EpaperLHR_21-03-15

Monday, 15 March, 2021 I 30 Rajab, 1442 I Rs 40.00 I Vol XI No 256 I 48 Pages I Lahore Edition

Punjab goes under strict lockdown as covid-19 third wave intensifies g g

Govt baNs GatheriNGs, imposes restrictioNs oN busiNesses puNjab records 1,653 g NatioNal covid-19 traNsmissioN New cases — hiGhest rate climbs to 6.5pc; 2,664 New siNce juNe last year cases reported iN 24 hours LAHORE

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staff report

uNjab registered 1,653 new covid-19 cases on sunday, the highest daily rise since june, government statistics showed, the latest in a steady rise in infections in recent weeks after months of limited spread. the last time the densely populated province reported such a high number of cases was during the first wave on june 24, 2020,

when it confirmed 1,655 infections. the provincial tally now stands at 185,468, the government portal keeping track of the outbreak in pakistan showed. the majority of cases, 973, were reported in lahore, followed by 81 in Gujranwala, 76 in sialkot, and 73 in rawalpindi. in view of the third wave of the pandemic, the provincial government has imposed more restrictions in seven highburdened cities starting from monday onwards. the lockdown, which comes after a gap of one year, will remain in

force for two weeks in the cities of lahore, rawalpindi, sargodha, Faisalabad, multan, Gujranwala, and Gujrat. according to a statement by the provincial health department, the lockdown will restrict the movement of the people; there will be a complete ban on gatherings of all kinds for social, religious, or other purposes at any place, public or private; marriage and banquet halls, community centres and marquees will remain closed.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

coronavirus in

Govt’s climate conservation policies being recognised globally: Imran

ISLAMABAD staff report

prime minister imran Khan on sunday said that the environmental policies of the pakistan tehreek-e-insaf (pti) government were receiving global recognition. in a tweet, the prime minister said that the government’s green recovery initiative from the covid-19 pandemic and the climate action plan were being appreciated by the world. according to the world economic Forum

(weF), pakistan was building a greener future in three ways: it had pledged to source 60 per cent of energy from renewables by 2030, cancelled coal projects replacing them with hydroelectric power and created more than 85,000 green jobs from plant care to protection of forests. pakistan was also training 5,000 young people to be nature guardians, the forum observed. in july, the government, in a move to generate jobs amid the covid-19 pandemic while boosting conservation and curbing the impacts of climate change, announced the creation of the country’s first National parks service. under it, the country aims to get more local communities involved in running national parks and earning an income as they protect nearby conservation areas. the project aimed to create up to 5,000 new jobs, mainly for young people who will work as park guards and custodians, and boost ecotourism in the country, authorities said. the country was investing in green space and had attracted $180 million in funding and it was working towards the creation of 15 new national parks, the weF said. the government was also launching a $500 million green eurobond and will soon provide a

Pakistan

CONFIRMED CASES:

monetary valuation of its green space making its worth clear and easier to protect. “as the pandemic devastated the globe and climate change threatened our way of life, our relationship with nature demanded a rethink. one million animal and plant species worldwide were at risk of extinction,” the video noted. experts say pakistan is facing enormous environmental challenges. a survey conducted by the sustainable development policy institute (sdpi) found that respondents prioritised three key environmental issues: rising temperatures, water shortages, and air pollution. when Khan was sworn in as the prime minister in august 2018, he pledged to plant billions of trees to tackle the effects of climate change. malik amin aslam, the environment minister, said the billion tree tsunami programme would see trees planted nationwide, including in the four provincial capitals. that followed a vast tree-planting project between 2013 and 2018 in Khyber pakhtunkhwa (Kp) by the pti. “pti is a party with a green promise,” aslam said, adding that the combination of environmental degradation and damage due to climate issues was costing 3 to 4 percent of the country’s near-$300 billion economy annually.

Govt urges PDM to come to the table for electoral reforms g

Faraz says paKistaN's ecoNomy stabilisiNG despite coroNavirus paNdemic ISLAMABAD staff report

Following the victory of governmentbacked candidates in the elections for top senate slots, the federal government has urged the pakistan democratic movement (pdm) to come to the table for electoral reforms. addressing a press conference along with minister for science and technology Fawad chaudhry on sunday, Federal minister for information and broadcasting shibli Faraz said that the pakistan democratic movement (pdm) has failed in its politics and faced humiliation in both the senate chairman and deputy chairman election as well as the premier’s vote of confidence. referring to the opposition as “political orphans”, he

added that their anti-government campaign has run aground.

Faraz said that the country’s economy is stabilising and all the business activities are underway despite covid-19. he said that all the economic indicators are on the positive trajectory. he stressed the need for adopting precautionary measures to control the current upsurge of the pandemic. he said the process of corona vaccination is in progress on merit in punjab. “the entire world is seeing an intensification of the infections again. in pakistan, vaccinations are underway, and following the health workers, the elderly are now being administered the vaccine,” he said. he lauded the “tremendous inoculation

605,200

LAST UPDATED AT 7:29 AM ON MARCH 14, 2021

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

NEW CASES:

32

2,664

RECOVERED:

DEATHS:

570,571 13,508 SINDH:

PUNJAB:

261,179

185,468

KP:

BALOCHISTAN:

AJK/GB:

ISLAMABAD:

75,725

19,206

10,952/4,960

47,710

more inside

PM Imran convenes cabinet meeting to discuss PDM’s resignations, long march STORY ON PAGE 03

ministers flay pml-N’s latif for anti-pakistan remarks drive in punjab,” saying, “i would urge other provinces to also follow suit.” speaking on the occasion, Fawad said that pakistan tehreek-einsaf has two narratives; one is accountability and the second is transparency in the elections, adding that both are in the best interest of the country. he said that giving statements against the country due to failure in the elections is condemnable.

“Nawaz sharif should return pakistan’s money to avoid jail,” he said. he claimed that maryam Nawaz

wants to leave for london but that the government is not going to let her go. referring to the muttahida Qaumi movement’s (mQm) founder altaf hussain, who is residing in london on political asylum since early 90s, the minister said that “neither the mQm founder nor Nawaz sharif can return from london”. “those who want to follow altaf hussain’s path should remember the end of his journey too,” Fawad warned.

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STORY ON PAGE 02 in today’s issue

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Contact: 0307-7338168 irfan.farooq@pakistantoday.com.pk

02

Monday, 15 March, 2021

lahore

News

SeNAte SeCret CAmerAS: ppp expreSSeS CoNCerN over reCorD of footAge ISLAMABAD

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TLTP

AKISTAN People’s Party (PPP) leaders have expressed their concerns over a potential conspiracy within the record room of the National Assembly (NA), due to which the CCTV video of the assembly building could be destroyed to hide the issue of spy cameras found hidden in the polling booth.

The PPP leaders Faisal Karim Kundi, Senators Palwasha Khan and Rubina Khalid

expressed this concern while addressing a press conference at PPP media office Islamabad on Sunday.

Faisal Karim Kundi said that PPP has formed a legal team, comprising Senator Farooq Naek, Senator Raza Rabbani, Sardar Latif Khosa and Syed Nayyer Hussain Bukhari, to file a petition within the next few days on the issue of election of the Senate chairman.

“The fact is that Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani has been elected as Senate chairman but he was deprived of his victory as it was stolen. Presiding Officer

DNA SAmpleS tAkeN of SuSpeCtS iN lArkANA hoSpitAl rApe CASe: poliCe KARACHI: The Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) samples of the three men accused of assaulting a 25-year-old girl at the Larkana General Hospital have been taken, the police said on Sunday. On Friday night, the victim’s husband filed a complaint with the police and accused a doctor and his three assistants of raping his wife. “They gave her sedatives and then raped her during the operation,” he claimed. According to the complainant, the victim was undergoing treatment for her broken leg. The accused were taken into custody. While the doctor was released after questioning, his assistants were taken into custody.

The suspects were taken to the Chandka Medical Hospital for DNA samples. “The samples will be sent to the laboratory,” the investigation officer (IO) in the case said. A medical exam of the survivor was conducted on Saturday. The police are waiting for the test reports to come out, he said. In her statement, the victim told the police she was conscious at the time of the incident, Larkana City Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Ahmed Faisal Chaudhry. She further said she was able to identify the suspects. The police have sealed the operation theatre and retrieved CCTV footage of the hospital but there was no camera installed outside the operation theatre. An FIR of the incident has been registered under sections 376 and 34 [acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention] of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) at the Sachal police station. INP

NA Secretariat closed for two days in view of rising Covid-19 infections ISLAMABAD: As fresh coronavirus cases surge across the country following a third wave of the virus, the National Assembly Secretariat announced on Sunday a temporary suspension of business activities. According to a statement, offices of the secretariat will remain closed for two days, opening again on Wednesday. The announcement further said that all sessions of the standing and special committees and public accounts have been cancelled as part of the decision. The offices, it added, will remain closed until March 16. The notification stated that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) had been directed to disinfect the secretariat’s offices, whereas the staffers had been directed to immediately get tested in case of the emergence of symptoms. The officers concerned can ask the basic staff to rejoin the office from March 17, it added. Moreover, it has been made mandatory for all staffers entering the secretariat to wear a face mask. From March 17, the statement said, the secretariat will operate from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 2,664 cases were reported in Pakistan on Saturday. At least 53 deaths were also recorded, taking the total number of deaths to 13,487. The country has so far recorded a total of 603,546, with the recoveries currently standing at 569,798. INP

Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah committed a crime,” Kundi said.

He maintained that the government spokespersons are needlessly holding press conferences one after the other about cracks in Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), however, their wish will never materialise.

PPP, on the occasion, also expressed its gratitude to all the senators who remained steadfast and voted for Gillani as the PDM candidate. Kundi claimed that the issue of spy cameras was far bigger than the Watergate scandal.

He also alleged that Information Minister Shibli Faraz told lies about the country’s economy because the common citizens of Pakistan are facing poverty, hunger, unemployment and are forced to commit suicide.

He further said that there is a competition between Faraz and Murad Saeed over who can most use foul language.

Senator Palwasha said that all the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) spokespersons waste their time when criticising PDM because their own members attempt to contact the chairman PPP on

WhatsApp. These names will be disclosed at the appropriate time, he added.

She said that hypocrites and political garbage have been gathered in PTI and it has become a dump of political garbage of Pakistan. The government is planning to increase petroleum prices and people are suffering hugely due to the resulting inflation, she added.

The prime minister, who has taken a vote of confidence from the same members, who according to him have sold their votes, is now giving a lecture on morality, she further said.

Ministers flay PMl-N’s latif for anti-Pakistan remarks ISLAMABAD TLTP

Various ministers on Sunday criticised Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) MNA Javed Latif for his ‘Pakistan Khappay’ remarks, accusing him of issuing an anti-Pakistan statement.

Latif on Saturday had said during a current affairs show on a private TV channel that if anything happened to PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, the PML-N will not say “Pakistan Khappay”.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill said Latif’s statement had made it clear that money was dearer to the PML-N than anything else.

He stressed that those who talk against the solidarity of the country would meet the same fate that Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain had met, adding that Latif should apologise for the remarks.

“This Maryam Safdar sycophant Javed Latif has the audacity to threaten to break up Pakistan. Any fool who places loyalty to the leader above loyalty to the country is a disgrace & should be dealt with accordingly,” tweeted Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi.

Special Assistant to the Punjab Chief Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan lashed out against the statement, saying it is “the height of madness and shamelessness”.

“For this [statement] they deserve punishment, not forgiveness,” she

tweeted.

“The people who are against the solidarity of the country will be dealt with an iron hand as institutions and the state are supreme and no one will be allowed to utter any non-sense against the state of Pakistan,” Dr Firdous said while talking to the media on Sunday.

She criticised Latif for his antiPakistan balderdash, adding Latif’s statement has made it clear that PML-N has the covert support of Modi and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for its controversial statements against the motherland.

She also impressed upon Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to ban Javed Latif from attending talk shows on TV channels.

She asserted that the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a perpetual reality while characters like Maryam Nawaz will fade away soon, adding that hurling threats to one’s own country for some political purposes is tantamount to treachery which the PML-N should avoid. The special assistant said that no one will be allowed to mislead the nation and reminded the PML-N that the blood of countless martyrs is included in the foundation of Pakistan. She stressed on the occasion that land grabbers and gas thieves should remember the difficulties and sacrifices rendered by the Muslims of the sub-continent for eking out a separate homeland.

She pointed out a majority of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)

leadership is not ready to follow the scathing narrative of the Sharif family against institutions.

Dr Firdous further reminded the nation that PML-N minions used to hold Zulfikar Ali Bhutto responsible for the East Pakistan debacle and also held Zardari responsible for the broad daylight murder of Benazir Bhutto.

Mian Javaid Latif’s gibberish is, in fact, a narrative of the enemy vis-à-vis the state of Pakistan and, regrettably, the PML-N is espousing this agenda for some political gains, she said.

She appealed to the media and the citizens to totally boycott Javaid Latif and such obsequious sycophants of the Sharif family. She regretted that the Sharif family is ready to risk the security of Pakistan for its benefits and interests.

She said that PML-N is nervous as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to file an appeal against the “fake princess”.

“The PML-N is not a political party but a slave association of the royal family and the people of Pakistan are ready to get rid of them,” she said.

Dr Firdous said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) wants to empower small provinces and by giving priority to a small province for the post of deputy chairman Senate, PM Imran Khan has included FATA in the mainstream agenda. She said that Punjab is playing the role of a ‘big brother’ to other provinces and standing shoulder to shoulder with the brothers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Balochistan and Sindh.

PSP’s Kamal to contest NA-249 by-election

KARACHI STaff RePoRT

Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) on Sunday announced its intention to contest the upcoming by-election on the National Assembly constituency NA-249 Karachi (West-II).

The seat was left vacant due to the resignation of

Minister for Water Resources Senator Faisal Vawda.

PSP chief Mustafa Kamal and leaders Syed Hafeezuddin and Humayun Usman have received nomination papers for the election, scheduled to take place on April 29.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former finance minister Miftah Ismail and Sindh president of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Nisar

Khuhro have also received nomination papers.

NA-249 is considered to be the safest seat for the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) from where its leader Dr Farooq Sattar thrice returned to the national assembly and twice returned to provincial assembly seats. It is the only constituency in the defunct district south where the MQM-P continues to dominate the electoral scene since 1988, with an exception in 1993 when the party had boycotted the national assembly polls.

Majority of the population in this constituency of Memons, Marwaris, Ganchis, and Gujratis with a sizable number of Baloch, Sindhi, Lasi, and Urduspeaking people.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced a ban on transfers and postings of the government officials in the constituency, while the announcement of development schemes is also prohibited in line with the election policy.

The ECP has stated that the candidates can submit their nomination papers from March 13 to March 17, following which a final list of candidates will be displayed.

Scrutiny of the nomination papers will be held on March 25 while appeals against rejection or acceptance of papers could be filed on March 29 and a decision on these would be announced on April 6.

Candidates can withdraw their nomination papers

by April 7 and the election symbol will be allotted on April 8. Polling for the by-election will be held on April 29.

Monday, 15 March, 2021

lahore

pm imrAN CoNveNeS CAbiNet meetiNg to DiSCuSS pDm’S reSigNAtioNS, loNg mArCh ISLAMABAD

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MIaN abRaR

RIME Minister Imran Khan has convened an important meeting of the federal cabinet on Tuesday to discuss the recent Senate elections and the looming threat of en masse resignations and long march announced by the joint opposition under the banner of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).

