of a patchy rebound in demand, analysts estimate US refined product stockpiles rose last week, according to a preliminary Reuters poll ahead of data from the American Petroleum Institute industry group later on Tuesday and the US government on Wednesday. At the same time producers in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, together known as OPEC+, are raising output this month, adding around 1.5 million barrels a day of supply. US producers also plan to restart shut-in production. “Most oil market participants expect more downward pressure on oil... with COVID-19 ravaging the landscape and OPEC+ adding more barrels into play,” said Stephen Innes, Chief Global Markets Strategist at AxiCorp. AGENCIES

New amendments by SECP only allow ATL listed individuals for registration BUSINESS DESK The individuals whose names are not appearing on the Active Taxpayer List (ATL) of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) cannot apply to the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) for registering as securities advisers or futures advisers with the commission, a notification issued by the commission said on Monday. The SECP has proposed amendments to the Securities and Futures Advisers (Licensing and Operations) Regulations, 2017, through a notification and in this regard, the SECP has amended, “Fit and Proper Criteria” for the securities adviser/futures adviser, and where applicable its, promoters, directors and senior management officers.

According to the amendment, in case the applicant is an individual, then his/her name shall be appearing on the ATL of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). No person shall act as or perform the functions of a securities adviser or futures adviser unless such person is licensed with the Commission as a securities adviser or futures adviser under the Securities Act or Futures Act and these regulations, and a person performing distribution of Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) and/or Voluntary Pension Fund (VPF) units of multiple AMCs by entering into contracts with such AMCs shall also be required to obtain license as a securities adviser under these regulations, in order to perform functions of a distributor, the SECP stated. The information and documents to be submitted along-with application for license as a securities adviser/futures adviser included national tax number of the applicant. Within the category of “Financial Soundness and Integrity”, the SECP stated that the person should not have been adjudged as an insolvent or he should not have suspended payment of debts or compounded liabilities with its/his creditors. The person should not have been convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction as a defaulter in payment of any loan to a financial institution including banking company, a development financial institution or a non- banking financial company. The person and companies, firms, sole proprietorship, etc, where the person is a chief executive, director (other than nominee director), owner or partner, etc, have no overdue payment to any customer, financial institution, securities exchange, futures exchange, clearing house, central depository and/or defaulted in payment of any taxes in the individual capacity or as a proprietary concern or any partnership firm or as director in any unlisted and listed company.

AfTEr mONThS Of COvid-LEd dOwNfALL, PAkiSTAN'S ExPOrTS grOw 5.8PC iN JuLy ISLAMABAD

A

GHULAM ABBAS

DVISER to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood on Tuesday chaired an internal strategy meeting at the commerce ministry to review the recent trade statistics and to devise plans for the enhancement of exports.

As per the data shared by the commerce ministry, the country exported goods and services worth $1.998 billion in the first month of FY21, as compared to $1.889 billion in July FY20, depicting a growth of 5.8pc YoY. In rupee terms, the export proceeds posted 11.3pc growth in July 2020 compared to the same month of last year.

The data showed that since May 2020, a visible improvement has been observed in export orders from international buyers, mainly in the textile and clothing sectors.

It may be noted that the Covid-led decline in Pakistan's exports started in March 2020, when the country witnessed an 8pc drop. This declined widened in April 2020, dropping by 54pc, but improved to -35pc in May, and further to only -6pc in June 2020.

In FY20, Pakistan's exports had fallen 6.83pc ($1.57 billion) to $21.4 billion compared to $22.97 billion in FY19.

But despite negative growth in exports during the last four months, the ministry stated that continuous fall in imports was providing some breathing space to the government to manage external accounts. In July 2020, the import bill posted a negative growth of 4.2pc, as import value was recorded at $3.54 billion during the period under review

PAKISTAN EXPORTED GOODS AND SERVICES WORTH $1.99BN IN JULY 2020, AS COMPARED TO $1.88BN IN JULY 2019

as against $3.696 billion in the corresponding month of last year.

In the fiscal year 2019-20, the import bill had declined significantly by $10.29 billion (18.78pc) to $44.509 billion compared to $54.799 billion last year.

Based on the import-export data, the country's trade deficit came down by 14.7pc in July 2020 from a year ago.

The decline was mainly due to a fall in imports and paltry growth in exports from the country. However, imports are expected to bounce back in the coming months following the abolishment of regulatory duty on raw materials and semi-finished products.

In absolute terms, the trade gap nar-

rowed to $1.542bn in July 2020 as against $1.808bn in the corresponding month of last year.

The trade deficit had narrowed to $23.099bn in FY20 from $31.820bn in FY19.

According to the data, the export of worn clothing and clothing accessories surged by 2,078pc during the month under review, followed by food preparation 344pc, made-up clothing accessories ( knitted or crocheted) 313pc, tarpaulins, awnings and sunblinds 154pc, tracksuits 135pc, gloves, mittens and mitts 83pc.

Likewise, the export of fish and fish products grew by 50pc, jerseys,

pullovers, cardigans, waistcoats and similar articles 44pc, women's garments 34pc, leather apparel 28pc, made-up articles of textile materials 27pc, home textiles 24pc, copper and articles thereof 19pc and men's garments 10pc.