According to informed sources, the agenda of the cabinet meeting consists of 16 points while the key meeting will also review the current political and economic situation of the country.

The prime minister plans to hold consultations with his cabinet members on the PDM’s planned sit-in.

The appointment of managing director

of National Book Foundation will also be discussed for approval. The

meeting will also discuss approval of the issuance of licences for prohibited

weapons. Approval of additional charge of Karachi Port Trust chairman is also expected.

Approval of additional charge of chief executive officer (CEO) of Sindh Infrastructure Development Company is also to be taken up while review of implementation of gas development schemes is also on the agenda.

The meeting is also expected to approve amendments to the Rules of Business, 1973. The decisions of the Cabinet Committee on Institutional Reforms will also be ratified. The cabinet will be briefed by the Establishment Division while the approval of guidelines for the use of Social Welfare Fund, 2021, is expected.

The March 10 decision of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) will be ratified and a briefing on the progress of appointment of heads of institutions is on the agenda.

Target of 10m jobs seems impossible to achieve: Asad ISLAMABAD TLTP

Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has said that it is the top-most priority of the incumbent government to check price hike.

Talking to a private news channel, the planning minister said that the devaluation of the Pakistani rupee at the international market is the real cause of increasing prices of edible items in the country, however, due to prudent policies of the government, inflation is on the decline nowadays.

He stated that food and beverages are becoming more expensive in the global market, and controlling inflation is the government’s top priority.

He stressed that the economy is improving, jobs are also being created, and the statistics have been running very positively for the last two months. However, he feared that the target of 10 million jobs might not be possible to achieve.

The minister said that coronavirus has downed the

global economy and Pakistan is emerging from this difficult time. The government is trying to create jobs.

Replying to a question, Asad said that the government had tried to bring reforms in the electoral system, but the opposition parties did not extend support in this regard. The minister vowed that the government

will continue its efforts to bring reforms in the electoral system to ensure transparency in the elections process.

Asad also said that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) candidate would have won the Senate chairman election if the opposition had accepted the government’s proposed electoral reforms.

He said that everyone must unite for the betterment of the system. He said the government cannot pass a law without the support of the opposition, legislation can be done through the legislature. “We need opposition for a constitutional amendment. The electoral reform bill was introduced several months ago,” he added.

“We did not get support from the Election Commission regarding electoral reforms. When the case was heard in the Supreme Court, it remarked that it would consider it for the next elections,” he added.

Answering yet another question, he stated that the provincial governments should hold the local bodies elections because it is essential for the development of the provinces. He said that local body candidates in Sindh do not have any authority.

SC to take up issue of delay in local govt polls today NewS DeSK A two-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC) will take up the matter of the delay in the local government polls on Monday. Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Sardar Tariq Masood will tackle the issue during the hearing on Monday.

They shall also take up the issue of the dissolution of local governments before the expiry of their term. In its last hearing, the SC bench conveyed its concerns over the dissolution of the local government system in Punjab prior to the expiry of its term. The bench summoned the Punjab advocate general to answer

queries in this regard.

The top court asked the advocate general to explain whether the majority of the members of a provincial assembly had the authority to dissolve the local government when those who are elected are their opponents.

The AG should also tell whether by not holding the local government elections within the prescribed oneyear period mentioned in sub-section (2) of section 3 of the Punjab Local Government Act, 2019 (later extended to 21 months) the dissolved local governments stand resurrected,” the order stated.

The provincial government has submitted its

reply with its justification for the expiry of the local government before May 2019, wherein it claimed that the Punjab government dissolved the local government “to ensure a level playing field for all prospective candidates in the upcoming elections” as well as “to eliminate political influence of any kind”. “[It said] the government may, subject to such conditions as may be specified, delegate any of its functions under this Act to an officer subordinate to it except the power to make rules, to suspend or remove a mayor or chairman or to dissolve the local governments.

Islamabad Security Dialogue to define country’s strategic direction ISLAMABAD TLTP

The National Security Division (NSD) is all set to host its first-ever security dialogue with an aim to define the country’s new strategic direction in line with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision of peace, regional connectivity and development partnerships with the world.

Prime Minister Imran will inaugurate the twoday (March 17-18) conference called Islamabad Security Dialogue and the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa will be the keynote speaker on the second day of the conference in which top scholars and diplomats would also participate. The summit being held in Islamabad will be live streamed to reach a wider audience.

The unique venture aims to bring together global and local intelligentsia to debate Pakistan’s critical national security issues and generate ideas to work towards combined solutions to complex challenges.

One of the key objectives of the forum is to include and engage the country’s influential research institutes in policymaking on domestic and international issues.

The idea of transforming the think tanks into policy hubs is to help make informed policy decisions. The dialogue also aims to help bridge the divide between university researchers and policymakers.

The NSD is organising the Islamabad Security Dialogue in collaboration with its advisory board comprising five leading think tanks including Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies (CASS), Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), Institute of Strategic Studies (ISSI), Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) and National Defence University (NDU)’s Institute of Strategic Studies, Research and Analysis (ISSRA).

The dialogue will bring current and former officials and local and global security and policy experts to discuss comprehensive dimensions of security, not only national security but also the economic, environmental and human security.

Some of the invited experts include former US ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations Director Dr Hu Shisheng, Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf, CASS President Air Chief Marshal (r) Kaleem Saadat, Commerce Adviser Abdul Razak Dawood, international politics expert Miles Kahler, International Crisis Group Asia Program Director Laurel Miller among others.

The Munich security conference inspired summit is envisioned as Pakistan’s leading intellectual platform to debate national and regional security challenges and contribute to the peaceful resolution of conflicts. PM Imran will also launch the first of its kind advisory portal of the national security division to bridge the traditional gap between public intellectuals and policymakers. “The NSD portal will allow national think tanks and universities working on national security to directly offer policy recommendations to the government and can be pathbreaking in this regard,” the official statement said.

News

03

iNDiAN troopS mArtyr youNgSter iN oCCupieD kAShmir SRINAGAR: Indian troops, in their fresh act of state terrorism in occupied Kashmir, martyred one Kashmiri youngster in Shopian district on Sunday. The troops martyred the youngster during a violent cordon and search operation in Rawalpora area of the district. A senior Indian police officer claimed that the youth was a militant and was killed in a clash with the troops. The operation was going on till the last reports came in. Meanwhile, occupation authorities suspended internet service in the district to prevent dissemination of information about the brutalities of Indian forces in the area. INP

police name suspect in rape-and-murder of 11-year-old The police have named Zeeshan, a neighbour of the victim, in a case involving the kidnapping, rape and murder of an 11-year-old boy in Faisalabad. According to the police, the victim’s family registered a kidnapping case after which police started investigating the matter and reported that the incident took place in Faisalabad’s Mamukanjan. The victim had gone missing from outside his house. Zeeshan, who lived in the area, has been named by the police as having been involved in the crime. According to the law enforcement officials, the suspect has admitted to being involved in the rape and murder of the young child. After murdering the victim, Zeeshan allegedly dumped his body in Saim Nullah, where Rescue 112 is currently searching for the body. Singer and activist Shehzad Roy reacted to the news, tweeting his disappointment over the incident.

“Man arrested for alleged rape and murder of an 11-year old boy in Faisalabad. Before punishing this man we need to get mental health professionals on board to understand this behaviour. We might save children by this intervention,” he tweeted. NewS DeSk

lady health workers continue to protest for higher pay The protest staged by lady health workers (LHWs) in the provincial capital continued into its third day on Sunday, wherein the workers reiterated their demand for an increase in pay. The protest is being staged on Cheering Cross, Mall Road. The health workers, hailing from different parts of Punjab, reportedly spent the night at the location.

Health workers are demanding a 25 per cent increase in salaries and an upgrade of the service structure scale. They have been protesting across the country for the past few years for various reasons, including upgradation of pay scale, regularisation of service and non-payment of salaries. NewS DeSk

04

Monday, 15 March, 2021

LAHORE

NEWS

Citizens disregard disCipline, Civility at Covid-19 vaCCination Centre in lahore LAHORE

a

ShAhAb Omer

COMPLETE disregard for discipline and civility was witnessed at the coronavirus vaccination centre in Lahore, where people engaged in foul arguments and tried to secure out-of-turn vaccination on Sunday.

Shaukat Khadim, a citizen who went to Expo Centre for getting vaccinated, told Pakistan Today that he found the arrangements to be unsatisfactory. He said that he visited the centre twice but had to return home both times without getting vaccination. He added that the administration is unable to control the crowd that queues outside the centre.

“There is a risk of coronavirus being spread, therefore, the health minister should improve the arrangements instead of making

PUNJAB GOVERNMENT EXPRESSES SATISFACTION AT VACCINATION ARRANGEMENTS statements,” he further said.

Similarly, another visitor observed the sad state of affairs and tweeted, “While Lahore Expo vaccination centre was well organised on the previous two days, today [Sunday] is utter chaos. People are trying to get in out of turn and no one from the administration is here to control things. Arguments and fights all around. Very disappointed.”

“There was a lot of crowding at the gate to the vaccination hall. People were pushing and trying to get in, which defeats the point of Covid protocols,” he added.

Mohammad Hussain also complained

Two women killed, 13 people injured in accidents in Sheikhupura SHEIKHUPURA: Two women were killed and 13 people injured in separate road accidents in different localities of Sheikhupura on Sunday. According to details, a Narowal-bound vehicle coming from Lahore turned turtle after its driver lost control due to overspeeding near Mehta Suja area of Narang Mandi. As a result, two women were killed on the spot in the accident while the driver was critically injured.

At least eight passengers were injured when an Islamabad-bound vehicle overturned due to reckless driving near Kala Shah Kaku Interchange. Three women among four people were injured in a collision between a passenger bus and a truck near Nawan Kot Town. INP

about the same. He said that when he went to Expo Centre for his parents’ vaccination, he returned home after seeing the crowd and the blatant violation of coronavirus standard operating procedures (SOPs).

“There are no arrangements to control the crowd at Expo Centre,” he said, adding that he took his parents for vaccination because the third wave of coronavirus is more dangerous than the previous two waves.

“People were not allowed to go in, and social distancing and face masks were not being ensured,” the citizen said. “If the city’s population and the current situation is taken

into account, people will not be vaccinated for the next five years.”

He urged the government to increase the number of vaccination centres to avoid overcrowding and to seek NADRA’s help to vaccinate elderly citizens at their homes to protect them from the contagious virus.

On the other hand, the spokesperson of the health department said that Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan visited the Expo vaccination centre. He added that Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department (P&SHD) Secretary Captain (r) Muhammad Usman Younis, Lahore Deputy Commissioner Mudassir Riaz, Additional Secretary Technical Dr Asim Altaf, Deputy Secretary Rafia Haider and others were also present on the occasion.

The spokesperson said that eminent

Punjab culture rich in traditions, deeply rooted in history: Buzdar LAHORE INP

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has said that the culture of the province is rich in traditions and famous all over the world as it is deeply rooted in history.

The chief minister (CM) expressed these views while speaking as chief guest at a ceremony in connection with Punjab Culture Day, held at the CM Office on Sunday.

The participants at the ceremony were wearing traditional Punjabi turbans while the CM, Provincial Minister for Culture Khayal Ahmed Kastro and Advisor to Prime Minister Barrister Shehzad Akbar also exchanged traditional turbans. Addressing the participants, the chief minister said that the Punjabis have their own unique identity everywhere they live in the world.

Celebrating and remembering culture and traditions is a sign of such nations, who took pride in their history, as cultural festivals reflect the identity and individuality of each region, he added.

Buzdar said that the government is promoting cultural activities under the new coronavirus SOPs for providing recreational activities to the people. Punjab is unique as it is the hub of multifaceted cultures. He further stated that love, peace, brotherhood, unity and tolerance are the hallmarks of the culture of Punjab.

He said that the purpose of celebrating the Punjab Culture Day is to promote love, brotherhood and unity. He added that only those nations flourish who promote their culture.

The culture of the province has colours of affection, hospitality and kindness. He also lauded the role of Directorate General Public Relations (DGPR) for promoting the culture of the province.

The ceremony was also attended by Additional Chief Secretary Irum Bukhari, Secretary Information and Culture Raja Jahangir Anwar, DGPR Saman Rai, DG PILAC Sughra Sadaf, Al-Hamra Arts Council Executive Director Dr Aslam Dogar, Pukar Executive Director Rizwan Sharif, Lahore Museum Director Ijaz Minhas and other concerned officials.

lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, and other 60-year-olds had expressed satisfaction over “excellent” arrangements at the vaccination centre. Dr Faisal got his father vaccinated at Expo vaccination centre, he added.

The provincial health minister spoke positively about the government’s arrangements and said that a lot of people over the age of 60 were getting vaccinated at the said vaccination centre. She said that the officers and staff of all departments performing their duties in the centre deserve appreciation. “In the last three days, more than 18,000 people over the age of 60 have been vaccinated against coronavirus in Punjab. The capacity of all government hospitals in the province has also been increased,” she said, adding that the Pakistani nation must unite to defeat the pandemic. “The best vaccine is being given to the people,” she further said.

One killed, three injured as passenger bus overturns in Khuzdar KHUZDAR: One person was killed and three others, including women, injured when a passenger bus overturned on the Khuzdar National Highway on Sunday. According to details, the driver of a Quettabound passenger bus coming from Karachi lost control due to overspeeding and the vehicle turned turtle near Zawa area. One person, identified as Juma Khan, was killed in the accident while Bibi Marriyam, Bibi Amaisa and Mohammad Ashraf were critically injured. INP

Man kills wife over family dispute RAWALPINDI: A woman was allegedly killed by her husband over a family dispute in the jurisdiction of Sadiqabad Police Station on Sunday, the Rescue 1122 spokesman said. Murad Khan, a resident of Dhoke Lalyal, quarrelled with his wife Lailama (20) over a family matter and beat her brutally. APP

Monday, 15 March, 2021

LAHORE

NEWS

05

GooDs Carriers announCe Protest aGainst KP CustoMs DePt

Punjab goes under strict lockdown as Covid-19 third wave intensifies cONTiNuEd fROM pAgE 01

pESHAWAR

The upper limit for outdoor gatherings in the rest of the province is 300 people for the maximum duration of two hours. A complete ban has been imposed on indoor and outdoor dining while only takeaway and home delivery will be allowed. The statement also said that there will be a complete ban on all kinds of sports, cultural and other activities and events throughout the province. Also on Saturday, the Punjab government enforced a smart lockdown in 36 more localities of three cities, including the provincial capital. The authorities suspect a new coronavirus variant, know as VUI-202103/01 and first identified in the United Kingdom, to be behind the sharp surge in the positive cases. The variants are mutant versions of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19, which has already killed more than 2.65 million people in the pandemic. While scientists say that mutations in viruses are inevitable, Covid-19 variants of concern such as those first identified in southeast England, South Africa, and Brazil have worrisome changes that give the virus advantages, such as increased transmissibility or reducing the effectiveness of vaccines.

INCREASING TRANSMISSION RATE: Meanwhile, the NCOC expressed “serious concern” after 2,664 new cases of the coronavirus surfaced across the country on Sunday, taking the national tally to 605,200. “A sharp rise in national positivity (ratio) is visible and is hovering around 5-6 per cent. Rising disease trend was a matter of serious concern,” the NCOC said through a statement. The nearly 6 per cent rise follows a drop in coronavirus positivity ratio to almost three percent in January.

According to the statement, 32 more people succumbed to the disease during this period, taking the death toll to 13,508. A total of 40,564 samples were tested, out of which 2,664 turned out to be positive, the NCOC said. The positivity rate of Covid-19 cases was recorded at 6.56 per cent, it pointed out, adding the number of active cases has surged to 21,121. 1,805 of the patients currently under treatment are said to be in critical condition.

A total of 570,571 people have recovered. The forum has called for immediate measures to ensure strict implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) amid the rising number of cases.

Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar, who heads the NCOC, has signalled the government may opt for another quarantine in coronavirus hotspots. “The third wave of coronavirus has started in Pakistan and lockdown can be imposed in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to curb the spread of coronavirus,” warned the minister. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has also extended the duration for restrictions imposed on inbound flights, which will remain in place until March 18, according to a statement.

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AzIz BUNERI

RADERS and transporters across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on Sunday announced protests against the alleged seizure of local goods by KP Customs officials and the imposition of heavy fines.

Peshawar Goods Trackers Association (PGTA) Senior Vice-President, Zafar Khattak, alleged that customs officials usually demand a bribe of a few hundred thousand rupees from traders and transporters to clear legal goods, while on the other hand, despite the completion of fencing

CUSTOMS OFFICIALS CLAIM TO HAVE TAKEN ACTION AGAINST NON-CUSTOMS PAID GOODS on the Pak-Afghan border, non-customs paid goods are entering the country “with the connivance of customs officials”.

Khattak said that Customs officials let these goods enter the country through Torkham Gate in exchange for hefty bribes after which all these goods are supplied to cities across the country.

“Sacks full of non-custom paid tea and mobile accessories from Peshawar Saddar are transported to other parts of the province through the same routes all

the time but officials ‘ignore’ it. However, they declare legal goods as noncustom paid until they are paid bribes,” he said.

According to sources, despite weekly off federal agencies officials at Azakhel Dry Port are clearing containers for Rs60, 000 per container on weekends, a practice which they said was damaging the national exchequer besides, promoting smuggling.

The traders demanded Prime Minis-

EU countries lose 5.7m jobs due to pandemic, study says

AGENCIES

Panasonic Corp’s outgoing Chief Executive Kazuhiro Tsuga said the company will need to reduce its heavy reliance on Tesla Inc by making batteries more compatible with electric vehicles from other global carmakers, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Govt urges PDM to come to the table for electoral reforms cONTiNuEd fROM pAgE 01

iSLAMABAd TLTP

The coronavirus crisis has had an unprecedented impact on the EU economy, as well as the labour market and society, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) said in a new report.

According to the agency, “There were 5.7 million fewer people in employment in the EU by spring 2020 than at the end of 2019,” with the jobless rate across the 27-nation bloc increasing from 6.6 percent to 6.7 percent over the same period.

In the 12 months leading up to spring 2020, EU employment declined by 2.4 percent, the weekly hours of those still working dropped by nearly one hour, and the share of workers employed but not working more than doubled to 17 percent.

“By July 2020, nearly 50 percent of EU workers had moved to exclusive or partial telework, opening up new labour market gulfs as the more highly educated and those in urban areas were better placed to work from home.”

Young people experienced the sharpest decline in employment, while prime-aged workers (25-54 years old) and older male workers were most likely to see their work hours cut. There were also significant differences in terms of working conditions between the member states, with France, Poland, Italy, and Greece hit hardest by the pandemic, according to the report.

“The 2008–2010 crisis saw the greatest losses in the middle of the

wage distribution whereas, up to Q2 2020, the Covid-19 crisis had impacted mainly on the lowest paid workers.”

Eurofound has projected unemployment rates to grow to 8.6 percent in 2021 and to remain at eight percent in 2022."Despite the broader impacts of the pandemic on living and working conditions and different sectors of the economy, these rates remain below the peaks experienced during the global financial and economic crisis of 2008–2010.”

Outgoing CEO says Panasonic must cut Tesla reliance as battery tie-up evolves MONTREAL

ter (PM) Imran Khan, FBR chairman, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) and Peshawar High Court (PHC) chief justice to take notice of the matter, ordering an investigation and assets of Pakistan Customs officers and personnel.

KP Customs officials on the other hand rejected the allegations, alleging that non-customs paid goods are being smuggled into the country through border crossings in Balochistan.

The officials claimed that they have taken action to recover non-customs paid goods. “Over the past week, the Peshawar region has seized various noncustoms paid items worth billions of rupees, including skim milk, pesticides and tea,” the officials claimed.

“At some point, we need to graduate from our onelegged approach of relying solely on Tesla,” Tsuga, who will step down after nine years as CEO from April 1, told the newspaper in an interview.

“We are entering a different phase and we need to keep an eye on supplying manufacturers other than Tesla.”

The Japanese conglomerate announced in November that Tsuga would step down in April after nine years at the

helm and that Yuki Kusumi, the head of its automotive business, would take over. Under Tsuga’s leadership, Panasonic has shifted its focus away from low-margin consumer electronics to batteries, factory machines and components. The company said last month it expects its battery business supplying Tesla to be profitable this fiscal year.

Panasonic has partnered with Tesla in a $5 billion battery “gigafactory” near Reno, Nevada.

Moreover, in reference to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Javed Latif’s comments made during a talk show, the minister said that, “We are not here to label others traitors; defeat or victory are part of the electoral process, but that does not mean that one should start talking against the state.” “Whatever Javed Latif was made to say has caused anger among the masses,” he maintained. The minister advised the opposition to choose “wise and experienced people” for their top slots. “Maryam and Bilawal do not have the experience [to lead the positions they are holding].” The opposition, he noted, did not have any principles to stand on.

“First, they said they believed in open voting when signing the Charter of Democracy, then they chose to oppose the same [electoral reform],” he observed.

Commercial activities in Lahore limited as Covid-19 third wave strikes All commercial activities in Lahore have been banned after 10 pm in the wake of the third wave of the coronavirus. Local media reports state that the ban would remain enforced until April 15. According to a letter issued by the deputy commissioner (DC) Lahore office, the ban has been enforced on the directions of the Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare.

Furthermore, theatre owners have also been directed to ensure the closure of their theatres by 10 pm to avoid strict action over the violation.

Holding marriage ceremonies in marquees and marriage halls will also be banned for two weeks while major markets will also close after Maghrib prayers. Milk, medical stores, and tandoors, however, will remain exempted.

Moreover, only takeaways will be allowed from restaurants. MONITORING REPORT

Stepping back from the abyss CITy NOTES M A NIAzI I am glad that we have stepped back from the abyss, and that we have not been faced with a situation where the controllers had lost control. The incident of the cameras was not so much a violation, as a sign that somebody was worried, that there was a worry that senators would not obey orders like good little boys. That was brought out by the Senate deputy chairman poll, where those who had merely spoilt their ballots went ahead and voted against Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri. Well, according to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), two things happened. First, Mian Nawaz came from London to plant the cameras in the polling booth. That should be seen on any CCTV footage that might be visible. Sec-

ond, those who chose to live by the sword of the secret ballot, also had to die by it.

Still, though Yousaf Raza Gillani did not become chairman of the Senate, even though he should have won, the bigger miracle is that he was a member of that august body at all.

The agencies must have had their confidence shaken, not to mention the shattering of their faith in human nature. I mean, what would become of this country if elected people were to make up their own minds? The cameras must be the result of nervousness, an uncertainty among the sensitive agencies, which bodes ill for the future of this country. And the reluctance of the seven who voted for Mirza Muhammad Afridi, to vote against Gillani, bodes ill for the future of the country. I mean, how is Pakistan to combat the machinations of India against Pakistan, if this is the support shown to the righteous by the politicians?

By the way, I wonder if Sanjrani is Waseem Akram-plus-plus, or Waqar Younus-plus? He has got to be virtually as impressive as Usman Buzdar. The two of them show that Imran holds the Baloch in a special place in his heart, for not only is Sanjrani from Balochistan, and while Buzdar is very much from Punjab, he is an ethnic Baloch.

But I wonder if there is much significance in both Sanjranis and Buzdars originating from the Rind tribe. The Father of the Baloch, Mir Chakar Khan Rind, Chakar-eAzam, is buried in Okara district, at a place called Satgraha. I wonder if Waseem Akram is a Rind of some sort? We have got among them Aftab Baloch, who played for Pakistan, from that ethnicity, though we are only now seeing a blossoming of the Adfridis. There is a strange clannish batting them, for Shahid, the former captain, has engaged is daughter to Shaheen Shah, the

cMYK

current standard bearer of the tribe, and the next garnerer of the youth vote. Of course, as batting goes down the maternal side, if one goes by the example of Inzamam and his sister’s son Imamul Haq or Vic Richardson and his daughter’s sons, the three Chappell brothers, Shaheen Shah’s son is marked out for great things, even before being born.

And what about the Muhammad brothers, whose mother, Amir Bi, had been a badminton champion?

The present gerontocratic gatherer of the youth vote, Imran Khan himself, shares this genetic predisposition, for two of his cousins (sons of his mother’s sisters), Javed Burki and Majid Khan, played for Pakistan, and even captained it.

However, while there was the victory of Truth and Righteousness in the Senate, there was mixed news from New York, where there is a sexual harassment scandal surrounding Governor Andrew Cuomo,

who had impressed because of his handling of the pandemic there. Imran has sympathy for him, especially since he is not being accused of corruption. Another person who should watch out should be another provincial chief executive praised for handling the pandemic, Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah.

Imran found him particularly irritating and could leave to get something on him. But sexual harassment? Well, that depends on what strategically and secretly placed cameras have found.

Of course, while the pandemic has raged here, the latest in the saga of the British Royals has been a chapter in the Black Lives Matter movement, where Prince Harry disclosed one of the problems faced by a white man who marries a mixedrace woman. His family asking what colour his child would be. I wonder what the equivalent here is, when someone crosses biradari lines?

Monday, 15 March, 2021

06 COMMENT

Dealing with inflation during the pandemic

Cancelling bail The NAB application seeking Maryam’s bail cancellation smacks of mala fides

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he National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has applied to the lahore high Court for the cancellation of PMl(N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz’s post-arrest bail on the grounds of her making speeches attacking state institutions. That would mark an extension of NAB’s responsibility from financial corruption to preserving state institutions from attack. It is true that Ms Nawaz has been very much part of the PDM campaign, and has been making speeches attacking the COAS and the DG ISI for interfering in politics. how this is inconsistent with her bail conditions with NAB, to which she has to report when summoned, is not clear. At present, she is not an accused, and is merely supposed to assist NAB with its enquiries. At her last summons, she did not appear, and at the one before that, she went with a crowd of supporters. It almost seems as if Ms Nawaz is being given a double message, even though it is none of NAB’s business to act as anyone’s messenger.

First, she is being given a warning that she should go easy on certain institutions, and second, that she should play a low-key role in the next move by the opposition, a long march on Islamabad. The second has become inevitable after the Senate elections, and Ms Nawaz was expected to play a key role in it. If the NAB application succeeds, she will be imprisoned for the very time that would count the most, for the long march must come before the Ramazan fasting begins in about a months’ time.

It is not a certainty that the application will succeed, for it seems that the superior courts are increasingly uneasy about the role NAB is playing. Increasingly, opposition figures are being granted bail, the latest example being Ms Nawaz’s cousin, Punjab Assembly leader of the Opposition hamza Shehbaz. earlier, Supreme Court strictures on NAB while it granted PMl(N) leader Kh Saaad Rafiq bail, did not cause NAB to change its modus operandi. Whether or not NAB is discredited by the present government’s use of it against its political opponents, it has made clear its intention to go after Ms Sharif. however, the operations of the court system are such that she might well get relief. however, if she is in jail during the long March, the application will have served its purpose.

The IMF must also issue SDRs

Dr Omer JaveD

‘With Western economies battered by COVID19 and central banks running out of ammunition, fiscal policy is the only game in town. This should be openly acknowledged, and fiscal rules should be rewritten to allow for more active counter-cyclical policy and a much larger government role in allocating capital.’ – excerpt from a recent Project Syndicate published article ‘The silent revolution in economic policy’ by Robert Skidelsky

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hIle the above is with regard to western economies, with far greater developed financial sectors, the same is even more important for developing countries, especially recession-hit economies during the pandemic, where inflation is at least equally a fiscal/governance-related phenomenon.

For developing economies like Pakistan, which are also net importers of oil, with substantial dependence of the transport and energy sectors on oil, having significant scope for inflation pass-through from the exchange rate channel, and with import bills containing a heavy chunk in terms of products related to the agricultural sector, the rise of oil- and food nationalism have built in strong inflationary spirals going forward. Add to this the heavy import bill, in the coming months and even years, in terms of vaccine purchase for a big population, will all have important bearing on upward push of inflation, especially given the strong presence of vaccine nationalism, and high patent walls for vaccine, both keeping prices of Covid vaccine on the higher side. having said that, being a developing economy with relatively much smaller level of financialization of the economy than in developed countries, and if repeated experiences of macroeconomic management in the country in the past are not to be ignored, then inflation should be tackled as both a fiscal and monetary phenomenon, since inflation in developing countries like Pakistan is at least equally a fiscal/governance-related phenomenon. This revision

Sugar prices rise Impunity last time behind new crisis

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hAT sugar prices are touching Rs 100 per kg, with the price reaching Rs 110 per kg in Karachi at the moment the highest, but as Karachi’s market sets the pace for the rest of the country, that is not at all a good sign. The increase comes even as the government failed to take any action against those who caused the crisis last year. While the government was careful to take credit for releasing the FIA report on the crisis, it was cavalier about taking action against those responsible, especially those who also happened to be government stalwarts. That impunity may well be the reason for the current spiral in the price of the basic food item, which is likely to lead to particularly painful problems for the consumer, with the approach of both the hot weather and of Ramazan fasting.

The price hike is occurring at a time when there is no new crop expected, and crushing is just over, and even though the government has allowed imports in the hope of lowering prices. Instead of having learned anything from last year’s crisis, it seems as if the government is content to allow this addition to the problems of the common man. While the downturn in the economy, partly but not entirely caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, has squeezed incomes, the inflation has been eroding what purchasing power people have left.

It’s not just sugar. Prices across a broad area are climbing, but particularly problematic are the increases in the prices of food items, of which sugar is important, but by no means the only comestible. The upwards climb of the sugar price shows that it is not just the supply of the commodity that must be fixed, but there must be proper punitive against those who profited from the scam.

Otherwise, there will continue to be scams, and the consumer will continue being forced to pick up the tab.

The government should realise that the sugar price is something of a symbol. even now, though over half a century has passed, it is still remembered that the Ayub regime was brought down by a minor increase in the sugar price. The government must not fool itself that this hike will have no consequences at the hustings.