On the other hand, the export of some important products posted a decline during the month under review.

These included wheat, wheat flour, cotton, synthetic filament yarn, raw leather, ethyl alcohol, cotton yarn, plastic products, tanning, dyeing extracts, rice and cement.

The top 10 importing products included soya beans (+616pc), petroleum coke 192pc, palm oil 190pc, rubber 36pc, fruits and vegetables 24pc, pharmaceuticals products 17pc, inorganic chemicals 14pc, iron and steel 12pc, tea 11pc, plastic products 8pc, electrical and electronic equipment 5pc.

The products that saw a decline in imports included rape seeds, cotton yarn, motor cars, footwear, parts and accessories for tractors, petroleum gas, petroleum oils, coal, machinery, fertilizers, organic chemicals, petroleum oils excluding crude and paper and paperboard.

As per the official statement issued by the ministry, PM's Commerce Adviser Razak Dawood appreciated the exporters as well as the government departments for coordinating their efforts amid the pandemic outbreak.

"This achievement is particularly noteworthy because of the fact that a decline was being observed until last month and a turnaround of around 12pc has been achieved in just one month,” the adviser tweeted. "In spite of the fact that we still have COVID related smart lockdowns, our export-led 'Make in Pakistan' is moving forward," he maintained.

marKEt daily

KSE-100 snaps winning streak on profit-booking KARACHI STAFF REPORT

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a volatile session on Tuesday, with the benchmark index losing all gains accumulated in early trade to close in the red.

Global equity markets displayed a mixed performance, whereas crude oil prices also moved south; WTI crude price fell 1.37pc to $40.45, while Brent crude oil price declined 1.36pc to $43.55.

"The stock market opened on a positive note today, as the benchmark index stormed past the 40,000-mark amid soaring volumes. The rally, however, turned to be short-lived, with the index succumbing to profit-booking later in the day," said a report issued by AHL Ltd. "Selling activity was mainly observed in cement, exploration & production, refinery, oil & gas marketing and chemical sectors; however, banking sector stocks largely remained unharmed."

MARKET SUMMARY: The KSE-100 Index gathered 459.10 points soon after the commencement of the session, touching its intraday high at 40,330. However, failing to hold on to gains, it slipped to its intraday low at 39,528.86 (-342.75 points). The index finally settled lower by 293.99 points at 39,577.62.

Among other indices, the KMI-30 Index lost 1,125.03 points to close at 62,837.95, while the KSE All Share Index dropped 240.34 points, ending at 27,655.81.

The overall market volumes jumped 10pc on a daily basis, from 539.32 million shares on Monday to

593.97 million shares (highest of the year). Average traded value also increased by 3pc, from $154.2 million to $158.5 million.

TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG -6.19pc), Power Cement Ltd (POWER +6.46pc) and Pak Elektron Ltd (PAEL +0.18pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 45.62 million, 42.78 million and 41.72 million shares, respectively.

Sectors that drove the index south included cement (-97.39 points), oil & gas exploration (-51.10 points) and technology (-49.89 points). Among the companies, Lucky Cement Ltd (LUCK 48.76 points), TRG Pakistan Ltd (TRG 32.86 points) and Oil & Gas

Development Company Ltd (OGDC 31.50 points) dented the index the most.

Shedding 4.79pc from its cumulative market capitalisation, the refinery sector turned out to be the session's top loser, with Byco Petroleum (BYCO 3.30pc), National Refinery Ltd (NRL 6.51pc), Attock Refinery (ATRL 7.06pc) and Pakistan Refinery Ltd (PRL 4.49pc) ending in the red.

Meanwhile, the PSX has, through a notice, invited bids for the purchase of 843,975 shares of LSE Financial Services Limited. The sale proceeds will be used to settle approved claims.

President alvi calls for adoption, facilitation of artificial intelligence ISLAMABAD APP

President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday said that the adoption and growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the country should be facilitated.

The president said this while addressing the inaugural session of the 1st COMSTECH Showcasing of Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) Products and Services at COMSTECH headquarters Islamabad.

Over 26 businesses, industries, strategic organisations, and centers of excellence are participating in this first of its kind mega event which would conclude on August 5.

Quoting a McKinsey report, he said that disruptive technologie such as mobile inter-

net, artificial intelligence, IoT, advanced robotics, autonomous vehicles, next generation genomics and biotechnology, 3D printing, and new energy storage are expected to add trillions of dollars into the global economy.

He said that the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the development and adaptation of many such technologies.

The president urged experts to use modern technologies like satellite imagery and robots in agriculture, health and education sectors.

He further stated that the current government has undertaken a number of initiatives to promote the deployment of modern technologies, including AI in various sectors of the country, as a fundamental tool of e-government.

Federal Minister for Science and Tech-

nology Fawad Chaudhry while addressing the event said that the science ministry believes that steps should be taken to translate scientific and technological developments in Pakistan into products and services.

Fawad Chaudhry assured that the science ministry would continue to support research institutions.

He said that COMSTECH, a science and technology organisation of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is the most important international organisation that Pakistan hosts.