Learning from Nixon The mikes’ discovery revives memories of the Watergate scandal

mOhammaD KhaliD Bhatti

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UST when we thought the prevailing political situation couldn’t get any more entertaining, Senators Mustafa Nawaz Khoakhar and Musadik Malik dropped a bombshell on Twitter with their discovery of hidden cameras in the Senate polling booths. The sting operation conducted by the two soon made it to the news and a new conundrum awaited the incumbent government’s response. The presence of secret taping devices and microphones during the election of the Chairman Senate is no ordinary offense. Similar tactics were once used by the leader of the free world and that too of the highest office—The President of the USA. Richard Nixon’s Presidency has gone down in the annals of history as one marked with deception, cunning, and impeachable offenses. The ignominious night of 17 June 1972, known popularly as the Watergate Scandal, has many similarities with the recent discovery in the Senate polling booths. On that night, five men were caught planting cameras and recording devices at the Democratic Party’s headquarters at the Watergate

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in traditionally monetary-loaded approach for tackling inflation is all the more important, given strong recessionary impact of pandemic on the economy— likely to push many below the poverty line, not to mention the general negative impact on businesses and employment– whereby the usual neoclassical/neoliberal recipe of treating inflation as primarily a monetary phenomenon, and targeted in a lopsided way, demanding unwarranted economic growth sacrifice for most probably short-lived macroeconomic stabilization.

While repeated recourse to this policy prescription has had only very limited and short-lived impact on curtailing inflation in the past, and has had severe negative economic consequences in terms of growth and poverty levels, any push from International Monetary Fund (IMF) – especially when Pakistan is currently under its programme – or from the ‘Chicago boys’ policymakers supporting the same austerity policies as in the past, would likely have dire consequences for the economy and poverty, already hit by recession; which requires stimulus– including significant and targeted subsidies– and greater governance/fiscal policy interventions for controlling inflation, than excessive use of the policy rate instrument.

At the same time, interest rate hike argument to induce portfolio investment, in addition to the misguided overuse of the policy rate instrument in tackling higher rates of inflation, should not be used to attract very fluid, hot money, at the cost of great misery in the real sector. here, the cost of adopting this path of building foreign exchange reserves should also internalize the negative impact on overall fiscal space in the country, especially at a time when greater stimulus and health sector related spending needs exist during the pandemic, in terms of increased interest payments on an already high level of domestic debt; especially after months of needed stimulus/welfare, and health sector related spending.

In the same article by Robert Skidelsky, while the need for understanding the importance of the role of fiscal policy was highlighted for western economies, all the more of the same is applicable for emerging/developing economies given a relatively lot less developed financial sector and overall greater governance issues facing economy. In this regard, he pointed out ‘Before the 2008-09 crash, many believed that macroeconomic stabilization was entirely a matter for monetary policymakers, and should be carried out by

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hotel’s building. This spying act was intended to dig out dirt on the opposition candidate of Nixon. What made matters particularly interesting was the fact that these five men were linked to the Committee to Reelect the President (CReeP), and also included serving members of the Central Intelligence Agency-CIA. What began as a mere burglary attempt turned out to be a job being orchestrated by the White house itself. Regardless of the evidence and a few headlines, Nixon emerged victorious in the 1972 election, and continued as the President for a second term. It was during this tenure that the proceedings of the Watergate Scandal began and tarnished Nixon’s reputation as President. What followed soon was the resignation of his Vice President Spiro Agnew when it was discovered that he had evaded taxes, and the infamous Saturday Night Massacre when Nixon fired the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, before he found an official at the Justice Department, Solicitor General Robert Bork, to fire the Special Prosecutor.

This extraordinary Saturday night of 20 October 1973 saw the resignations of Attorney General elliott Richardson, Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, and the subsequent firing of the Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. Public opinion took a radical shift against Nixon, especially after this high-level firing and resignations, which soon before the Judiciary Committee of the house of Representstives began condiering impeachment. Not only this but also the US Supreme Court’s subpoenas of Oval Office’s telephone recordings were turned down by the President, claiming executive privilege. All of

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independent central banks targeting a mandated inflation rate by means of interest-rate policy. This followed from the orthodox belief that economies were cyclically stable, provided that inflation was controlled. Fiscal policy should be passive, or even contractionary if spending cuts would boost market confidence. The belief in the superiority of monetary policy survived even the savage 2008-09 downturn.…

Although the combination of monetary expansion and fiscal contraction failed to bring about the expected recovery, belief in monetary therapy was still strong when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020. … In fact, the outstanding feature of Western governments’ responses to the pandemic was their untargeted character. … In the absence of stimulus, the post-COVID european and US economies are expected to have shrunk in 2020 at the highest rate since World War II, with a concomitant rise in unemployment.’

In addition to understanding the importance of relying more on fiscal policy, than on monetary policy to curtail inflation, especially in developing economies during the pandemic, and at least equally, in times when there is no recession, IMF should also look to allocate an enhanced level of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). This would help allay balance of payments pressures on developing countries, who need to balance higher inflationary induced significantly from the phenomena of triple nationalism – vaccine, oil, and food – and meeting stimulus needs for reaching healthy economic growth rates.

In this regard, the current IMF programme with Pakistan should be revised to accommodate the greater role of fiscal policy. Moreover, the IMF should look to enhance its allocation of SDRs to the tune of at least $500 billion for its member countries, at the earliest possible.

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

this pointed to the malicious intent of the President.

The proceedings against the US President had reached the Senate after having been initiated in the house of Representatives and Nixon was doomed to be removed from office, for it had become clear that enough Senators would vote him out. his prudent move of resigning before the decision also led to his pardoning by his successor Gerald Ford. According to Article 2, Section 2 of the US Constitution an impeachment cannot be pardoned.

This summary of events that are nearlyfive5 decades old -seems to be forgotten by many today.

The highest offices of the country, in particular, do not seem to have learned any lesson from the presidency of Nixon. The same instruments of spying have been used with no regard to the sanctity of the elections of the Chairman Senate. What the government should especially focus on is that the discovery of these recording devices actually led to the resignation of the President of the USA. This entire episode of Senate elections and for the Chairman Senate has been a black spot in the political history of the country. This is just the breaking of a political storm that won’t be easy to manage for both the Treasury and the Opposition. It takes two to tango and neither can be blamed entirely for the current dilemma. The PMl(N)’s and PPP’s blatant horsetrading in the Senate elections made the PTI explore alternate avenues to curb the menace in the elections for Chairman. Both were wrong in their methods.

We like to make comparisons of our country with the State of Medina and even launch campaigns based on catchy phrases that appeal to the masses.

Behind the smokescreen, an entirely different, darker image emerges-one that involves horse-trading, floorcrossing, dishonesty, lust for power, and spying. Are they trying to fool the people or are they the fools themselves?

This entire episode of Senate elections and for the Chairman Senate has been a black spot in the political history of the country. This is just the breaking of a political storm that won’t be easy to manage for both the Treasury and the Opposition.

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Monday, 15 March, 2021

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

Humanity towards the non-human hUMANITARIAN crisis A human is declared a human when he is blessed with humanity. The world can never be lightened up if it always suffers from acute humanitarian crises. humanity is not something shown to only homosapiens but to every living thing. A report has been declared by the World economic Forum (WeF), a loss of 83 percent of wild mammals have been caused by humans, and have cut down half the mother earth’s trees. The earth is going through a serious illness due to the brainiest species-a heart-wrenching fact, indeed. To only benefit ourselves, we tend to demolish the ecological system inviting more lethal viruses to occupy the earth. We, being humans, must think of our next generations by planting trees and being kind of animals instead threatening them with extinction.

Iqra KarIm TurbaT

Another East Bengal in West Bengal Northern Indian state poll

m J aKBar

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hRee decisions made by the British Raj, and one miracle by a Mahatma immediately after freedom in August 1947, have shaped the contemporary political map and mind of Bengal.

The seminal decisions were the Permanent Settlement secured by lord Cornwallis, in 1793; the first census in 1871; and lord Curzon’s partition of Bengal in 1905. A history of political infections is ancestor to the electoral shifts of 2021.

The Permanent Settlement, which partially mirrored europe’s serfdom, altered the hierarchies of power and impoverished the landless cultivator by the terms of revenue collection through a new class of Zemindars. The number of Muslim Zemindars in Bengal was miniscule.

The pre-British Nawabs tried to ease any resentment among hindu elites with accommodation in the administrative structure, and assuage mass sentiment with absorption into a common culture driven by the Bengali language and local customs.

By extension, Muslim rule also was diagnosed as an interruption to the golden age of India, whose revival became the objective of the intelligentsia.

The British scheme of partisan empowerment, in cyclical spells, succeeded in establishing a sense of alienation between hindus and Muslims even as it encouraged sharp competition on the basis of religion. By the 1820s the British policy of an unfathomable Great Divide had got off to a sprinting start.

The results of the 1871 census should have been boring. Instead, they were startling. Till then, no one knew what the precise hindu and Muslim populations of Bengal were. The first census of British Bengal revealed that Muslims were in a majority; their numerical advantage overwhelming in the eastern districts; and that most were peasants under hindu Zemindars.

It was an economic problem which demanded an economic answer. Instead, the British used these revelations to inject the spark of religion into the brushwood of nascent politics.

They recognized the implications, and with colonial speed institutionalized schism, diverting Bengal’s sentiments away from nationalism towards identity assertion.

The census of British India and its Feudatory States in 1871-72 found that hindus and Sikhs added up to 140.5 million, or 73.5 percent; Muslims were 21.5 percent, or 40.75 million. The other roughly 20 million were tribals, Buddhists, Jains, Christians, Jews, Parsis or Brahmos [the sect founded by Raja Rammohun Roy in Bengal, which believed in monotheism].

Bengal was, however, sharply divergent: hindus were only 64.5 percent of the population and Muslims over 30 percent. Moreover, the latter had a two-third majority in the east of Bengal. These Muslims were also converts from what were called the “lower castes”, which added another edge to their sense of social and economic deprivation.

What interested the authorities was the religious mix in districts like Furreedpoor, Dacca, Rungpoor, Pubna, Rajshahye, Tipperah, Burdwan, Jessore, Nuddea, Moorshedabad, Midnapoor [to use British spellings]; hooghly [with howrah]; and 24-Parganas, a district extending from Calcutta to the Bay of Bengal.

“It is remarkable that, of the 20.5 millions of Mussulmans in Bengal and Assam (forming the larger moiety of the Mahomedan population of British India), 17.5 millions are found in eastern Bengal and the adjoining Districts of Sylhet and Cachar, where they amount to 49 per cent. of the total population; and in two districts, those of Bogra and Rajshahye, to about 80 percent. In that part of the country they comprise the bulk of the cultivating and labouring class, while in Chittagong and Noscully [Noakhali], they follow a seafaring life; and it seems probable that their preponderance is due to the conversion of the lower orders from the old hindoo religion under which they held position of out-castes,” says the census report placed in the British Parliament. In Bihar by comparison, “the comparatively few Mahomedans, some 13 percent., belong to the upper classes as a rule”. Orissa was overwhelmingly hindu. The politics of Bihar and Orissa, consequently, evolved on a different trajectory.

The key to British intentions in Bengal lay in the phrase, the “bulk of the cultivating and labouring classes”. What they did not add was that the destitution of these landless peasants and agricultural labour could be directly attributed to the Permanent Settlement; instead, they suggested that Muslims had lost out because they had lost power.

It was a transparent attempt to convert peasant disaffection against hindu landlords into a political weapon that would serve a foreign master’s interests. The 1871 census fed directly into the most pernicious instincts of divisive colonial rule.

The British took three inter-connected steps between 1905 and 1909 to create a template for a Muslim minority phobia and embed dual communalism into the pseudo-democracy of British India.

In July 1905 they formed a new “eastern Bengal” province, with a two-thirds Muslim majority. In 1905, Dhaka became capital of eastern Bengal. hindus, enraged at the mutilation of united Bengal, re\fused to accord the usual address of welcome. The Great Divide deepened.

Partition done, the pre-eminent Muslim acolyte of the British in Bengal, Nawab Khwaja Salimullah in Dhaka, founded the All-India Muslim league on 30 December 1906. Then the Morley-Minto Reforms established separate electorates. Politics became firmly entrenched into religious grooves.

The 1905 partition, depicted in an iconic image of the severed body of Mother Bengal, provoked violent protests. In 1911, the partition was rescinded. But it left a scar.

For more than three decades the scar festered in Bengal, with the Muslim league as champion of separatism. In the 1946 provincial elections, the last held under British rule, the Muslim league won 113 out of 119 Muslim seats in Bengal, and Congress swept up 86 “general”, or hindu-vote, seats. Any hope of unity vanished with the violence of riots that contaminated Calcutta and Bengal after the Muslim league formed a government in 1946.

1947 was an epic year in the world’s history; the age of colonialism, which had begun in

India, began its retreat on 15 August with India’s freedom. Gandhi’s moral triumph had a significant consequence on Bengal’s demographics, and thereby on the future electoral map of the state. While Punjab witnessed a total exchange of populations, Muslims of West Bengal living alongside the border of what is today Bangladesh remained in their own land. Seven decades later, the largest density of West Bengali Muslims is in these districts. There is now an east Bengal in West Bengal.

There are over 100 seats in Bengal’s 294member Assembly where the Muslim population can become the determinant of who wins; and their percentage rises sharply in the eastern districts from North 24-Parganas to Dinajpur. Murshidabad’s constituencies also reflect this pattern, as does North 24-Parganas on the southern border.

In past elections these figures did not matter too much, for the Muslim vote followed the general electoral flow, whether to re-elect a government or defeat it. When change came in 1967 and 2011, it came because both hindus and Muslims changed their mind. Voters united to unhinge Congress in 1967. Now, a vote transfer is leaving the left in the lurch as well.

There is a growing and perceptible consolidation of votes around Trinamool Congress and BJP making the elections of 2021 a straight twoparty race. The alliance between the Congress and the left could well turn out to be a vacuous arrangement. Nothing plus nothing can only equal nothing.

There were good reasons why the left seemed impregnable for three and a half decades. The most important was the goodwill it earned among the peasantry when it first came to power as part of a United Front and then left Front, and ensured that the landless of the Permanent Settlement, got the land they were cultivating as sharecroppers. They did this forcefully, for peasants of all communities.

It did not bother the Bengali hindu or Muslim what the avowed faith of its ruling party was, as long as the people were left free to celebrate Durga Puja and eid. The Marxists were self-avowed atheists. For a brief while they flirted with ideological consistency. Very soon they realized that this was political suicide. The pre-Marxist arrangement was restored. A party apparatchik was given the responsibility of organizing funds for Puja pandals, and normalcy returned.

Shibboleths were honored. Oxbridge educated Marxists like the iconic CM Jyoti Basu dressed in a Bengali dhoti. Their peasant leaders like harekrishna Konar had slept on a rural charpoy.

The CPI[M] would not have been obliterated in 2011 without an electoral grassroots alliance across identity differences.

Perhaps the only section of Bengal’s electorate which lives a bit askance of its linguistic culture is the “Bihari” who speaks Bhojpuri or hindi or Urdu. This community, yet another byproduct of British rule, arrived from the middle of the 19th century as labour for British plantations from Fiji to Mauritius to latin America.

One part of the flow stopped, to work in the new jute mills and iron factories the British were creating. This vote has some impact in Calcutta and its long river-shore suburbs to the north and south of Calcutta, but it cannot by itself affect decisively the final tally.

Once again, in the 2021 election, Bengal is at a turning point. It will be fascinating to watch the results on 2 May. Mobashar Jawed Akbar is a leading Indian journalist and author. He is the Editor-in-Chief of The Sunday Guardian. He has also served as Editorial Director of India Today. He tweets at: @mjakbar.

Praiseworthy Papal visit The visit of Pope Francis to Iraq was quite interesting on various counts and has got the spotlight for good reasons. There have been various “firsts” quoted for the Pope Francis visit. In fact, he had spread the messages of hope and peace across the Iraqi region. his visit and consequent speeches have stressed the indisputable significance of various forms of religion and faith not to mention the harmonious things taught by various religious forms. In the world today, people and countries have been revolving around various issues head-on. Such small steps as a generous visit will surely instil hope into them all. No doubt, religion is beyond comparison and above dispute. The people from my native areas like Tiruchendur, Korkai, Tuticorin, Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu have been usually visiting their places of worship all for their good future and wellbeing. The time has come again to treat religion as religion and no further. let humanity be nourished in the realm of religion. Also, all the radical and fanatical activities should be shunned from the world.

P SEnThIl Saravana DuraI mumbaI

Environmental policies PRIMe MINISTeR Imran Khan Sunday said environment policies of Pakistan Tehreek i Insaf were being recognized globally. In a tweet on social media platform Twitter, he said especially the government’s green recovery programme from the Covid 19 pandemic and the climate action plan were being appreciated by the world. According to World economic Forum (WeF), in three ways Pakistan was building a greener future.

Pakistan had pledged to source 60 percent of energy from renewables by 2030. It had cancelled coal projects replacing them with hydroelectric power. It had created more than 85000 green jobs from plant care to protection of forests. Pakistan was training 5000 young people to be nature guardians. Pakistan was investing in green space and had attracted $ 180 million in funding and it was working towards the creation of 15 new national parks. It was also launching a $ 500 million green eurobond and will soon provide a monetary valuation of its green space making its worth clear and easier to protect. As a pandemic devastated the globe and climate change threatened our way of life, our relationship with nature demanded a rethink. One million animal and plant species worldwide were at risk of extinction. Investing in a nature positive economy could generate 395 million jobs by 2030, the WeF says.Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday said environment policies of Pakistan Tehreek i Insaf were being recognized globally. In a tweet on social media platform Twitter, he said especially the government’s green recovery programme from the Covid 19 pandemic and the climate action plan were being appreciated by the world.

According to World economic Forum (WeF), in three ways Pakistan was building a greener future. Pakistan had pledged to source 60 percent of energy from renewables by 2030. It had cancelled coal projects replacing them with hydroelectric power. It had created more than 85000 green jobs from plant care to protection of forests. Pakistan was training 5000 young people to be nature guardians. Pakistan was investing in green space and had attracted $ 180 million in funding and it was working towards the creation of 15 new national parks. It was also launching a $ 500 million green eurobond and will soon provide a monetary valuation of its green space making its worth clear and easier to protect. As a pandemic devastated the globe and climate change threatened our way of life, our relationship with nature demanded a rethink. One million animal and plant species worldwide were at risk of extinction. Investing in a nature positive economy could generate 395 million jobs by 2030, the WeF says.

SohaIl alI Khan ISlamabaD

Lockdown time The Punjab government has imposed a lockdown in seven highburdened cities of the province, restricting movement of the people to their homes, following intensity of the third wave of the Covid-19. The major lockdown will start from Monday (tomorrow) for two weeks in the seven cities after a gap of a year. During the first wave of the infection in March 2020, the government had imposed a complete lockdown across the province. The Punjab government repeated the practice in seven cities, following a massive surge in the coronavirus cases, primarily due to the UK variant of the virus. All gatherings, dining, movement inside/outside districts banned; markets to shut by 6pm in rest of province While issuing a notification on Saturday, the Punjab Primary and Secondary healthcare Department said a major lockdown had been imposed in lahore, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala and Gujrat, restricting the movement of the people within these districts and outside them. There shall also be a complete ban on gatherings of all kinds for social, religious or other purposes at any place, public or private, in these seven cities. All types of marriage and banquet halls, community centres and marquees will remain closed in these cities. There shall be a complete ban on all kinds of indoor gatherings while outdoor gatherings shall with upper limit of 50 people in the seven cities. anjum KhalID lahorE

Monday, 15 March, 2021

08 WORLD VIEW

The fuTure and pasT of decolonizaTion DECOLONIALITY IS NOT A SUCCESSOR TO COLONIALISM AND COLONIALITY, AS THE WESTERN NATION-STATES THAT EMERGED IN LATIN AMERICA HAVE PROVED TO BE. INSTEAD, DECOLONIALITY OFFERS AN ALTERNATIVE, ONE THAT IS ROOTED IN INDIGENOUS THOUGHT AND PRACTICE ABOUT NATURE, COMMUNITY, AND SOLIDARITY

NatioN, US

T

Arjun AppAdurAi

here is a well-established tradition of scholarly writing that treats geographical areas of the world as natural, preformed backgrounds against which historical events unfold. This perspective, with roots in enlightenment thinkers like Montesquieu, lives on in the work of conservative political theorists like Samuel huntington, for whom civilizations were built on permanent geo-ethnic blocs, as well as in the work of Marxist scholars like Immanuel Wallerstein, for whom center and periphery were products of long-term geographical imbalances.

This approach can at times have its uses, but it would also benefit from an understanding of the world that tracked the formation of regions in reverse: Instead of viewing these geographical areas as preordained physical realities, we view them as the contingent results of human actors, movements, and projects. Land and water may exist prior to human history, but regions and civilizations are products of human action. In this sense, history produces geography, not the other way around.

Two new books—On Decoloniality by Walter D. Mignolo and Catherine e. Walsh, and Out of the Dark Night by Achille Mbembe—help remind us of the history behind our geographies, setting the history of regions and continents back into the context of colonialism and empire. To do so, both books consider the different paths out of decolonization, only to find that neither the kind of nation-state that emerged out of decolonization nor the recent version of globalized capitalism that has come to define these nation-states has truly fulfilled the liberatory promises of decolonization. The strongest part of both books is their grounding in the areas from which they emerge—Latin America and Africa, respectively—and their common recognition that the heaviest price extracted by colonizers on the colonized in the past 500 years was not in the currency of labor and resource extraction but in the realm of knowledge, where colonial subjects were classified as the other in europe’s empire of reason. Both books also represent a radical critique of european dominion over the rest of the world through the various ages of empire, and both agree that materialist analyses of this dominion—by Marxists, dependency theorists, and world-systems theorists—have misunderstood both colonialism and the decolonization that followed.

But the authors also offer us very different arguments about the entanglement of europe with the colonies.

Mignolo and Walsh see a radical opposition, indeed a chasm, between decolonial thought and european ideas of modernity, progress, and freedom, with Latin American Indigenist movements as their model for where freedom is to be found. Mbembe, on the other hand, offers a much more dialectical, relational, and entangled picture of the relations between colonizer and colonized. he sees the future of Africa, and the world that Africa reveals and exemplifies, as lying in a renewed—and joint—effort by europe and its erstwhile colonies to enact a more inclusive, sustainable, and equitable vision of reason and humanity than was globally normalized in the past five centuries.

On Decoloniality is a collaborative work in which each author takes up a connected and complementary set of arguments in one of the book’s halves, the first by Walsh and the second by Mignolo. Their joint goal is to make the case for decoloniality, the idea that a different form of decolonization or anti-colonialism was and continues to be possible in the Global South—one that does not rest on Western forms of knowledge but instead on Indigenous epistemological styles and claims.

In making this argument for a politics of decoloniality, Walsh and Mignolo acknowledge that their biggest debt is to the Peruvian sociologist Aníbal Quijano, whose idea of decoloniality they use to develop their central object of criticism, what they call “the colonial matrix of power.” For them, colonialism and empire in South and Central America proved to be a unique mode of domination that rested primarily on the marginalization, subordination, and elimination of not just Indigenous populations but also Indigenous epistemologies and cultures. replacing not just native populations but also their ways of knowing the world was at the center of european conquest in the New World; their local traditions of reproducing natural systems and placing humans within a larger cosmology were gradually replaced by Western ideas of nature, culture, and progress, all seen as Christian, european, and white monopolies. It is this knowledge matrix that Walsh and Mignolo argue remained even when the colonizers left, and it is what they also argue a more fully emancipatory decolonization would replace.

Walsh is North American but has spent many years teaching and organizing political networks in Latin America, and she sees herself as more of an activist than an academic. In her chapters, she argues for political praxis as the critical site of theory, suggesting that any serious critical theory is a form of practice and, as such, has to arise out of concrete political movements against

the colonial matrix of power. her inspiration is a series of grassroots movements in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil, and elsewhere in Latin America that have sought to combine feminist, environmentalist, and anti-capitalist modes of thought to combat the ways of knowing that became dominant in the course of the european invasion of the Americas. To characterize this sort of resistance to the european epistemological order, Walsh uses the words marronage and cimarronaje, both terms that refer to the escape of slave populations in the Caribbean and elsewhere in Latin America. Walsh’s style of writing, her examples and models, and her approach to resistance are especially inspired by Black and feminist activists in the Andean countries and Indigenous political movements from across Latin America. her main point of convergence with Mignolo is their shared journey over three decades from a theoretical approach to colonial modernity to a radical identification with the Indigenous movements that have sought to transcend Western ways of understanding nature, race, and progress.

Mignolo, on the other hand, is Argentine and has lived and taught in the United States for several decades. his part of the book is anchored in relationality (vincularidad), a way of thinking that opposes such binaries as nature and culture, man and woman, science and religion, civilization and barbarism. Decolonization, in his argument, is a specific and flawed reaction to european domination, especially in the new nations of the post–World War II period that threw off the shackles of colonial political rule but, he argues, failed to “decolonize their minds,” to use Ngu~gı~ Wa Thiong’o’s phrase. Instead, they fell into the european epistemological traps of modernization and development. In Mignolo’s earlier work, colonialism is inextricably bound with what he views as the Western fiction of modernity. The main agents of this fiction and of the colonialism and empires that promoted it were those europeans, especially in the Americas, who imposed their own highly local versions of it onto societies and communities with very different views of these things. The fable of modernity was the unifying arc of this aggressive universalism, and Mignolo’s principal argument is that any variety of Marxist argument that focuses primarily on capitalism, class, and material exploitation misses the forms of power that came through this cultural and epistemological domination. To resist and replace it with another epistemological worldview, Walsh and Mignolo recommend decoloniality, an outlook that embraces Indigenous modes of thinking and rejects those Western expressions of modernity imposed on much of the world through colonialism and empire.

Both Walsh and Mignolo are strongly committed to the difference between decoloniality and decolonization.

For them, decoloniality is not a successor to colonialism and coloniality, as the Western nation-states that emerged in Latin America have proved to be. Instead, decoloniality offers an alternative, one that is rooted in Indigenous thought and practice about nature, community, and solidarity. In this way, decoloniality, unlike decolonization, escapes the twin traps of nation-statism and corporate globalization. For both Walsh and Mignolo, their idea of decoloniality stems from their insights into the history of Latin America, but it also serves as a model for the rest of the world—a model of politics that seeks to replace extraction from nature with harmony with nature, and hierarchy among humans with convivialitc. This vision is seductive, and it is hard to disagree with their notions of harmony and conviviality, but it also rests on a reversal of the historical impact of capitalism and colonialism. It seeks to return us to an earlier period of precolonial splendor, when what we need to imagine, as Mbembe argues, is an alternative future.

Out of the Dark Night is also concerned with how the european imperial project has devalued and displaced other, more emancipatory ways of thinking.

Mbembe’s focus is on Africa, and his conclusions do not endorse the virtues of a precapitalist or precolonial

world; instead, he seeks to imagine a future based on our less-than-ideal present. This future requires us to refashion the structures of race, power, and technology into a more liberated relationship.

Mbembe focuses on a shorter time span than Mignolo and Walsh do, covering the period from the late 19th century to the present, and unlike them, he is as much concerned with european rule in the many colonies into which Africa was divided and the anti-colonial struggles that led to the birth of today’s nation-states as he is with both the periods of colonization that preceded them and the decolonization that followed.

Likewise, Mbembe offers a different path out of the contemporary impasse of nation-state politics and globalized capitalist economics. For him, the truly decolonized future is one that sees contemporary Africa as the site of a radical rethinking of the relationship between master and slave, one that is grounded in the African experience of diaspora and mobility. For Mbembe, it is these processes of mixture, flow, and interaction that help Africa define a path toward decolonization that does not rest heavily on the platform of Indigeneity. These experiences, he insists, open the path to Afropolitanism, a politics that uses the history and present of Africa to think about global emancipation.

This vision of emancipation also has global implications. In this way, we encounter arguably one of the closest things we have today to an avatar of Frantz Fanon. Mbembe’s arguments stand out for the force of their claims, the combination of critical and visionary statements, their disciplinary range, and his distinctively contemporary voice. Mbembe has been known to Anglophone readers at least since the publication in 2001 of On the Postcolony, which introduced a worldwide readership to his arguments about race, “necropolitics,” and sedition in Africa since decolonization. Since the publication of On the Postcolony, he has produced a steady stream of books (both in French and in english) that engage with African aesthetics, the geographical production of the cartography of Africa, the racialized capitalism that exists there, and the histories of slavery, political satire, and national liberation.

A key element of Mbembe’s way of thinking, and one central to Out of the Dark Night, concerns his view of religion. Mbembe’s underlying intuition as a close but not orthodox reader of Marx and Foucault is that the modern marginalization of religion and the european amnesia about colonization are entwined in an unusual and surprising set of ways. Because the colonizers regarded African cosmologies as primitive obstacles to modernity, they were able to mask colonialism in the garb of a civilizing and secularizing process—one that brought modern knowledge to far-flung parts of the world, even as the europeans bringing it rapaciously extracted the wealth of the colonies and dominated its peoples. For Mbembe, the disenchantment they left in Africa also ties it to the rest of the globe—a world that is now increasingly defined by a borderless capitalism.

For this reason, the reenchantment of politics is also a rejection of the violence that came with colonial disenchantment, and Mbembe’s work, as a result, is suffused with the vocabulary of repentance, sacrifice, redemption, and renewal. The religious provenance of these terms is surely traceable to his own Catholic background in Cameroon, but it also leads him to an outlook that differs from Mignolo’s, which tends to represent Indigenous thought systems, movements, and practices as exemplars of a pristine and desirable model for decolonial thinking and european religious ones as alien and oppressive.

Mbembe has little patience for any cultification of the Indigenous, since this would mean a denial of the relational history of colonizer and colonized in Africa, which he regards as also being the ground of new forms of African creativity, conviviality, and social innovation.

In Out of the Dark Night, Mbembe weaves these two themes—the disenchantment and colonialism of the past and the creativity and capitalist corporatization of the present—together through a set of interconnected essays that explore Africa’s experiences of colonization and its history.

Colonialism and empire, he argues, were forms of racism, insofar as racism is a war between europeans and what they saw as other species. But Mbembe resists arguments that depict Africa as the destitute victim of european colonialism or as an aggregation of corrupt or failed states that have wrecked their own chances for a healthy postcolonial future. Instead, he argues that Africa is a continent rich in resources, epistemologies, and new modes of political association and that, in its openness to the global circulation of ideas, people, cultures, and goods, we can find an alternate modernity to the one we live in now. For Mbembe, what is at stake are not only the flaws of decolonization as it took place but also the possible paths to a sustainable planetary future that Africa exemplifies.

Mbembe has a deep interest in capitalism, but less in its economic centers than in its edges and extremities, where the bodies of enslaved people, the extractive potentials of the colony, and the excesses of bodily mutilation converge. In his view, the history of plantations and transatlantic slavery were not anomalies in our current globalized capitalist order but were integral to its formation, creating a racialized system of labor and exchange that afflicted all european empires from the 1500s on.

From the edges and extremities comes a new center.