He said that the science ministry greatly values the role being played by COMSTECH in the capacity building of OIC countries through bilateral and multilateral linkages and exchanges and in presenting the

CMYK

best of Pakistan’s scientific and technological capabilities to the world.

"We are closely working with COMSTECH for the success of a large number of initiatives and programmes, which have been launched under the leadership of Dr Iqbal Choudhary" he said.

Fawad Chaudhry also highlighted science ministry’s “ThinkFuture” and “Made in Pakistan” programmes.

He said that Pakistan was importing Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) when the first Covid case emerged in the country on February 26. However, now the country is exporting PPEs to the world.

The minister also urged the use of mobile payments and transactions to document the economy.

He also stressed on the need for STEM education, use of 5G technology, AI programmes and development of drones.

He predicted that PayPal services in Pakistan will facilitate transactions for freelancers and people working online.

COMSTECH coordinator general while addressing the event said that the main focus of COMSTECH programmes is to develop technological skills and capacity of the youth of the OIC region.

CARE project director in his welcome address said that the impact of AI on the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to be $15.7 trillion.

“If Pakistan captures even one per cent of this market, its value will be close to $157 billion,” he said.

Wednesday, 5 August, 2020

10 FOREIGN NEWS

Driven by brazil, latin america tops 5 million coviD-19 cases BRASILIA

D

AGENCIES

RIveN largely by Latin America’s largest country Brazil, the region crossed the 5 million Covid-19 cases mark on Tuesday, as the WHO expressed fears that there never may be a “silver bullet” for the pandemic.

Global infections passed 18 million, with Brazil driving the regional surge.

South America´s largest country has recorded 2.75 million cases, and close to half the region´s 202,000 deaths.

Only the United States, with 4.7 million cases and more than 155,000 deaths, has been worse affected.

In the region´s second hardest-hit country, Peru, daily cases have almost doubled from 3,300 to 6,300 since bus and air travel resumed a month ago, according to official figures.

The world´s hope of ending the current cycle of outbreaks and lockdowns rests on a vaccine, but the WHO said governments and citizens should focus on what is known to work: testing, contact tracing, maintaining physical distance and wearing a mask.

“We all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference.

“However, there´s no silver bullet at the moment — and there might never be,” he said.

“For now, stopping outbreaks comes down to the basics of public health and disease control. Do it all.”

Despite months of economically crippling restrictions, the pandemic is gathering pace with the worldwide death toll nearing 700,000 and a White House adviser warning the virus is “extraordinarily widespread” in the United States.

COUNTRIES IMPOSE STRICTER LOCKDOWNS AS COVID-19

CASES RISE AGAIN: There has been a resurgence in countries that had previously brought their outbreaks under control, including Australia, where sweeping new restrictions kicked in for the hard-hit state of victoria on Monday.

They include a nighttime curfew in state capital Melbourne for the next six weeks, with the city ordering non-essential businesses to close, and a ban on weddings.

Melbourne book store manager Bill Morton said his normally “vibrant, lovely” patch of the city had transformed into a “ghost town”.

“People are pretty demoralised,” he told AFP. “Pretty well everything is closed around here. So it´s a very strange, quite eerie atmosphere.”

Authorities in the Philippines have also had to reimpose curbs after infections surged past 100,000, forcing more than 27 million people — including in the capital Manila — back into lockdown for two weeks from Tuesday.

The Middle east´s hardest-hit nation Iran meanwhile reported its highest single-day infection count in nearly a month, warning that most of its provinces are facing a resurgence.

In the US, Deborah Birx, head of the White House coronavirus task force, warned the country has entered a “new phase”.

“What we are seeing today is different from March and April,” she told CNN, adding that the virus “is extraordinarily widespread”.

The pandemic has spurred a rush for a vaccine that some have compared to the space race, and Russia said on Monday it is aiming to launch mass production in September and turn out “several million” doses per month by next year.

But vitaly Zverev, laboratory chief at the Mechnikov Research Institute of vaccines and Sera, told AFP that it was “impossible to ensure a vaccine´s safety in the time that has passed since the beginning of this pandemic”.

“You can make anything, but who is going to buy it?”

The impositions the pandemic has put on daily life has sparked protests on nearly every continent.

Berlin saw thousands of people rally over the weekend against virus restrictions, with far-left and far-right demonstrators joined by those supporting

Israeli aircraft hit Syria after squad tried to bomb border fence, military says JERUSALEM AGENCIES

Israeli aircraft attacked targets in Syria on Monday, the military said, describing the strikes as retaliation for an attempted bombing of the border fence by an enemy squad.

Tensions have risen along Israel’s northern front since a fighter with the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah was killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike in Syria two weeks ago.

Monday’s strikes hit Syrian observation posts, intelligence collection systems, anti-aircraft batteries and command-and-control bases, an Israeli military statement said.

Syrian state media said Israeli helicopters fired at Syrian checkpoints in al-Qunaitra, on the Golan Heights, causing material losses.

There was no immediate word of any casualties.

The Israeli military said it was responding to an attempt by a group of four people to plant explosives on a patrolled fence along the Golan armistice line between Israel and Syria.