The reluctance of europe and the West in general to recognize the horrors of this history, in Mbembe’s view,

can best be seen in France, where he studied as a graduate student and where the claim to the universal values of reason, equality, and freedom doesn’t extend to its own Black and brown citizens even today. In Mbembe’s view, it is in Africa that this hypocrisy can be addressed, by harnessing those ideas of nature, humanity, and emancipation that were born out of the encounters between colonizer and colonized and in the worlds that decolonization created. Mbembe’s Africa is where the newest technologies (digital, mediatic, and fiscal), in concert with its new forms of language, art, and philosophy, are being experimented with and innovated upon in ways that prepare this emerging Africa to be a model for the decolonization of the planet, without having to abandon or forget the colonial encounter.

Mbembe’s argument about a liberatory future that might emerge out of decolonization has the great appeal of not requiring the wholesale abandonment of the complexities of modernity. But he does not fully reconcile his optimism about African political and technological futures with his devastating observations about its racialized, nationalist, and statist present. Mbembe produces an antinomy between African histories and African futures that he cannot fully resolve. Mignolo and Walsh, rejecting the violence and brutality of the present and less interested in the future, don’t have to resolve this tension, since they seek to promote a return to the precolonial past. But their book also raises some considerable questions about the idea of decoloniality. The market is a mostly ghostly presence in their arguments, and we hear very little about the maritime explorations, oceanic trade, and slave-generated profits from plantation economies built on coffee, sugarcane, and cocaine that came to shape not just the region they are concerned with but the world as we know it. Giving primacy to epistemology and not political economy in defining the deep structure of colonial and Western modernity, Mignolo and Walsh also miss how contemporary capitalism, as much as (or arguably more than) modern Western epistemologies, has damaged the planet, deepened social inequality, and expanded the power of financial markets.

So where does this leave us? One book points us to a more desirable past, another to the future—but what about today? Mbembe does not have a gospel, whether about colonialism, power, or modernity, and in his flexibility, we do also find the beginnings of the future he imagines for us. One of the most striking features of Mbembe’s thought is its focus on the relational. In his accounts of the colonizer and the colonized, the state and its weaker subjects, the tyrant and the victim, the master and the slave, the executioner and the doomed prisoner, he is most concerned about the space in which relations emerge at the very extremes of society. Thus, the european West, and France in particular, in Mbembe’s view, have engaged in a massive effort to place their colonial subjects outside the space where solidarity, humanity, and conviviality properly belong. This politics of extremity that colonial projects and subjects find themselves in, however, has created new sites for invention and imagination, producing zones of créolité, in which the civilizing projects of the colonial master inadvertently produce new spaces of dialogue and creativity. According to Mbembe, it is our task to help fully realize them.

The emergence of a vast world of rich ideas, thought forms, linguistic styles, and technologies of the self in Francophone Africa is, for Mbembe, thus a paradoxical fruit of colonialism and the zones of créolité it produced.

Decoloniality for Mbembe is both impossible and undesirable, since we can’t move back to a precolonial period—nor, he insists, should we want to. What we need in a global order is an alternative form of global modernity. We haven’t yet realized this goal, Mbembe recognizes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try. Like Mbembe, I prefer to remember and revisit the colony, both because we cannot escape its persistence and because it contains the seeds of its own defeat.

Arjun Appadurai lives in Berlin and teaches at New York University and the Bard Graduate Center, where he has been appointed the Max Weber Global Professor.

ON DECOLONIALITY: CONCEPTS, ANALYTICS, PRAXIS by Walter D. Mignolo and Catherine E. Walsh OUT OF THE DARK NIGHT, ESSAYS ON DECOLONIZATION by Achille Mbembe

Monday, 15 March, 2021

BUSINESS 09

LAHORE

SugAR PRiCES SoAR in vARiouS CitiES

corporate corner

LAHORE LAHORE: Clothing brand Jerdoni launches flagship store at Alfatah Johar Town. Pr

Hisense Residential AC manufacturing facility in Karachi KARACHI: Tri-Angels Electronics Pvt. Ltd., Pakistan’s exclusive licensed company for the Hisense brand, has expanded its manufacturing capacity to include residential air conditioners. The facility has the capacity to produce 100K units of residential ACs annually with an investment of 1.3 million USD. The facility provides state-of-the-art testing rooms with latest technology equipment monitoring high ambient environment for best performance. It is already manufacturing and distributing the latest LED TV as well as Laser TV of Hisense in the country and with this current expansion, they have enhanced their product portfolio to provide consumers Residential Air Conditioner in Pakistan with more viable options ahead of the summer season. It offers air conditioners from Hisense which is branded as the Inverter AC expert in two categories which include Split and Floor Standing types. Speaking at the occasion, Tri-Angels Electronics Pvt. Ltd. CEO, Mr. Imran Ghani said; “Pakistan and its consumers are always looking for latest and innovative options when it comes to electronics. Here at Tri-Angels Electronics, it is our goal and responsibility to fulfil Pakistani consumer needs with updated technology. With Hisense’s sophisticated technology and production capabilities we aim to offer Inverter-Smart AC with wifi, solar air conditioners and Ifeel functions benefitting the customers across the country.” Hisense has always adhered to the core values of “Integrity, Innovation, Customer Focus, and Sustainability” that covers areas including multimedia, home appliances, IT intelligent information and modern service industries. Hisense has ranked first in China market share for 16 consecutive years. In 2019, sales share of Hisense TV omni-channel ranked NO.1 in the Chinese market. Press reLease

K-Electric committed to facilitating industrial customers after government’s decision to curtail gas to captive power plants KARACHI: K-Electric is fully committed and engaged with industry stakeholders to ensure fresh electricity connections as well as load-enhancement for its industrial consumers. The power utility has always prioritized its industrial customers and continues to do so following the recent decision of the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) to discontinue gas supply to captive power plants of non-export related industries.

It has been working round the clock to ensure that there is minimal disruption to industrial activities. As per surveys conducted by the power utility, the overall loadrequirement/load-enhancement of captive power plants that will be connected to the grid is around 747 MW, spread across 743 customers. More than 500 customers have already been contacted by the power utility for load requirements amounting to around 300 MW. Permission for survey for load-requirement or load-enhancement is still awaited from around 100 customers. The power utility’s Network Planning team has charted out a detailed plan to highlight the captive requirement of industrial zones and the investment required to facilitate this requirement. Press reLease

S

sTaFF rePOrT

UGAR prices across the country have surged to Rs100/kg or more in various cities of the country, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Sunday.

According to PBS data, sugar is being sold at the highest price, Rs110 per kg, in Karachi while the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi are following at Rs105 per kg. In six cities across the country, the price of sugar has risen to Rs100/kg, the PBS said.

In Quetta, Bahawalpur, Multan, Peshawar and Sialkot, the price of sugar has reached Rs100 per kg while it is being sold for Rs98-100 per kg in Hyderabad. In Faisalabad, it is being sold for Rs98 per kg.

The average price of sugar throughout the country has reached Rs98 per kg.

Similarly, in Khuzdar, sugar is being sold for Rs97 per kg while in Sargodha it is being sold for Rs96 per kg.

In Sukkur, the price of sugar is Rs98 per kg, in Larkana Rs95 per kg while in

GOVT IN JAN HAD INFORMED NPMC OF TAKING STRICT ACTION AGAINST MIDDLEMEN IN SUGARCANE MARKET Bannu is it being sold for Rs95 per kg.

Earlier on January 11, this publication had reported that differences among sugar mills, farmers and the authorities remained unaddressed, which may cause a further jump in the commodity’s price.

During a meeting of the Sugar Advisory Board, sugar millers expressed anger and frustration over the failure of the government to ensure a smooth supply of sugarcane on the support price of Rs200 per 40 kilograms and indicated that if the government failed in materialising its commitment, the country may see an increase in the price of sugar in the coming weeks.

The industries ministry made the calculations that the retail price of sugar should be between Rs75 and 80, based on cane price at Rs200 per maund.

Federal Minister of Industries and Production Hammad Azhar had informed the meeting that if the provin-

cial authorities fail to reach any consensus with the sugar mills, there will be no option but to import either raw sugar for processing at the mills or import refined sugar and sell it at subsidised rates to consumers through utility stores.

Meanwhile, the Sindh cane commissioner had acknowledged that rates were over Rs300 in some parts of the province due to the shortage of cane.

According to sources, the increasing role of middlemen after a new law under which all payments are needed to be made through banks contributes as one of the causes of the jump in sugar prices.

The advisory board’s meeting was informed that a new class of middlemen was present near sugar mills because the new law required the sellers to have a bank account and most of the farmers don’t have it.

Hakim Ali Baloch, a farmer, claimed that bank account was an issue and that the new regulations require that

FBR submits tax exemptions withdrawal bill in NA secretariat The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) submitted a bill to the National Assembly (NA) secretariat on Saturday, proposing a string of amendments to withdraw around 36 tax exemptions from July 1 onward in a bid to meet a prior action for the revival of the $6 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.

According to a local media report, the bill, which will be called the income tax (second amendment) bill 2021, will be introduced in the next session of the lower house, whenever convened.

The bill also seeks to streamline the tax regime for non-profit organisations, listing of firms in the stock market, exemptions for oil refineries, special economic zones (SEZs) being set up under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

Certain penalties in the bill have also been revised for those who did not file their income tax returns.

Similarly, a new section introduced in the income tax ordinance

proposes to allow 100pc tax credit on incomes of persons from exports of computer software or IT services or IT enabled services until June 2025 whereas there will be no turnover tax for the IT sector anymore.

Meanwhile, the information technology sector has deplored the FBR’s recent proposal regarding the withdrawal of income tax exemption on the export of IT services, and its replacement with a Tax Credit Scheme, wherein tax credit is subject to fulfilment of many conditions such as filing of tax withholding statements and sales tax returns.

P@SHA, the official representative of the IT industry said that the recent growth pattern, complemented by several supporting initiatives from the PM Office, has triggered a phenomenal interest from global investors towards Pakistan, adding that the existing tax incentives have been instrumental in the competitiveness of the IT industry viz-a-viz traditional competitors like India, Bangladesh,

Philippines and Vietnam.

“However, the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) approach towards tax treatment has been detrimental to the growth of the IT sector as its policies aim solely at raising revenue by all means,” the statement read.

“By coming up with these conditions, FBR appears to have ignored the fact that export of IT services is exempt from sales tax, and hence there appears no justification to ask the industry to file sales tax returns.”

The association contended that sales tax on services was a provincial subject and was, therefore, outside the FBR’s domain. “Such abrupt changes in tax policies will not only scare away new entrants/investors but will cause colossal damage to the growth trajectory of existing players,” the statement read.

P@SHA urged the prime minister to take action, invite industry stakeholders to discuss their concerns and discourage any such proposals that could hamper industry growth. BUsINess DesK

PBF demands uniform wheat support price across country LAHORE: The Pakistan Businesses Forum (PBF) has said that three different prices for purchasing wheat have been set, which would cause confusion among growers, calling for the Centre to set a uniform wheat support price throughout the country.

For the coming wheat crop, the procurement price set by the federal government is Rs1,650 per 40-kg; the Punjab government has set Rs1,800 per 40-kg; while the Sindh government has set the price at Rs2,000 per 40-kg.

PBF Vice President, Ahmad Jawad, in a statement issued on Sunday, said that to avoid a crisis-like situation that struck the market last year, demanded the government to design a comprehensive plan for wheat procurement and that too in a timely fashion.

“Growers must be provided bags to avoid crisis as the harvest has already started in early cultivation areas,” he added. “These variations in prices leave room for traders to manipulate the market, especially in the absence of timely procurement by the government,” he said, adding that consumers do not have a choice and might stay vulnerable in terms of affordability, as factors responsible for the wheat crisis are not just economic, but rather political.

He also said that economic managers in Pakistan need to come up with a unified agriculture policy to tackle the cost of inputs, as well as the burden on the national exchequer when it comes to importing important produce like wheat flour, sugar, and cotton. TLTP

‘Slow Gulf economic recovery to have long-lasting impact on banks’ DUBAI aGeNCIes

Economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis in the oil-rich Gulf region will be slow, weighing on the region’s banking sector, S&P Global Ratings said.

Gulf countries fell into a sharp recession last year as the COVID-19 pandemic affected vital non-oil economic sectors such

“Cane Purchase Receipts (CPR) are to be issued to growers by the mills and amount to be paid through banks”.

“Many people do not have an account because the bank is around 20 kilometres away,” he added.

Moreover, the All Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) had also expressed concerns that the sugarcane was not supplied to mills at the official support price, demanding the government to bring down sugar prices by abolishing 17 per cent sales tax on refined sugar, just like in the case of flour and pulses.

Two days later, the government had informed the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) that production of sugar is likely to increase this year due to improved sugarcane crushing activity, which would release pressure on the upward price trend.

A Punjab government official had told a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, to review the availability of essential commodities, including wheat, sugar, eggs, edible oil, etc., that strict action has been taken against the role of middlemen in the sugarcane market as directed by NPMC.

as hospitality, commerce, and real estate, while lower oil prices hurt state revenues.

Events like Dubai Expo this year and the World Cup in Qatar next year, as well as a rebounding oil market, will provide some support but growth will remain below historical levels, S&P said.

“Indeed, most countries will not return to 2019 nominal GDP before 2023, with an even longer road for Saudi Arabia,” it said

in a report on Sunday.

Recovery in sectors such as aviation, tourism, and real estate will take time, and while vaccination programmes are progressing, there are downside risks due to mutations in the novel coronavirus.

These factor swill weigh on bank’s asset quality with non-performing loans expected to increase, as well as on profitability, with some banks expected to post

CMYK

losses in 2021.

“We think that the measures implemented by most central banks in the region are supportive of liquidity but do not remove or reduce credit risk from the balance sheet of banks (yet),” said S&P. “Cost of risk will remain elevated following a jump of 60% in 2020 as banks set aside provisions in preparation for more stress.”

Political stability, banks’ dividends likely to keep PSX green KARACHI TLTP

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) is likely to maintain positive momentum gained on Friday last in the coming sessions this week due to a boost to investors’ confidence after the government managed to crush political instability through its victory in the Senate election for the slots of chairman and deputy chairman. However, the rising Covid-19 cases as well as oil prices are factors that could keep market performance in check. One of the other positive points for the PSX this week is that the benchmark KSE-100 Index shed 2.049.27 points last week due to political instability, as the market opened at 45,837.35 points on Monday last and closed at 43,788.08 points on Friday last. This huge difference of over 2,000 points is despite the fact that the PSX turned bullish on Friday last with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 1,008.32 points. So, there seems to be enough for the investors to turn back to the bourse. Again, rupee stability has been witnessed for the last few weeks and the rupee has gained Rs1.94 against the US dollar since February 19. The US dollar was closed at Rs157.14 on Friday last. Likewise, the foreign exchange reserves held by the country increased by $24.4 million (+0.12 per cent) to $20.16 billion by the week ended March 05, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday. Similarly, the foreign remittances continued exceptional performance in the month of February 2021, reaching $2.26 billion, showing a growth of 24.2 per cent as compared to remittances in February 2020, the SBP announced last week.

The banking sector, which is the largest sector in terms of market capitalisation in the PSX, will be in the limelight this week as the closing period for a dividend payment of many banks will occur this week. The benchmark KSE-100 index of the PSX is currently trading at a PER of 6.7x (2021) compared to the Asia Pacific regional average of 17.4x and while offering DY of 7.1 per cent versus 4.5 per cent offered by the region. TLTP

Monday, 15 March, 2021

10 FOREIGN NEWS

LAHORE

Five killed in MYanMar proTesTs, civilian leader saYs people sHould deFend THeMselves YANGON

s

AGENCIES

ECURITY forces opened fire on demonstrators in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon on Sunday and at least three people were killed as protests against the military’s seizure of power continued for a sixth week, witnesses and domestic media said.

Video showed protesters holding handmade shields and wearing helmets as they confronted security forces in the Hlaingthaya district of the city. Plumes of black smoke

rose over the area.

Chinese state-owned broadcaster CGTN said two Chinese-funded clothes factories in the district were set ablaze by people who arrived on motorcycles, armed with iron rods, axes and gasoline.

More than 80 people had been killed and over 2,100 arrested as of Saturday in widespread protests against the military coup on February 1, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group said.

Mahn Win KhaingThan, the acting leader of Myanmar’s parallel civilian government, addressed the public via Facebook

armed men attack another nigerian school, as 39 students still missing KADUNA

on Saturday, saying, “This is the darkest moment of the nation and the moment that the dawn is close.”

The Irrawaddy media group said three people were killed when police opened fire on protesters in Yangon on Sunday. Myanmar Now said 15 people were also injured.

At least two people were killed elsewhere in the Southeast Asian nation, a day after Mahn Win KhaingThan, who is on the run along with most senior officials from the ruling National League for Democracy Party, said the civilian government would seek to give people the legal right to defend

themselves. A young man was shot and killed in the town of Bago, near Yangon, witnesses and domestic media said. The Kachin Wave media outlet said another protester was killed in the town of Hpakant, in the jade mining area in the northeast.

The Monywatownship in central Myanmar declared it had formed its own local government and police force.

In Yangon, hundreds of people demonstrated in different parts of the city after putting up barricades of barbed wire and sandbags to block security forces.

In one area, people staged a sit-in protest

under sheets of tarpaulin rigged up to protect them from the harsh midday sun. “We need justice,” they chanted.

At least 13 people were killed on Saturday, one of the bloodiest days since the coup, witnesses and domestic media said.

“They are acting like they are in a war zone, with unarmed people,” said Myat Thu, an activist in the city of Mandalay.

A spokesman for the junta did not answer phone calls from Reuters seeking comment. Junta-run media MRTV’s evening news broadcast on Saturday labelled the protesters “criminals” but did not elaborate.

Iranian investigator says Israel likely behind container ship attack DUBAI

AGENCIES

AGENCIES

Armed men attempted to kidnap more students in Nigeria’s Kaduna state overnight on Sunday, a state government official said, as 39 others from an earlier attack remain missing. Attacks by armed gangs, usually referred to as bandits, have intensified across northwest Nigeria in recent years. Four school kidnappings since December have provoked nationwide outrage. Some 39 students, including a pregnant woman, are still missing from Thursday’s abduction from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, in northwest Nigeria. Samuel Aruwan, Kaduna state commissioner of internal security and home affairs, said police, army and others had repelled attacks on another school and at a local government office near Kaduna airport. “The Kaduna state government extends its unequivocal solidarity to the military, police, Department of State Services and other security agencies, whose swift intervention prevented the bandits from abducting more persons,” Aruwan said. All 307 students at the Government Science Secondary School in Ikara were accounted for, Aruwan said, adding that the army and air force also repelled an attack on senior staff quarters in Ifira village in Igabi local government area. Aruwan did not refer to a video that circulated on Saturday of missing students from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, showing them being beaten and cowering. In that video, a college student said their captors wanted a 500 million naira ($1.3 million) ransom. “As a government, our focus is on getting back our missing students and preventing further episodes of school abductions,” Aruwan said. President Muhammadu Buhari, speaking in a video message posted on Twitter on Sunday, ordered states to tackle security issues at every level and said military service chiefs would quickly address broader security issues. “We are going to be very hard on the criminals,” he said, adding that “confidence must be restored in governance within the next six weeks.”

Israel is highly likely to have been behind an attack in the Mediterranean this week that damaged an Iranian container ship, an Iranian investigator said on Saturday, Iran’s media reported.

The Shahr-e-Kord vessel was hit by an explosive object which caused a small fire, but no one on board was hurt, Iran said on Friday. Two maritime security sources said initial indications suggested the ship was intentionally targeted by an unknown source.

“Considering the geographical location and the way the ship was targeted, one of the strong possibilities is

that this terrorist operation was carried out by the Zionist regime (Israel),” an unnamed member of the Iranian team investigating the incident was quoted as saying by semi-official Nournews.

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz declined to comment directly about the incident when addressing a webinar on Saturday hosted by his Blue and White party, but he alleged Iran regularly sent weapons to its proxies in the region.

“We foil arms supplies and other things relating to operational development and military capabilities by air, sea and land,” Gantz said. “And by this, I am not saying whether we did or did not do this or that.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said reports confirmed an act of sabotage in vio-

lation of international law, state media said. “Measures to identify the perpetrators of this sabotage action are on the agenda,” he said. The Iranian investigator said explosive projectiles could have been fired from an aerial vehicle, hitting containers on the ship’s deck.

Iran’s state-run shipping company IRISL said it would take legal action to identify the perpetrators of the attack, which it called terrorism and naval piracy.

The incident came two weeks after an Israeli-owned ship the MV HELIOS RAY was hit by an explosion in the Gulf of Oman.

The cause was not immediately clear, although a US defence official said the blast left holes in both sides of the vessel’s hull. Israel accused Iran of being behind the explosion, a charge the latter denied.

London police face backlash after dragging mourners from vigil for murdered woman LONDON AGENCIES

London police faced a backlash from the public and politicians on Sunday for their heavy-handed tactics in breaking up an outdoor vigil for a woman whose suspected killer is a police officer.

The disappearance of Sarah Everard, 33, as she walked home on the evening of March 3, has provoked a huge outpouring of grief and dismay in Britain at the failure of police and wider society to tackle violence against women. Police had denied permission for a vigil on Saturday evening at London’s Clapham Common, near where Everard was last seen alive, citing regulations aimed at

preventing the spread of coronavirus.

But hundreds of people, mostly women, gathered peacefully at the park in defiance of the ban to pay their respects to Everard throughout the day, including Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge.

Late on Saturday dozens of police officers marched into the crowd to shouts of “shame on you”. Scuffles broke out and officers dragged women away from the scene. “Last night people were very, very upset, there was a great deal of emotion, completely understandably, and the police, being as they are operationally independent, will be having to explain that to the Home Secretary,” safeguarding minister Victoria Atkins told Sky News.

Home Secretary Priti Patel, the minister in charge of policing, described footage of the incident as “upsetting” and said

Houthi missile attack kills three children in Yemen's Taiz, residents say ADEN AGENCIES

Yemen’s Houthi forces fired a missile on Sunday at a school in the Taiz region where pro-government forces are stationed, killing 15 soldiers, as well as three children who were nearby, two residents and military sources said. The residents told Reuters the children two brothers and their relative - were in the area when the missile struck the school in Kadha district in the west of Taiz governorate. Two military sources said 15 soldiers were killed. They said the school had previously been used by Houthi forces and was taken over after pro-government fighters seized Kadha last week. A Houthi official did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Fighting has recently escalated in the disputed Taiz in southwestern Yemen between fighters loyal to the internationally recognised government and the Houthi movement which ousted it from power in the capital Sanaa in 2014. The clashes in Taiz and Marib in the north come as the United States and the United Nations intensify efforts for a ceasefire between a Saudiled coalition and the Houthis to revive UN-sponsored peace talks stalled since late 2018. The coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 against the Houthis but the war, which has killed tens of thousands of people, has been in a military stalemate for years.

she had asked police for a full report on what happened. An image of officers handcuffing a woman as she lay on the floor was widely shared and condemned on social media.

The woman, Patsy Stevenson, told LBC radio: “The main point that everyone was trying to get across when everything happened is that women don’t feel safe, they don’t feel safe walking down a street and that’s the bare minimum we should feel the freedom to do.”

She said she was fined 200 pounds for breaching Covid regulations.

A steady flow of quiet mourners visited the site of the vigil on Sunday, placing flowers around a bandstand.

“I feel very angry that they think that they have the right to dictate how we mourn and how we react,” 24-year old student Lilith Blackwell told Reuters at

the bandstand. Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball defended the officers’ actions and said they were faced with a very difficult decision.

“Hundreds of people were packed tightly together, posing a very real risk of easily transmitting Covid-19,” she said. A police officer charged with Everard’s murder and appeared in court on Saturday. Police discovered her body on Wednesday in woodland about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of London. The court heard that her body was found in a builder’s refuse bag, and identified using dental records. Everard’s murder has resonated with woman across the country, prompting thousands to share on social media their experiences of violence and sexual assaults perpetrated by men, and vividly describe the daily fear they feel.

Monday, 15 March, 2021

SPORTS 11

LAHORE

RAshiD's 11 wickets help AfghAnistAn level seRies AgAinst ZiMBABwe

ABU DHABI

A

AGENCIES

FGHANISTAN leg-spinner Rashid Khan picked up his second 10-wicket haul in Test cricket to help his side beat Zimbabwe by six wickets for a series-levelling win in the second Test in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

Afghanistan, who played their first Test against India in 2018, chased down a target of 108 against the African nation in the final session of the match to square the two-

Basilashvili beats Bautista Agut to win Qatar Open title

AFGHANISTAN 545 FOR 4 DEC (SHAHIDI 200 NOT OUT, AFGHAN 164, ZADRAN 72) innings. That was built on the first match series at 1-1.

AND 108 FOR 4 (RAHMAT 58, BURL 2- double hundred by an The 22-year-old Rashid, Afghanistan player when Hashwho had taken 11 wickets 16, MUZARABANI 2-25) BEAT matullah Shahidi scored 200 not against Bangladesh in 2019, ZIMBABWE 287 (RAZA 85, MASVAURE out. The skipper made 164. picked up 7-137 in the second The Asian side seemed innings against Zimbabwe for 65, RASHID 4-138, HAMZA 3-73) AND headed for quick revenge for losa match haul of 11-325.

365 (WILLIAMS 151 NOT OUT, ing inside two days in the opening Playing their sixth Test TIRIPANO 95, RASHID 7-137) Test when they dismissed Zimbabwe match, the Afghans posted 545-4, for 287 in the first innings and reduced their highest ever total, before capBY SIX WICKETS

Muguruza ends two-year title drought with Dubai triumph

Kohli, Kishan power India to big T20 win over England

DUBAI AGENCIES

AHMEDABAD

DOHA

AGENCIES

AGENCIES

Skipper Virat Kohli and debutant Ishan Kishan hit half-centuries as India hammered England by seven wickets in the second Twenty20 international in Ahmedabad on Sunday.

Chasing 165 for victory, a blazing second-wicket stand of 94 between Kohli, who finished unbeaten on 73, and Kishan saw India romp home in 17.5 overs and level the five-match series at 1-1. Left-hander Kishan, just 22, hit 56 off 32 balls before he fell to Adil Rashid's leg-spin. Kohli hit form after three ducks in his five previous innings to seal the match with a four and a six.

Sam Curran struck in the first over to get K.L. Rahul caught behind without scoring but Kishan, who made his T20I debut alongside Suryakumar Yadav -- both key players for Indian Premier League champions Mumbai Indians -- and Kohli took charge.

Kohli was dropped on 10 by wicketkeeper Jos Buttler who failed to grab a flick down the leg side off Chris Jordan and the batsman made the most of the reprieve. Kishan, who was dropped on 40 by Ben Stokes, smashed Rashid

Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili, who ended Roger Federer’s comeback in the quarterfinals, beat Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 to win the Qatar Open in Doha on Saturday and secure a fourth career title.

Their clash in the Gulf desert nation was characterised by hot, dusty wind that slowed down their exchanges but world No 42 Basilashvili bided his time to snatch the first set in a tiebreak. Basilashvili, who arrived at the Qatar Open with a 2-13 record since the resumption of the sport in August, penetrated 2019 champion Bautista Agut’s defences in the sixth game of the second set, winning a crucial breakpoint with a backhand. He made simple work of the eighth game to win the trophy on his first championship point after 90 minutes on court. “I had zero expectations to win the tournament,” said 29-year-old Basilashvili.

“It was very tough conditions today it could have gone both ways.” The tournament will be mostly remembered for Federer’s return to tennis after 13 months out following knee surgery, mustering a win again Britain’s Dan Evans before falling to Basilashvili. Federer, who has since pulled out of the Dubai event next week, now has his eyes firmly set on Wimbledon where he has won eight of his 20 majors. On Saturday, the wind blew from left to right in the opening points, with Bautista Agut’s opening serve given a noticeable swerve by the breeze. Outswing from Bautista Agut’s forehand saw balls that would have ended up well inside the court under normal conditions touching the line.

The blustery night made play more tentative than in previous rounds with rallies noticeably slower. Basilashvili moved to control the points early but nine holds of serve in the first set, and with the pair tied at 6-6, the set went to a tie-break. He ground it out from the baseline with a backhand delivering him set point, overpowering Bautista Agut’s slice backhand. The second set was a simpler affair with the Georgian racing ahead to win the set and the tournament. “Today it was his final,” said fifth-seeded Bautista Agut after his defeat.

“He played very aggressive and now it’s time to recover... and hopefully come back next year and try to get the title again.”

Qatar has pressed ahead with sporting events like the Qatar Open, which allowed spectators at 20 per cent capacity, despite seeing an uptick in coronavirus cases.

Spectators were be required to present a contact tracing app, undergo temperature checks and wear masks at all times.

them to 142-7 in the second after enforc-

tain Asghar Afghan declared their first

ing the follow-on.

But Zimbabwe captain Sean Williams, who remained unbeaten on 151, and Donald Tiripano showed fight to add 187 for the eighth wicket and help Zimbabwe avoid an innings defeat. Rashid broke the resistance with his sixth wicket of the innings and he denied Tiripano a maiden Test hundred when he trapped him lbw for 95 shortly before the lunch break.

Rashid also removed number 11 batsman Victor Nyauchi, before he had scored, as Zimbabwe were dismissed for 365 in their second innings.

for two successive sixes to pass 50 but departed in the same over.

Rishabh Pant made 26 off 13 balls with two fours and two sixes. Earlier, England were made to bat first and Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur claimed two wickets each to limit England to 164 for six after the tourists reached 83-2 from 10 overs.

Opener Jason Roy scored 46 and put on 63 for the second wicket with Dawid Malan (24). Roy, who scored 49

in England's opening win on Friday, missed out on another fifty after getting caught at deep square leg off Sundar.

Sundar struck again in his next over to claim Jonny Bairstow for 20 and medium-pacer Thakur cut short skipper Eoin Morgan's stay after getting him caught on a slower delivery. Morgan made 28. Ben Stokes hit 24 before falling to Thakur in the final over as India checked the scoring by giving away just 35 runs in the final five overs.

Garbine Muguruza ended a two-year title drought by claiming her first Dubai crown with a 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 victory over unseeded Czech Barbora Krejcikova on Saturday. The ninth seed was contesting her third final of 2021 and became the first Spanish woman to triumph in the emirate thanks to her success over Krejcikova. Muguruza, who had lost her last three finals, had not won a title since Monterrey in April 2019 prior to this week in Dubai. “It’s a great achievement. I’ve been coming here for many years in a row and I felt like I was close, but not enough, and today finally I got the champion’s trophy. “I’m very happy after losing a few finals in a row, to get this one,” said the 27-year-old Muguruza. “It paid off this week.