In that incident, reported by Israel early on Monday, the military fired on the squad. Surveillance video showed the group engulfed in an explosion. An Israeli military spokesman referred to them as “former terrorists,” suggesting they had

been killed.

The military spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus, said it was too soon to say if the squad belonged to any organisation, but that Israel held “the Syrian regime accountable”.

There was no comment from Syria on the fence incident.

The overnight encounter occurred at the same spot where until two years ago, Israel had operated a field hospital to treat Syrians who had been wounded in the Syrian civil war, Conricus told reporters.

Israel had noticed “irregular activity” in that area for about a week and had a commando team waiting there in ambush, Conricus said.

N Korea has 'probably' developed nuclear devices to fit ballistic missiles: UN report UNITED NATIONS AGENCIES

North Korea is pressing on with its nuclear weapons program and several countries believe it has “probably developed miniaturized nuclear devices to fit into the warheads of its ballistic missiles,” according to a confidential UN report.

The report by an independent panel of experts monitoring UN sanctions said the countries, which it did not identify, believed North Korea’s past six nuclear tests had likely helped it develop miniaturised nuclear devices. Pyongyang has not conducted a nuclear test since September 2017.

The interim report, seen by Reuters, was submitted to the 15member UN Security Council North Korea sanctions committee on Monday.

“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is continuing its nuclear program, including the production of highly enriched uranium and construction of an experimental light water reactor. A Member State assessed that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is continuing production of nuclear weapons,” the report said.

North Korea is formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). North

Korea’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for ment on the UN report. com North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said last week there would be no more war as the country’s nuclear weapons guarantee its safety and future despite unabated outside pressure and military threats.

The UN report said one country, which it did not identify, assessed that North Korea “may seek to further develop miniaturisation in order to allow incorporation of technological improvements such as penetration aid packages or, potentially, to develop multiple-warhead systems.”

widely debunked conspiracy theories.

The protesters — who shouted “We are the second wave” on their “day of freedom” — were mostly not wearing masks, which the German government blasted as “unacceptable”.

On Monday, the country was watching anxiously as 150,000 children returned to school in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany´s first state to restart full-time classes after the summer holidays, with infection numbers on the rise again.

In neighbouring France, Prime Minister Jean Castex urged the nation “not to let down its guard” as surging cases led the Riviera resort city of Nice to become the latest to mandate outside mask-wearing during the summer holiday season.

“The virus has not gone on holiday and neither have we,” Castex said.

COVID-19 CRASHES PARTIES AROUND THE GLOBE: The pandemic has forced huge changes on many summer events in the northern hemisphere, including China´s famous Qingdao beer festival, which opened at the weekend with its “Beer City” limited to only 30 percent capacity.

Still, many were happy just to attend something.

“It´s been half a year since I last travelled around,” tourist Wang Hua told state broadcaster CCTv. “I feel so happy and relaxed.”

And on the Spanish party island of Ibiza, the government has only allowed clubs with a capacity of 300 or less to open — with mega clubs closed for the season.

Nightclub operators said social distancing would make it impossible to stage the wild parties Ibiza is famous for.

“When we shout, saliva can go as far as two metres (over six feet),” said Jose Luis Benitez, head of the Ibiza Leisure Association.

“Who can keep distances inside a nightclub?”

Wednesday, 5 August, 2020

SPORTS 11

AuSTRAliA v WEST indiES T20iS PoSTPonEd

Pakistan announces 16-member Test squad for England series LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday announced the 16member Test squad for the England Test series, with Azhar Ali as captain.

According to a tweet from the PCB, the squad will comprise: Azhar Ali (c), Babar Azam (vc), Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Imam, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Shan Masood, Sohail Khan and Yasir Shah.

Pakistan are the second Test team, after West Indies, to tour England this summer. They will play three Tests, the first beginning on Wednesday, and three T20 Internationals in bio-secure venues in Manchester and Southampton.

Yesterday, head coach Misbah-ul-Haq, expressing satisfaction with the team’s preparations for the England series, said the team was in good form and ready to play. “We started after three months from scratch, which has been good so far,” Misbah said while speaking through a video link. While noting that this was an opportunity for young bowlers to exhibit their skills, he said that the Pakistani bowlers lacked experience when compared to their counterparts. AGENCIES

IPL TO NOT CLASH WITH ANY INTERNATIONAL CRICKET

PERTH

A

AGENCIES

USTRALIA’S home T20I series against West Indies has been postponed because of the Covid-19 situation, and that means the IPL now has an uninterrupted window - between September 19 and November 10 - as far as international cricket is concerned.

West Indies were scheduled to play matches in Townsville, Cairns and the Gold Coast on October 4, 6 and 9, with the series being seen as a precursor to the now-postponed men’s T20 World Cup, originally set to start on

Spain and Real Madrid ‘legend’ Casillas retires

October 18.

Now the only potential clash for the IPL - even if just by two days - is with the proposed , which has a finish date of September 20. However, Sri Lanka Cricket last week stated that it is considering advancing the dates to ensure there is no overlap with the IPL. As such, only two Sri Lankan players Lasith Malinga (Mumbai Indians) and Isuru Udana (Royal Challengers Bangalore) - are contracted in the IPL. Meanwhile, Australia’s short limited-overs tour of England is expected to end on September 15, leaving players from both sides just about enough time to hop over to the UAE in

time for the IPL, which will be held across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. However, the IPL’s SOPs are yet to be made formal, and it isn’t known if players travelling from the UK - where the number of Covid-19 cases has been much higher than in the UAE - will need to undergo a quarantine period before entering the bio-bubbles of their respective teams, many of whom are likely to begin their training camps in the UAE after the third week of August.

Most boards have either provided or agreed to provide no-objection certificates to their players to play in the IPL. However, there are since their provincial and international borders remain closed for commercial flights.

BARCELONA: Former Real Madrid and Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas has retired from football at the age of 39. Casillas made 725 appearances for Real during a 16-year career at the Bernabeu, winning three Champions League titles and five La Liga crowns. He also helped Spain win the 2010 World Cup and two successive European Championships in 2008 and 2012. Casillas joined Porto in 2015 but has not played since in April 2019. During his recovery he was given a in July 2019. Announcing his retirement on , Casillas said: “The important thing is the path you travel and the people who accompany you, not the destination to which it takes you. “I think I can say, without hesitation, that it has been the path and the dream destination.” Real Madrid said Casillas, who joined the Spanish giants at the age of nine, was the best goalkeeper in the 118-year history of the club. “Real Madrid wants to show its appreciation, admiration and love for one of the greatest legends of our club and world football,” read a statement on the club’s website. AGENCIES

Will this be the summer of Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi?

LAHORE AGENCIES

A decade ago, and lit up an overcast English summer, heirs apparent to some of the most exhilarating fast-bowling pairings you could think of. They , beating for the first time in 15 years an opponent they didn’t know how to beat, before turning their focus to England, against whom Amir was Player of the Series despite Pakistan losing it 3-1, and despite - well, . They combined for across six Tests over that delirious English summer. They were 27 and 18, and they were the future. and will have watched those two run riot, either at the time or in the years since.

They were ten and 7 at the time, watching their heroes flourish in the country Pakistan’s bowlers have found to be the most fertile breeding ground for their skills. A place where, among other things, a mixture of colonial grievance, stylistic conflict and simmering mutual resentment have combined to birth some of the most celebrated moments in Pakistan’s history.

Blue-eyed Fazal Mahmood on a crackling transistor radio would begin it all with a , setting benchmarks for Pakistan’s quicks.

Many failed to live up to that standard, but it wasn’t a coincidence that plenty who went on to earn immortality could trace it back to an England tour. Open-chested , who tormented David Gower on English pitches and Ian Botham in English courthouses, learned the basics of his trade entirely in the English university and county system. A bit of guidance from Sarfraz Nawaz didn’t hurt, and it was Nawaz’s discovery of reverse swing that took cricket from the back pages to being a matter for the English courts in the first place. enjoyed the privilege of having both Khan’s ear and his backing on his first English tour in 1987, where he would

finish below only his mentor on as Pakistan won a series there for the first time.

Five years on, Akram had accumulated half a decade of English county experience and he teamed up with Waqar Younis to clean up again, the pair combining for in another series victory. They would go on to become a byword for the ideal fast-bowling partnership, and after several false dawns, years of Umar Gul hopefulness and Mohammad Sami hopelessness, it appeared Amir and Asif were finally the next logical step in that cycle. Their performance in 2010 would be an inspiration, and then, crushingly, provide a cautionary tale. In other words, it would be a welcome to Pakistan cricket.

It might have been hard to believe then, but those depressing days of the spot-fixing scandal would eventually lead to where Shah and Afridi stand now. Afridi is yet to hit 21, and will lead an attack once spearheaded by the names above it who it still feels sacrilegious to compare him to. Seventeen-year-old Shah likely lies in wait as first-change. They might not have got their opportunities quite so soon, especially if Amir had not retired from Test cricket so prematurely, or even if Asif, lost to the game forever, had gone on to fulfil the promise their talent foreshadowed.

England, make no mistake, is where these young men’s destinies lie, where their careers, should Pakistan’s history be any guide, will be forged. For all the acrimony, for all the accusations, both true and libellous, that Pakistan have felt aggrieved by, England has been perhaps the most generously rewarding place in the world for its most prized skill: fast bowling. It has turned anonymous chancers into household names, extended exposure to players who might otherwise have been severely underrated, and since the late 1960s, offered lucrative

county contracts to players who financial pragmatism might have otherwise forced out of the game. It may have been a bully, but it has also been benefactor.

Even with cricket’s freshly aligned priorities, the shifts of power from the English and Australian antipodes to the subcontinent, the value of excelling in England is higher for Pakistan than it has arguably ever been. Deprived of cricket’s most reliable cash cow - bilateral cricket against India and locked out of the IPL, proving oneself in England remains a Pakistani cricketer’s one big chance to be heard beyond their echo chamber, and a chance at earning a fraction of the income contemporaries around the world have the luxury of taking for granted.

Pakistan’s fast bowling has struggled on tours of Australia, and to a lesser extent, South Africa, and that does little for their value in the eyes of those who might hand them a lucrative T20 contract. The country’s

CMYK

fast bowlers , almost five runs worse than anywhere else they have played. That number is an indifferent 34 in South Africa. In England, it stands at 30.28, which means they have been more successful there than in any other country away, except Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and New Zealand.

The divide between performances in England and in Australia has , with Pakistan’s quicks managing a wicket every 27.89 runs in England, the best of anywhere they have played more than five Test matches. In eight Tests down under, meanwhile, the price of each wicket has been 47.05 runs, over 11 more than second worst.

(Their third-worst record is in South Africa, with a wicket every 34.18 runs.)

As the wickets have come, county contracts have followed. Mohammad Amir, Junaid Khan, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Abbas and Faheem Ashraf have all had the chance to hone their skills in the County Championship, and those are just the fast bowlers.

Azhar Ali and Babar Azam were drafted in for Somerset, and several others have played in the T20 Blast.

Selective historical and statistical precedent may suggest fate holds something special in store for Shah and Afridi. Their selection in the side and the elevated responsibility they look set to be given despite their youth isn’t a gimmick, it is a reflection of the status in which Pakistan cricket holds them.

You could almost see Afridi transition from boy to man on a brutally unforgiving tour of Australia last year, where, forced into being the team’s leader, he ended up being the only one to maintain the standards Pakistan had hoped of their fast bowling contingent, finishing with five wickets at 36.80 even as Australia amassed record-breaking totals.

Shah, who would play just of those two Tests, would experience the worst either cricket or life had to offer, making his debut the day 11,000 km away, and dismissing David Warner for his first Test wicket, only for it to be called a no-ball (he would not be deprived, however, making Warner his first Test wicket later). He would follow that up with a blitz of a home summer, becoming the , against Sri Lanka , and the , against Bangladesh a few months later.

So, should they excel in England, let no one who only pays attention to cricket when it’s played in a handful of nations tell you they were a bolt from the blue. With the coronavirus pandemic and the crowd-free venues in which the series will be played, the setting is such as never quite seen before in England. But if Afridi and Shah manage to summon up the spirit of legends gone by, there will be many in Pakistan rejoicing at the return of something they have always recognised. “We’ve seen this happen before,” they might wistfully whisper to tenand seven-year old kids who finally realise those tales were true after all.

Wednesday, 5 August, 2020

PrAyEr TImINGS

NEWS

Fajr SUNriSe

ZUhr

aSr Maghrib iSha

3:49

12:09

4:57

5:20

6:57

8:28

india’s contentious residency law in held kashMir aMplifies deMographic fears SRINAGAR

f

AGENCIES

OR almost a century, no outsider was allowed to buy land and property in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK). That changed Aug 5 last year when India’s Hindu nationalist government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi stripped the Himalayan state’s semiautonomous powers and downgraded it to a federally governed territory. It also annulled the long-held hereditary special rights its natives had over the disputed region’s land ownership and jobs.

Since then, India has brought in a slew of changes through new laws. They are often drafted by bureaucrats without any democratic bearings and much to the resentment and anger of the region’s people, many of whom want independence from India or unification with Pakistan. A year later, things are swiftly changing on the ground.

Under a new law, authorities have begun issuing “domicile certificates” to Indians and non-residents, entitling them to residency rights and government jobs. Many Kashmiris view the move as the beginning of settler colonialism aimed at engineering a demographic change in India’s only Muslimmajority region.

Amid growing fears, experts are likening the new arrangement to the West Bank or Tibet, with settlers — armed or civilian — living in guarded compounds among disenfranchised locals. They say the changes will reduce the region to a colony.

“Given the history of Indian state intervention in Kashmir, there are efforts to destroy the local, distinctive cultural identity of Kashmiris and forcibly assimilate Kashmiri Muslims into a Hindu, Indian polity,” said Saiba Varma, an assistant professor of cultural and medical anthropology at the University of California, San Diego.

Residency rights were introduced in 1927 by Kashmir’s Hindu king, Hari Singh, to stop the influx of outsiders in the former princely state. Historians say the maharaja brought land ownership rights on the insistence of powerful Kashmiri Hindus. They continued under Indian rule after 1947, as part of Kashmir’s special status. The new law, introduced in May amid the coronavirus lockdown, makes it possible for any Indian national who has lived in the region for at least 15 years or has studied for seven years and taken certain exams to become a permanent resident in Jammu-Kashmir.

The Indian government is ensuring the process is fast-tracked and has introduced a fine of Rs50,000 ($670) to be deducted from

Massive blast in beirut kills 10, sending shockwaves across city

the salary of any official in the territory who delays the process. Those receiving domicile certificates include Hindu refugees from Pakistan following the 1947 bloody partition of the subcontinent, Gurkha soldiers from Nepal who had served in the Indian army, outside bureaucrats working in the region and some marginalized Hindu communities. Even the natives must apply for residency, otherwise, they risk losing government jobs and welfare benefits. About 400,000 people have been given domicile certificates in over a month, Pawan Kotwal, a top Indian official was quoted on Saturday by The Tribune, a north Indian English-daily. Officials have not said how many of them are locals and have generally been tight-lipped about the process.

Navin Kumar Choudhary, a senior bureaucrat from eastern Bihar state, was the first high-profile outsider to get residency on June 26. While Kashmiris were aghast as Choudhary’s picture displaying the certificate went viral on social media, many in Hindu-majority southern Jammu rejoiced.

Gharu Bhatti, an activist working for the welfare of lower caste Hindus in Jammu, said the law ended their “slavery.”

Bhatti’s parents were among some 270 sanitation workers brought by the government to Jammu from neighboring Punjab state in 1957. Since then, their numbers have

Pompeo, Taliban negotiator discuss Afghan peace process WASHINGTON AGENCIES

BEIRUT: A huge explosion near the centre of Beirut killed at least 10 people and sending shockwaves across the Lebanese capital, shattering glass in people’s homes and causing apartment balconies to collapse, witnesses and security sources said. The blast occurred in the city’s port area, where there were warehouses housing explosives, Lebanon’s state news agency NNA and two security sources said. A third security source said there were chemicals stored in the area. Footage of the blast shared around by residents on social media showed a column of smoke rising from the port district followed by an enormous blast. Those who filming what initially appeared to be a big blaze where thrown backwards by the shock.

At least 10 bodies were taken to hospitals, a security source and a medical source told Reuters. It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze that set off the blast or what kind of explosives were in the warehouses.

The governor of Beirut port told Sky News that a team of firefighters at the scene had “disappeared” after the explosion. “I saw a fireball and smoke billowing over Beirut.

People were screaming and running, bleeding.

Balconies were blown off buildings. Glass in high-rise buildings shattered and fell to the street,” said a Reuters witness. The health minister told Reuters there was a “very high number” of injured. Al Mayadeen TV said hundreds were wounded. Another Reuters witness said she saw heavy grey smoke near the port area and then heard an explosion and saw flames of fire and black smoke: “All the downtown area windows are smashed and there are wounded people walking around. It is total chaos.” UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters it was not immediately clear what the cause was, and that there was no indication of any injuries to any UN personnel. “We do not have information about what has happened precisely, what has caused this, whether its accidental or man made act,” he said. The US Pentagon said: “We are aware of the explosion and are concerned for the potential loss of life due to such a massive explosion.” In Cyprus, an island lying west of Lebanon, residents reported two large bangs in quick succession. One resident of the capital Nicosia said his house shook, rattling shutters. AGENCIES

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a video meeting on Monday with the Taliban’s chief negotiator, Mullah Baradar Akhund, to discuss the state of the Afghanistan peace process, an insurgent spokesman said.

The discussions included the issue of Taliban prisoners whose release by the Afghan government the insurgents are demanding, Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban spokesman in Doha said on Twitter. The Taliban want the prisoners freed before they join talks with government officials and other Afghans on a political settlement to decades of war.

“Both sides talked about the inception of intra-Afghan negotiations” and they “emphasized that the release of the remaining prisoners are essential for commencement of intra-Afghan negotiations,” Shaheen wrote.

The meeting between Pompeo and Baradar, the Taliban’s Doha-based deputy leader, came as Afghan security forces ended a siege of a major prison in eastern Afghanistan by ISIS militants in which hundreds of prisoners escaped.

It was not immediately known if the escapees included any of the prisoners whose release the Taliban is de-

manding.

The release of the Taliban prisoners has become a major hurdle to the convening of intra-Afghan peace talks, which were to have started by Mar 10.

A Feb 29 US-Taliban agreement for a US troop withdrawal called for Kabul to free up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners in return for the release by the insurgents of up to 1,000 government detainees.

The Taliban has released around 1,000 detainees. The Afghan government, under US pressure, has freed around 4,600 Taliban prisoners named on a list compiled by the insurgents.

a people, it is the most critical time in our history and we have never faced such an existential threat before.” Kashmir’s fury at Indian rule has been long seething. The stunning mountain region has known little but conflict since 1947 when British rule of the subcontinent divided the territory between the newly created India and Pakistan.

After a series of political blunders, broken promises and a crackdown on dissent, Kashmiri separatists launched a full-blown armed revolt in 1989, seeking unification with Pakistan or complete independence. India dubbed the armed rebellion terrorism abetted

by Pakistan, a charge Islamabad denies.

Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict in the last three decades.

Since the early 1950s, Hindu nationalists, including Modi’s hardline Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been advocating a solution in India’s favor by neutralising Kashmir’s Muslim majority inhabitants through the settlement of Hindus from other parts of the country. “The Indian Hindu right-wing wants a demographic solution to Kashmir, but their policies are sowing seeds for a new conflict, possibly one that will lead to unending bloodshed and lead to destabilization of the entire region,” said Mohamad Junaid, a Kashmiri political anthropologist.

grown to nearly 7,000, said Bhatti, who is among the first few dozen from his community to get the region’s residency.

“Now our kids have a future. They can be whatever they want to be. We will have choices to make now,” he said. But even some Hindu groups in Jammu have resented the law, expressing fears of job and business losses to outsiders. Authorities have called the new residency rights an overdue measure to foster greater economic development by opening up the region for outside investments. Girish Chander Murmu, the region’s top administrative official, in late June told reporters that the law was aimed at bringing economic prosperity and dismissed any fears of demographic change as “propaganda.”

Many natives in Kashmir are skeptical of such clarifications and liken them to assurances Indian authorities made prior to the Aug. 5 decision when they said no constitutional changes were planned. Human rights activists, pro-freedom leaders and Kashmiri residents have long feared that giving outsiders the right to buy land and property could further plunge the region into chaos and set in motion a plan to crush the identity of its people. “We have always been fed lies and deceived by gimmicks of development and democracy by the Indian state,” said Shafat Ahmed Mir, a university student. “As

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, however, is resisting freeing the remaining 400 named on the list, contending they were involved in serious crimes, including a massive 2017 bombing against the German embassy and other bloody attacks.

Instead, Ghani is expected to release 500 prisoners who are not on the list and has called a traditional assembly of tribal elders from across the country — known as a loya jirga — to consult on whether to free those remaining on the list.

The assembly is expected to be held later this month.

india's Modi to lay hindu temple foundations at site of babri Masjid AYODHYA: The flashpoint Indian town of Ayodhya geared up on Tuesday for a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lay the foundations for a Hindu temple on the ruins of a mosque destroyed by a mob in 1992.

The building of the temple in northern India, starting on Wednesday with a colourful rite broadcast live on TV, has long been a pledge of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Babri Masjid stood on the site for almost 500 years until it was demolished by Hindu zealots in 1992. That sparked riots across the country in which 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, died — some of independent India’s worst sectarian violence. Devout Hindus believe that Lord Ram, the warrior god, was born in Ayodhya some 7,000 years ago but that a mosque was constructed on top of his birthplace in the 16th century. In November, India’s top court after a legal battle lasting decades awarded the site to Hindus, giving Muslims another location to build a new mosque. It was a stunning victory for the BJP, but for critics, it marked another step in Modi’s agenda to turn officially secular India into a Hindu nation, marginalising its 200 million Muslims — something he denies. Wednesday also marks one year since Modi’s government imposed direct rule on occupied Kashmir, another longstanding BJP pledge. The Ayodhya ceremony, held at a time recommended by astrologers, has been curtailed because of the coronavirus, with at least two priests as well as Modi’s right-handman and Home Minister Amit Shah testing positive. AGENCIES

Covid-19 may unleash economic devastation that intensifies violence: UN NEW YORK AGENCIES

The United Nations diplomats and experts cautioned the world that the Covid19 pandemic ca intensify violence and further deteriorate the human rights situation in conflicts to the point that it will intensify them.

Covid-19 is hampering aid programs, diverting the attention and resources of major powers battling the deadly virus at home, and cutting remittances to already fragile, war-weary economies, they say.

“There´s a very high level of concern that its economic impact is going to spark more disorder, more conflict,” said New York-based UN expert Richard Gowan.

“We´re still only really in the opening act of quite a long drama,” he told AFP. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres´s plea for a global ceasefire back in March has gone largely unheeded, with fighting continuing to rage in hotspots

such as Yemen, Libya and Syria.

Lockdowns are restricting the movements of envoys, peacekeeping troops and non-governmental agencies, hindering mediation efforts and impeding the distribution of desperately needed aid to increasingly vulnerable civilians.

In Yemen — where tens of thousands of civilians have died since 2015 in what the UN describes as the world´s worst humanitarian crisis — fighting is intensifying, according to diplomats who say the country is in free fall.

“Famine is again on the horizon. Conflict is again escalating. The economy is again in tatters. Humanitarian agencies are again nearly broke. And then the new problems — Covid-19 is spreading out of control,” UN relief chief Mark Lowcock said last week.

The British diplomat told the UN Security Council that the coronavirus crisis had slashed remittances, which has long been a lifeline for the country, by as much

as 70pc. He cited a recent survey that found that about half of Yemeni families have lost at least 50 per cent of their income since April.

“Help Yemen now or watch the country fall into the abyss,” he implored. Lowcock also reported depressing economic news from Syria, whose economy has been devastated by almost a decade of civil war.

He said lockdown measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 was one factor in the Syrian economy expecting to contract by more than seven per cent this year.

BLEAK AND DEPRESSING: The diplomat added that job losses in recent months have increased unemployment from 42pc last year to close to 50pc now.

Diplomats say western governments are reducing the amount of aid they send to humanitarian crisis zones as they focus on getting their own coronavirus-battered economies up and running again.

Analysts say it has also taken the steam out of peace efforts as mediators

Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk

swap face-to-face meetings for Zoom and Skype calls. In January, at a summit hosted by Germany in Berlin, world leaders committed to ending all foreign meddling in Libya´s civil war and to uphold a weapons embargo as part of a plan to end the nine-year conflict.

But last month Guterres denounced “unprecedented levels” of interference in the war-torn country, where Russia and Turkey back rival factions. “Now obviously Germany´s focus is on propping up the European economy,” said Gowan, of the International Crisis Group think-tank.

Experts are also watching with close concern Lebanon, currently mired in its worst economic crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war, with runaway inflation and bank capital controls fuelling poverty, despair and angry street protests. “It´s a pretty bleak and depressing picture across the board,” a UN diplomat told AFP. “The economic fallout is just going to exacerbate conflict in those countries,” he added.