The other weeks I was close. Today I fought harder and I’m very happy about it.” The twotime Major champion now owns a tour-leading 18 match-wins in 2021 and a total of eight winner’s trophies in her cabinet. It is the former world No 1’s biggest title since Cincinnati in 2017. “I feel like the consistency on tour is so hard to get. Being able to play three finals (this year) is a great sign that we are on the right way,” said Muguruza, who was runner-up in Doha last week, as well as at the Yarra Valley Classic in Melbourne last month. A netted forehand from Muguruza handed Krejcikova a break of serve in the opening game but the Spaniard retaliated immediately to draw level.

Man City extend lead, Chelsea trip in Champions League race with Leeds draw LONDON AGENCIES

A much-changed Manchester City stretched their Premier League lead to 17 points with a 3-0 win at Fulham on Saturday, while Chelsea gave the chasing pack in the race for a place in next season’s Champions League hope with a 0-0 draw at Leeds.

Pep Guardiola could afford the luxury of making seven changes ahead of City’s Champions League last 16, second leg against Borussia Monchengladbach in midweek with Kevin De Bruyne among the key players handed a rest. However, City’s strength in depth shone through once more as the visitors struck three times in the first 15 minutes of the second-half at Craven Cottage.

John Stones opened the floodgates before an emphatic finish from Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero’s first Premier League goal for 14 months from the penalty spot round off the scoring.

“We’ve all played so many games, we know the squad is rotated because of the schedule,” said Stones. “We all know our roles and responsibilities and everyone who came in today deserves all the credit for the way we played, fought and stayed so patient.”

Manchester United have two games in hand on the runaway league leaders to close the gap, but there seems

little doubt City will claim a third league title in four years in the coming weeks after a run of 23 wins in 24 games.

Fulham remain rooted in the bottom three after just a second defeat in eight games.

CHELSEA NOT CLINICAL: Fourth-placed Chelsea stretched their unbeaten run since Thomas Tuchel replaced the sacked Frank Lampard to 12 games at Elland Road.

However, the Blues have been far from prolific despite the wealth of attacking talent at Tuchel’s disposal.

Tuchel left strikers Timo Werner and Olivier Giroud on the bench with Kai Havertz keeping his place as a false nine and the German had his side’s best chance with a driven effort than Illan Meslier tipped over.

Leeds lost top scorer Patrick Bamford to injury in the first-half, but could have claimed victory themselves as Edouard Mendy made brilliant saves to deny Tyler Roberts and Raphinha. “We created enough chances and enough touches in the box to score one or two goals. Unfortunately, we didn’t, so we have to live with a draw,” said Tuchel. A point edges Chelsea three points clear of West Ham, who have two games in hand.

Everton are still five points adrift of the top four as Burnley won 2-1 at Goodison Park.

The visitors’ bright start was rewarded with a vital three points in their battle to beat the drop. Chris Wood opened the scoring before Dwight McNeil’s sensational

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strike doubled the visitors’ lead.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin pulled a goal back for Everton, but Burnley comfortably held out to open up a sevenpoint gap above the relegation zone.

“It is a big disappointment because we lost a great opportunity to climb the table,” said Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti. “We made the same mistake as most of the games in Goodison Park, we didn’t start well.”

‘STAND TALL’: Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha became the first Premier League player not to take a knee prior to kick-off of a 1-0 win over West Brom.

The Ivory Coast international stood tall while the rest of his Palace team-mates and their opponents took the knee. The 28-year-old revealed last month that he would no longer perform the gesture against racial injustice, which has been followed by Premier League players, officials and staff since June.

“As a society, I feel we should be encouraging better education in schools, and social media companies should be taking stronger action against people who abuse others online - not just footballers,” Zaha said in a statement.

“I now just want to focus on football and enjoy being back playing on the pitch. I will continue to stand tall.”

Once the action began, Luka Milivojevic scored the only goal from the penalty spot to plunge the Baggies ever closer to a return to the Championship.

Monday, 15 March, 2021

prayer tiMings

NEWS

PAkIstAn welcoMes lIbyAn nAtIonAl unIty governMent ISLAMABAD

P

staff report

AKISTAN on Sunday welcomed the parliamentary vote to form a national unity government to lead Libya to elections in December.

Libya’s long-divided parliament on Wednesday approved an interim government mandated to bring the fractured country together after a decade of chaos and violence and to oversee elections in December as part of an United Nationsbacked peace plan.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhry said that Islamabad welcomes the development and “wish Libyan parliamentary [and] political leaderships success [and] appreciate resolve” of Libyan “people for peace [and] security.”

“We also acknowledge the positive

role played by the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), as well as the efforts of the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Libya,” he said.

Zahid reiterated the “historically close

Islamabad imposes smart lockdown on three subsections

and cordial ties with Libya,” adding: “We remain committed to advancing our bilateral cooperation as well as coordination at the regional and international fora.”

The parliament’s approval of Prime

Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh’s cabinet by 132 votes to two against, at a session in a war-battered frontline city, represents the biggest opportunity in years for a resolution to Libya’s conflict.

“Through this vote, it became clear that the Libyans are one unit,” Dbeibeh told parliament afterward.

However, huge hurdles remain and the manner of Dbeibeh’s own appointment and the size of his cabinet have drawn accusations of corruption and influence-peddling that spoilers could leverage to deny his legitimacy. On the ground, Libya’s streets, businesses and state institutions remain in the shadow of myriad armed factions and split between two rival administrations, while foreign powers backing either side have kept their guns in place.

Amending the constitution and holding free elections in 2021 will be an immense challenge, though all sides have formally committed to do so.

Muslim boy beaten for drinking water from Hindu temple in India A Muslim boy was beaten in India for entering and drinking water from a Hindu temple, multiple Indian media outlets reported on Sunday.

The incident took place on Thursday in the city of Dasna in Ghaziabad district, which lies in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

The 14-year-old boy had entered the temple to drink water when he was noticed by the temple caretaker, Shringi Nandan Yadav, 23, who proceeded to beat the boy, the boy’s family told the Hindustan Times.

“My son stopped to drink water from a tap located inside the temple as he was thirsty. He was beaten up after they asked his identity. He suffered a head injury,” said the father, adding that his son usually didn’t frequent the temple and has been told to stay clear of it in the future.

“He was badly beaten up and humiliated.

Does water have a religion? I don’t think there is any religion that can refuse water to a thirsty person,” he said while speaking to The Indian Express. He lamented that the temple had been open to the public in the past but that changed, adding that he hoped his son would receive justice.

Ghaziabad police took notice of the incident and arrested the main accused, Yadav, along with Shivanand Saraswati, another caretaker, who had recorded the incident. The recorded video was circulated online on social media platforms and went viral on Friday evening.

Amid a third wave of the coronavirus that is gripping Pakistan, officials in the federal capital have imposed a smart lockdown in three subsectors of Islamabad. Sector F-11/1, Sector I8/4 and Sector I-10/2 were sealed on Sunday night after the confirmation of 51, 53 and 48 Covid-19 cases there, respectively.

The deputy commissioner stated that commercial areas would be completely locked down. He also announced that permissions issued for holding all functions, festivals and gatherings stand withdrawn.

Any kind of indoor activity is not allowed. Outdoor functions are allowed only for two hours with less than 300 people. Offices are not allowed to call more than 50 per cent of their staff, the DC said.

The officials also warned citizens that they must wear face masks and maintain social distancing in public. Pakistan has so far recorded 605,200 coronavirus cases and 13,508 deaths. news desk

Cases were registered against the two men under Indian Penal Code sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace), 352 (assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) and also provisions of the Information Technology Act. Senior Superintendent of Police Ghaziabad Kalanidhi Naithani said the main accused had been arrested shortly after the incident had first come to light.

“Any person found indulging in antisocial activities will face strict action by the police,” he told The Indian Express.

Yadav had been staying in the temple for the past three months and both arrested individuals had contributed to the viral spread of the video, said another police officer.

Police officials said Yadav, hailing from Bihar, had shifted to Ghaziabad six months ago. He was doing voluntary service at the Dasna Devi Temple and considered himself a disciple of its caretaker, Yati

Narsinghanand Saraswati.

Priyank Kanoongo, chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) posted Yadav’s picture on Twitter on Saturday. “[The] NCPCR Is committed to providing justice to the child.”

‘He’s a good man’ The management committee of the temple, meanwhile, said it would extend its help to Yadav for legal aid. A member from the committee, Anil Yadav, said the temple bore full responsibility for the event.

“There is a conspiracy; that boy was not alone,” he said, chalking the incident off as an attempt to charge the atmosphere.

He defended Yadav as a “good man” who had lost his job as an engineer during the Covid-19 pandemic and decided to volunteer at the temple by managing their IT system. “We will make sure he’s free.”

Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati alleged the boy had been caught spitting in the temple and the temple authorities would seek bail for the two arrested individuals.

Temple authorities said they had prohibited entry of non-Hindu people while it is written on a board placed outside the temple, “This temple is a holy place for Hindus, it is forbidden for Muslims to enter. By order of Narsinghanand Saraswati.”

Saraswati is a rightwing preacher whose inflammatory speeches were also shared by the main accused on his social media, along with pictures of him holding various weapons. news desk

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Minister says Afghan forces can hold their own KABUL: Afghanistan’s interior minister said on Saturday that Afghan security forces can hold their ground even if US troops withdraw, challenging a warning from the United States predicting a withdrawal would yield quick territorial gains to the Taliban. Masoud Andarabi’s comments in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press were the first government reaction to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s warning issued in a sharply worded letter to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani last weekend. In the letter pressing Ghani to step up efforts to make peace with the Taliban, Blinken said, “I am concerned the security situation will worsen and that the Taliban could make rapid territorial gains” after the American military withdraws. Andarabi said Afghanistan’s National Security Forces could hold territory, but would likely endure heavy losses trying to hold remote checkpoints without US air support. “The Afghan security forces are fully capable of defending the capital and the cities and the territories that we are present in right now,” he said. “We think that the Afghan security forces this year have proven to the Taliban that they will not be able to gain territory.” agencies

India activist breaks silence on sedition arrest, says she felt ‘violated’ NEW DELHI agencies

An Indian climate activist linked to Greta Thunberg said she felt “violated” by her arrest last month on sedition charges and her treatment by the media, her first comments on a case that sparked international criticism.

Disha Ravi, a 22-year-old vegan and member of Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement, was charged in February over an online document about months-long protests by Indian farmers. Ten days after her arrest and following widespread criticism, a court in India’s capital New Delhi granted her bail, citing “scanty and sketchy evidence” that she was involved in fomenting violence. “I had coerced myself into believing that the only way I would be able to live through this was by tricking myself into thinking that this wasn’t happening to me,” Ravi said in a statement. “My actions were pronounced guilty — not in the court of law, but on flat screens.” Police say the document Ravi created stoked violence on January 26, India’s Republic Day, when some protesting farmers broke free of a planned march and clashed with police. Angry at new agricultural laws they say benefit large private buyers at the expense of growers, tens of thousands of farmers have been camped on the outskirts of New Delhi since late last year. Swedish climate activist Thunberg, pop star Rihanna, and US activist Meena Harris, the niece of Vice President Kamala Harris, all tweeted in support of the protests last month, drawing a rebuke from India’s foreign ministry.

Experts hail China’s role in development of Xinjiang Muslims, other minority groups ISLAMABAD Mian abrar

Speakers from various countries have unanimously hailed the Chinese government’s role in development of its ethnic minority groups especially the way China has supported and protected the development of its ethnic minority groups while Muslims in Xinjiang Province.

Participants from several countries including China, Russia, Pakistan and Egypt talked about China’s policies on its ethnic minority groups and agreed that the Uygur Muslims are enjoying full religious and ethnic rights and their right to worship and religion is fully protected under the law.

Addressing a virtual conference held on the sidelines of the 46th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, the executive vice president of China Family Planning Association, Yao Ying, said that the Chinese government has made every effort to promote the development of ethnic minority groups and improve their health and living standards.

“Xinjiang has set a successful example.

From 2010 to 2018, the Uygur population in Xinjiang rose from over 10 million to more than 12 million, seeing an increase of over

SPEAKERS SAY MUSLIMS IN XINJIANG PROVINCE ENJOYING FULL RELIGIOUS, ETHNIC RIGHTS 25 per cent,” she said.

She added that the development is an external theme of human society and only through development, can the fundamental rights of people be guaranteed.

“China is always committed to the people-centered philosophy of development. Respecting the people’s principled position in the country ensures peoples’ equal rights.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has emphasised that no one should be left behind,” she said.

Ying said that the Chinese government has especially formulated a program for developing the ethnic minorities’ areas. She said that in the 13th Five-Year Plan, the strategic importance of ethnic minorities and ethnic regions has been highlighted.

“China has 55 ethnic minorities groups and 155 autonomous ethnic minority areas.

China’s government has made every effort to promote and improve the health and living standards of ethnic minorities,” she said.

Ying said that Xinjiang is a good example where birth rate of Uygur population in

not only higher than Xinjiang’s total population, but it also is higher than all ethnic minorities groups in across China.

Muhatiremu Xiripu, the deputy secretary general of Islamic Association in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said that in Xinjiang, normal religious activities are guaranteed.

“There are 103 Islamic Associations in Xinjiang and each mosque manages its own religious activities. The property of the mosque is protected by law. The access of Muslim people to religious knowledge is unobstructed,” he said.

Xiripu said that China firmly upholds the concept of people-centered development, respects the people’s principal position in the country, ensures their equal participation and right to development.

“Setting the improvement of people’s well-being and steady progress towards common prosperity as the aim and outcome of development, China makes its people the main participants, promoters and beneficiar-

ies of development, enables its people to enjoy better education, more stable jobs, more satisfying income, more reliable social security, better quality healthcare services, more comfortable living conditions and a more beautiful environment, so as to promote the development of its people in all aspects,” he said.

He added that China’s development philosophy has contributed to the enrichment and improvement of the concept of the right to development.

He further said that the right to development is the right of individuals, peoples and nations to participate actively, freely and meaningfully in political, economic, social and cultural development and to enjoy equitably the benefits resulting therefrom.

“The Chinese government has made every effort to accelerate the development of ethnic minority regions and improve the health and living standards of ethnic minority people. Xinjiang is a successful example of such efforts. Xinjiang is the largest provincial administrative region with the longest land border and the largest number of bordering countries in China, accounting for about 1/6 of China’s total land area,” Xiripu said.

Hong Ping, the commissioner of China Family Planning Association, said that there are 55 ethnic minorities in China, and Xinjiang is the home to people of 47 ethnic minorities.

“Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xinjiang has achieved unprecedented outcomes in economic and social development and livelihood improvement, and attained remarkable results in healthcare, poverty alleviation, infrastructure construction, environmental protection and drinking water safety,” she said.

She said that Chinese civil society has played an active role in promoting the development of China’s ethnic minorities, and relevant international organisations and foreign friends have also contributed important efforts.

She said that in order to facilitate the international community to better understand the latest development in Xinjiang and to discuss topics of shared interest, the China Family Planning Association and the China Population and Development Research Centre had jointly organise the virtual workshop on the theme of “Development of Ethnic Minorities and Protection of Human Rights in China”.

Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore, for PT Print (Pvt) Limited. Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk