EpaperLHR_21-1-3

CM YK

3 January, 2021 I 18 Jumada-al-Awwal, 1442 I Rs 25.00 I Vol XI No 185 I 36 Pages I Lahore Edition

Put your own house in order first, Pakistan tells india on minority rights issue g

FO says blatant acts OF discriminatiOn against minOrities take place with state cOmplicity in india ISLAMABAD

a

staff report

sking india to put its own house in order on the issue of minority rights, pakistan has categorically rejected completely unwarranted assertions by the indian ministry of external affairs in connection with the attack on a historic hindu temple in karak. in a statement released on saturday, Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid hafeez chaudhry said that this is not the first time the indian government has tried to feign concern for minority rights elsewhere while being the most egregious and persistent violator of minority rights itself. he said the rss-bJp regime’s record is replete with instances of gross and systemic vi-

Nearly one-third of parliamentarians fail to submit assets’ statements to ECP ISLAMABAD staff report

the election commission of pakistan (ecp) has said that so far 791 parliamentarians have submitted their yearly statements of assets and liabilities for financial year 2019-20. according to an official of ecp, as many as 394 parliamentarians could not submit their assets details out of total 1195 parliamentarians, while 10 seats are still vacant. he said that those who submitted their assets details included 89 senators, 228 members national assembly, 225 members punjab assembly, 117 members sindh assembly, 94 members khyber pakhtunkhwa assembly and 38 members balochistan assembly.

he added that those who failed to submit their assets details within due date included 14 senators, 112 members national assembly, 144 members punjab assembly, 48 members sindh assembly, 50 members khyber pakhtunkhwa assembly and 26 members balochistan assembly.

Under section 137 of the elections act, 2017 every member of an assembly and senate have to submit to the commission, on or before december 31st each year, a copy of statement of assets and liabilities including assets and liabilities of his spouse and dependent children as on the preceding of June 30 on Form b. the commission, on the first day of January each year through a press release, publishes the names of members

Coronavirus in

Pakistan

CONFIRMED CASES:

484,362

LAST UPDATED AT 9:46 AM ON JANUARY 2, 2021

DAY'S DEATH TOLL:

NEW CASES:

82

2,184

RECOVERED:

DEATHS:

438,974 10,258

who failed to submit the requisite statement of assets and liabilities within the period specified under sub-section (1). he said that the commission will, on the January 16, by an order suspend the membership of a member of an assembly and senate who failed to submit the statement of assets and liabilities by the January 15, and such member would cease to function till he or she would file the statement of assets and liabilities. he said if any member submitted the statement of assets and liabilities under this section which was found to be false in material particulars, he or she may within 120 days from the date of submission of the statement, be proceeded against for committing the offence of corrupt practice.

more inside

PM Imran to announce mega uplift package for Multan: FM Qureshi STORY ON BACK PAGE

coronavirus kills 80 more, infects 2184 others in a day: ncOc

STORY ON PAGE 02

PDM bosses agree to throw hats in Senate race STORY ON PAGE 03

SINDH:

216,632 KP:

59,023

PUNJAB:

139,341 BALOCHISTAN:

18,181

AJK/GB: ISLAMABAD: 8,303/4,862 38,020

in today’s issue

attention Some readers have complained that they are not getting the magazine with their newspaper copy. Please call or WhatsApp us at the following number to register a complaint.

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

olations of the rights of minorities, in particular, muslims. the spokesperson said that as a perennial purveyor of state-sponsored discrimination against its minorities, india is in no position to pontificate on the issue of minority rights elsewhere. he said that clear differences between india and pakistan in respect of minority rights can be gauged from the fact that the accused in the karak incident were immediately arrested and orders were issued for repair of the temple. moreover, the highest level of judiciary took immediate notice and senior political leadership condemned the incident. whereas in india, the blatant acts of discrimination against muslims and other minorities take place with state complicity. given these incontrovertible facts, the spokesper-

son said that the indian government would be well advised to set its own house in order rather than feigning concern for minority rights elsewhere. india had reportedly conveyed “serious concerns” to the pakistan high commission in new delhi at “repeated instances of similar nature against members of the minority community,” after the karak incident. last Friday, chief minister khyber pakhtunkhwa mahmood khan announced the reconstruction of the vandalised hindu temple in karak. the kp chief minister directed the concerned authorities to ensure the reconstruction of the hindu temple on an early basis. he vowed to protect worship places of minorities in all cases.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

02

sunday, 3 January, 2021

news

RASheeD PRomiSeS quiCk ACTion oveR mAligning PAkiSTAn ARmy RAWALPINDI

i

STAFF REPORT

N a veiled warning towards leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), Federal Minister for Interior Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad has said that action will be taken against anyone using foul language against the Pakistan Army or other state institutions.

The minister also confirmed that the passport of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would be expired on February 16, and it would not be renewed.

“This much I can guarantee you, while Sheikh Rasheed is the interior minister, if anyone uses unbecoming language against the Pakistan Army, action will be taken and a case registered against them within 72 hours. It would not even go to 73 hours.

Within 72 hours action will be taken,” said the interior minister. The remarks came in the wake of a case filed against Mufti Kifayatullah for anti-military remarks, which has been forwarded to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government.

The minister was speaking to media at a press conference in his home constituency of Rawalpindi, where he criticised the leadership of the PDM, including the movement’s Chief Maulana

200,000 VISA APPLICATIONS RECEIVED THROUGH ONLINE FACILITY IN ONE DAY, SAYS INTERIOR MINISTER Fazl-ur-Rehman. The interior minister also spoke about Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and the passport issue surrounding Nawaz Sharif.

“I think it is clear for all to say that the Maulana’s stars are in circulation, and these are the dying throes of his political career,” the interior minister told journalists. “Fazl-ur-Rehman is an Islamic scholar and we respect him for this, but he should keep in mind the respect of Islam and how he is impacting it with his actions.”

“He [Fazl] should talk about Islam and stop dreaming of Islamabad,” Rasheed said in a reference to the long march PDM is planning. “The day the PDM members tell the date of the long march, the government will communicate their legal and political rights to them the same day.”

The boisterous minister continued his criticism against the PDM, said that the movement was cracking from within and the recent infighting over the senate polls issue was proof that the parties that composed the PDM could never be on the

Trade vision with Afghanistan, CARs to make Pakistan economic hub: Dawood ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood has said that the government's vision for trade and economic relations with Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics(CARs) is to make Pakistan a hub for trade, transit and transhipment. In a series of tweets on Saturday, the advisor said, “Our trade must be based on secure, open, consistent, reliable and legal movement of goods at the Afghan border along with enhanced connectivity with Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics.” “This is a long-term vision and, through our current engagement with Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, we are laying down the foundation for its implementation which will ensure that Pakistan leverages its geoeconomic location in the region to enhance international trade," he said while adding, “our discussions with Afghanistan over the past few days are a step in that direction”. The advisor said that Gwadar port would provide huge opportunities to the energy-rich Central Asian countries and Afghanistan for regional trade connectivity. He said that the government is prioritising economic integration to promote regional trade and connect the regional important trade players with the deep sea port, Gwadar. Earlier, the advisor said that Central Asian Republics are demanding the provision of trade facilitation and warehouses in Gwadar and Bin Qasim sea port for international and regional trade while the Afghan government has requested Pakistan to provide a crossstuffing facility at Gwadar Port. He said that the deep seaport of Gwadar has its own geo-strategic and economic importance which is located at the centre of regional connectivity and a possible railway link from Gwadar to Kandhar and other parts of Afghanistan. He said that Central Asia via Afghanistan can become a key trade and transportation route for the entire region. Dawood said that Pakistan is actively participating in regional forums of Central Asia Economic Cooperation (CAREC) and Quadrilateral Traffic in Transit Agreement (QTTA) so that maximum benefits could be taken when the Gwadar Port operates at full capacity in near future. He informed when modalities are finalised by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), ample employment opportunities will be generated for the locals. He said the development of Gwadar Port will not only provide the shortest possible route to the goods in transit but also provide more opportunities to establish new industries as huge investments have been pouring in under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). "The whole dynamics of regional connectivity would change with the improvement in trans-shipment facilities at Gwadar," he concluded. TLTP

same page long enough. “The PPP has won and the PDM has lost. The PPP has forced the PDM to get on its knees.”

In response to a question about the PPP chairperson, Rasheed said Bilawal is sensible and has played his cards well. He said Bilawal will find a good path for himself. He said that a politician who does not keep the door of dialogue open is not intelligent.

Rasheed’s comments come a day after PDM announced that member parties of the alliance will take part in by-polls and decide about Senate elections later. Fazl had said the alliance is “stronger than before” and rubbished rumours of any internal conflict. While the government is claiming this as a win and proof of the PDM faltering.

Meanwhile Mohsin Dawar, a prominent member of the PDM when the movement began and an independent opposition parliamentarian associated with the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), criticised Rasheed for his comments about taking action against anyone criticising

state institutions.

“Sheikh Rasheed’s over efficient boot polish is bringing shame to the civilian office he holds. Military critics are already facing censorship, imprisonment and even exile, so what more will he do? It is a shame that with Taliban regrouping, this is what keeps the minister occupied,” tweeted the MNA from the tribal areas.

At the same presser, the interior minister also talked about the visa issues of Pakistanis because of the coronavirus pandemic. He said that 200,000 online visa applications were received in one-day after the announcement of online visa facility for 192 countries amid Covid-19 pandemic.

Sheikh Rasheed said Computerized National Identity Cards (CNIC) of 0.2 million illegal Afghan refugees have been blocked, while 1.5 million registered refugees were allowed to stay and 800,000 illegal Afghans were being considered.

He said 100,000 CNIC were being issued daily and those who applied for the first time would be issued in 15 days free of cost, adding that 50 NADRA centres were being providing services 24 hours a day. Moreover, Rasheed informed that 300 NADRA mobile vans were visiting farflung areas for issuing CNIC to facilitate masses at their door step.

Coronavirus kills 80 more, infects 2184 others in a day: NCOC ISLAMABAD TLTP

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 82 more lives and caused 2,184 new infections during the last 24 hours, said the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Saturday. According to the NCOC, 82 more people succumbed to the disease, taking the death toll to 10,258. With the inclusion of the new infections in the country, the national tally of cases took to 484,362. Overall 438,974 people were recovered from the deadly disease till Friday.

A total of 38,229 tests were conducted across the country during the last 24 hours, while 6,775,307 samples were tested till Friday. A total of 1,745 patients recovered from the virus on Friday and the total count of active cases was 35,130. Some 2,264 patients were stated to be in critical condition and 301 patients were on ventilators out of a total of 2,745 people admitted to 625 hospitals across the country.

The overall positivity rate of novel coronavirus cases stood at 5.81 per cent. The positivity ratio of Covid-19 tests was recorded highest in Karachi up to 15.77 per cent and lowest in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region up to 1.41 per cent. The positivity rate was recorded 8.52 per cent in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), 3.82 per cent in Balochistan, 4.70 per cent in Punjab, 3.39 per cent in Islamabad, 5.38 per cent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and 8.10 per cent in Sindh.

Test positivity rate in Rawalpindi remained 3.45 per cent, 2.30 per cent in Faisalabad, 6.12 per cent in Lahore, 0.9 per cent in Multan, 7.54 per cent in Hyderabad, 15.54 per cent in Peshawar, 2.84 per cent in Swat, 7.72 per cent in Abbottabad, 2.39 per cent in Quetta, 7.69 per cent in Muzaffarabad, 9.26 per cent in Mirpur and it was recorded 3.03 per cent in Gilgit.

Sindh reported at least 1,004 new coronavirus cases during the past 24 hours, taking the provincial tally to 217,636. According to Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, 12 people died due to the deadly virus as the death toll reached 3,594.

He further said that 543 more patients recovered from the disease, taking the total to 196,677.

In Punjab, 15,582 corona tests were conducted on Friday out of which 733 tests resulted positive. Another 43 patients died during the last 24 hours. The number of active coronavirus patients in Punjab reached 11,131 whereas the death toll stood at 4,085. More than 2,472,892 tests were conducted in the province till Friday.

Meanwhile, former health minister Dr Zafar Mirza said that he had recommended a country-wide lockdown in March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic hit Pakistan. Speaking at the Arts Council Karachi on Saturday, Dr Mirza talked about his journey as Pakistan's de facto health minister under a pandemic. "I suggested strict restrictions to contain the virus spread and recommended that we should lock down the country."

Dr Mirza had been appointed as a special assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan on health in April 2019. Prior to that, he led the Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property team at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland for six years. "I returned to Pakistan on a personal request made

by PM Imran," he said at the arts council. In July 2019, the former special assistant resigned in the backdrop of public scrutiny over the matter of dual nationalities held by members of PM Imran's cabinet.

Following his exit, there were speculations that the renowned healthcare professional would assume a role in the WHO. However, responding to those reports on Saturday, Dr Mirza said that he could not leave Pakistan after "seeing all the problems faced by the country".

CTD nabs leader of banned outfit over terror financing LAHORE TLTP

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) has arrested an alleged member of a banned outfit, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, during a raid conducted in Lahore. A CTD spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday that Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi has been arrested during a raid over allegedly financing terrorists. A case was registered against Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi at CTD Lahore Station. The suspect was running a dispensary with funds collected for carrying out terrorist attacks, whereas the investigators found traces against him for also using the money for personal expenditures by Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, said CTD. The suspected terror financer was also nominated by the United Nations in its list of suspected terrorists for being associated with an outlawed outfit, said CTD, adding that the suspect will face trial in an anti-terrorism court in Lahore. Earlier on December 25, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) had foiled a major terror bid in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur by arresting four suspects and seizing a huge quantity of explosive material and two vehicles. During a raid, the Counter-Terrorism Department officials had arrested four alleged members of a banned outfit. Police told the media that a major terrorist bid was foiled by the timely action of security officials by arresting suspects and seizing explosive material from their possession.

Rana Sanaullah’s drug indictment deferred LAHORE TLTP

An anti-narcotics court in Lahore deferred the indictment of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leader Rana Sanaullah in a drugs recovery case on Saturday. Sanaullah arrived in the court after some delay to which his lawyer said earlier that the motorway was closed due to dense fog and his client will appear in the hearing in a while. The court asked the prosecutor to continue giving arguments in the case. The prosecutor told the court that copies of the statements against Sanaullah could not be provided, however, the testimonies had been recorded in accordance with the law. During the hearing, the defence lawyer said that the case related to Rana Sanaullah was unlike other routine cases. He said that it was his client’s legal right to obtain copies of the statements against him regarding the allegations of supplying drugs internationally by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF). The court reserved its decision on the Sanaullah’s plea for getting the copies of the testimonies in case which would be announced in the next hearing. Later, the court adjourned the hearing of the drug recovery case till January 11. Rana Sanaullah had been arrested last year in July by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) from the Islamabad-Lahore motorway near the Sukheki area. The ANF claimed that 15 kilograms of drugs were recovered from the PML-N leader’s car. He was released on bail on December 26. His name was also put on the Exit Control List (ECL) in the drug recovery case.

PDM’s plan to attack institutions an indecent attitude: Faraz ISLAMABAD TLTP

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz has said that

it is an indecent attitude of the opposition parties to attack national institutions as a pressure tactic against the government. Talking to a private television channel, the information minister

criticised the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) for its future plan to siege public institutions. Faraz said that the leaders of the opposition parties would gain nothing, if they try to pressurise national

institutions like National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). He demanded the opposition parties to tell the ECP and NAB about their assets and ill-gotten money.

sunday, 3 January, 2021

news

03

PDm boSSeS AgRee To ThRow hATS in SenATe RACe ISLAMABAD

T

MIAN ABRAR

HE top leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) on Friday agreed to go for Senate elections, agreeing that the option of resignations should be adopted as last resort while it was also decided to start public mobilisation as the weather situation improves.

The PDM top brass was involved in a heated debate on the proposal of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) President Asif Ali Zardari to contest elections of Senate and upcoming by-elections of assemblies.

An informed source told Pakistan Today that during the PDM meeting, all the parties decided to adopt a joint strategy and allay their differences, arguing that media should not be allowed to deepen their differences.

They asserted that no one should take a solo flight and they should jointly wage the war

OPPOSITION ALLIANCE DECIDES TO TENDER RESIGNATIONS ONLY AS LAST OPTION to oust Imran Khan and to put the military establishment on the back foot.

The source said that the PDM leaders stood divided over Zardari’s proposal, as Nawaz Sharif and politicians from Balochistan supported Maulana Fazlur Rehmans proposal for resignations while Zardari was backed by the PPP leaders and other parties from Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh.

“During the meeting, former president Asif Ali Zardari said that we have to see the situation objectively. He said that the weather is cold and people are not coming out to protest rallies themselves. Hence, we must take wait for fairer weather. He also said that resignations should be our last bet,

not the first option,” the source said.

The source said that Zardari also cautioned that if the PDM goes for resignations immediately, the government may hold by-elections. Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that if you talk about using the resignations option in a better manner, then there is no objection as per the well-placed source. During the meeting, former Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf floated the idea to submit noconfidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, which infuriated Nawaz Sharif.

“Nawaz Sharif said that no confidence motion could not succeed without the help from the military establishment. He asked Ashraf whether he wanted PDM to seek

assistance from the establishment? Any such move will cost money to manipulate and this work can never be done without the establishment,” explained the insider present in the meeting. Akhtar Mengal also supported Nawaz Sharif’s assertion, which killed the possibility of a no confidence motion against Imran Khan.

The source said that Nawaz Sharif said that the decision regarding taking part in the Senate elections has to be taken very carefully. However, the source said, Asif Ali Zardari said that 12 to 14 seats can be easily won in the Senate elections by the PDM parties.

The source said that the PPP insisted on contesting the Senate elections while putting all the weight behind the PDM regarding resignations.

During the meeting, Asif Ali Zardari proposed that the PDM parties participate in the Senate and by-elections in any case.

“Zardari said that even if we go to the Senate

elections, we can make an impact. He took the position that the option of resignations should be used only when the people are angry against the government and come to the streets to protest against the government.

He said that rallies and processions should be carried to influence public opinion once the weather conditions improve,” the source said.

Zardari assured the PDM that the PPP was ready for resignations from the assemblies, but the strategy should not be disclosed to the media and should be a last resort. He proposed that when the resignations should be tabled, it should be kept as a surprise.

“Nawaz Sharif suggested that the decision should be made by the leaders themselves. Nawaz Sharif said that Shahbaz Sharif is always trapped by the establishment with rosy promises,” the source said, and added that Maulana Fazlur Rehman looked posied to the views expressed by Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif.

ghulam Sarwar offers opposition parties talks on national issues RAWALPINDI TLTP

Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan has said that political leadership needs to sit together and make consensus decisions on all matters of national importance such as electoral reforms, Kashmir issue and economy. Talking to the media persons on Saturday, Ghulam Sarwar said that the government is ready for dialogue with the opposition on all national issues except amendment to the national accountability law. He further said that no national reconciliation ordinance (NRO) will be given to the corrupt elements. The minister said that Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leadership has announced to contest by-elections, and they will also, hopefully, participate in the Senate elections. He said the democratic process should continue for the betterment of the country. Sarwar said that the people do not support the narrative of Nawaz Sharif, and the patriotic people within the Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) are parting ways with Nawaz Sharif. On the occasion, some local leaders and supporters of PML-N also announced to join Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

RAWALPINDI: Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan addresses a press conference. INP

govt mulls reopening schools from 25th in phases

Govt finalising master plan for five new terminals at Port Qasim ISLAMABAD AHMAD AHMADANI

ISLAMABAD TLTP

The federal government is mulling over to reopen educational institutions across the country in three phases starting from January 25. A final decision will be taken in a meeting of an inter-provincial conference, scheduled on Monday (tomorrow), to be attended by all provincial education ministers. Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood will be chairing the meeting. In this connection, it has been suggested that in the first phase, primary schools in both the public and private sectors should be reopened from January 25, while in the second phase, middle and secondary schools should be reopened from February 4. Moreover, secondary educational institutions were proposed to be reopened in the third phase. It has been learnt that decision on reopening of educational institutions will be taken on the basis of health advisory keeping in view the prevailing coronavirus situation across the country. The agenda of the meeting has a proposal to conduct board examinations from the last week of May. The proposals regarding reduction in summer vacation and start of the 2021-22 academic session in August will also likely to be discussed in the meeting of the education ministers. On November 23, the federal government had announced to shut all educational institutions from November 26 to December 24 last year due to a spike in Covid-19 cases.

The Ministry of Maritime Affairs is finalising the master plan for the establishment of five terminals on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis to enhance container handling capacity at Port Qasim.

According to sources, the ministry would present the master plan before the Cabinet’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) for final approval as early as possible. Sources said that the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) was in the process of appointing consultants for preparation of the master plan in order to incorporate changes made in the master plan since 2001 as well as future planning. “Firms have been shortlisted and cases were being presented to the Infrastructure Development Committee (IDC) of the PQA board in this regard.”

The PQA’s board had already approved the resolution to include the five new terminals in the existing master plan.

Earlier on December 24, 2020, the ECC of the Cabinet on had approved the proposed amendments in Port Qasim Authority (PQA) Master Plan under Section 10 and 11 of PQA Act, 1973 for establishing five new terminals, including two multipurpose cargo terminals and one integrated container terminal on BOT basis.

It is pertinent to mention here that Section 10 and 11 of PQA Act, 1973,

provides that PQA shall prepare a master plan and phased master programme for the development of the port area whereas documents for the two

shall be submitted to the federal government for final approval. The PQA master plan was originally prepared by state-owned National Engineering

Services Pakistan (NESPAK) for a period up to 2000 with the assistance of Swan Wooster Engineering Canada in 1975.

04 NEWS

Cylinder blast in rickshaw injures five GujrAnwALA: At least five people, including three women and kids, received severe wounds when a cylinder in a rickshaw exploded in a Gujranwala neighbourhood on Saturday morning. According to a report, the rickshaw caught fire after the explosion and as a result, the passengers received burn injuries. The police believed the explosion had “something to do” with the vehicle’s CNG cylinder. The victims were shifted to a nearby hospital for medical assistance while an operation was also started. Motorcycles parked near the scene were damaged in the fire and the rickshaw was completely destroyed, a police spokesman informed. The police have registered a case and started investigations in the matter, he added. APP

Sunday, 3 January, 2021

Punjab govt announCes Rs25bn foR youth undeR Punjab RozgaR sCheme LAHORE

P

TLTP

UNJAB Minister for Finance, Hashim Jawan Bakht, has announced that Rs25 billion will be disbursed among youth as soft loans under Punjab Rozgar Scheme.

Briefing a news conference in Lahore on Saturday about Punjab’s financial progress, the provincial finance minister said that the Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) has registered an increase of 42 percent in revenue growth in the first six months of the financial year 2020-21 as compared to the last fiscal year. He said that the provincial gov-

ernment is starting a universal health coverage programme in the province which will cost Rs50 billion.

“The year 2020 has been painful due to the spread of the coronavirus, however, financial difficulties have provided opportunities for new experiments and reforms,” said the minister.

“A tax relief package of Rs56 billion has been given for economic security during the pandemic, and by the end of the financial year, more than 90 percent of the development budget will have been utilised.”

The provincial minister said that the financial reforms being introduced to improve the administrative affairs of the province would lead to an increase in the

growth rate. The plan with the World Bank to reform the public finance management system will ensure improved service delivery in the province.

The provincial minister said that for the past several years, a large part of the budget had been focused on pensions.

The tireless work of the finance department has made it possible to increase the personal resources of the province by Rs59 billion through pension reforms. In the year 2020, a historic program of Rs55 billion was launched for the development of backward districts to eliminate inequality from the province.

He said a separate secretariat was set up in 2020 to fulfil the promises made to the people of South Punjab.

Colour financing of the region’s budget is another major initiative of the Punjab government. Tax relief in the construction industry and construction sector has secured the employment of daily wage workers.

He said the five-year exemption on tax collections in public-private partnership projects have encouraged the private sector. “The participation of Bank of Punjab in various projects for the promotion of economic activities in the province is also one of the notable achievements of the Punjab government,” he added. He also claimed that involvement of private banks in public-private partnership projects will further strengthen economic activities.

LAHORE: Special Assistant to Punjab Chief Minister on Information and Culture Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Provincial Minister for Finance Hashim Jawan Bakht and Finance Secretary Abdullah Sumbal address a press conference in the provincial capital. STAff PHoTo

Sindh’s CNG stations close for three more days as gas crisis worsens ISLAMABAD AHMAD AHMADANI

Owing to severe shortage of natural gas in the country, the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has announced the closure of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations across the Sindh province for another three days, starting from the 4th January of January 2021.

In a notification, the SSGC said that due to low input, availability of gas has decreased, resulting in depletion of line pack and low pressure in the system. Due to this shortage of gas, CNG stations and sellers of Re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) in Sindh will remain closed for at least another 72 hours, from 8 AM on Monday all the way until 8 AM on Thursday. Earlier, on the 30th of December 2020, the SSGC had shut down all CNG stations across Sindh and Balochistan provinces till 2nd January, 2020.

Before the action by the SSGC, the provincial government had also acted, and on the 18th of December 2020, had closed down all the CNG and Re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) sta-

tions across Sindh as part of the gas load management plan.

Officials at the petroleum division, speaking to Pakistan Today, on the condition of anonymity said that the government was forced to take drastic measures in its gas load management plant to ensure the natural gas supply for basic use.

Annoyed with the decision of closure of CNG stations across Sindh province for another three days, senior leader of All Pakistan CNG Association, Ghias Abdullah Paracha, said that this is a wrong decision as there was no shortage of gas in Sindh. He said CNG stations of Sindh were earlier persuaded to use Re-gasified Natural Gas (RLNG) to avoid likely closure. However, now CNG stations have been forcefully closed on lame excuses. He said since natural gas availability is in abundance in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, there should be no gas loadshedding for the CNG stations in these provinces.

Paracha said that the CNG sector has been paying the highest tariff but it is denied natural gas supply. He said it is unfortunate that the government

IHC forms commission against bonded labour ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Saturday formed a commission against bonded labour at brick kilns in the capital city. The court directed the commission headed by DC Islamabad to submit a review report on brick kilns to the court within one month. A high court bench headed by Chief Justice Athar Minallah was hearing a petition filed by a woman against brick kiln owners for recovery of her children. Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Hamza Shafqat appeared in the court and presented children before the court. On a question of the court, the DC affirmed that all children have been recovered. “Brick kiln owners have also been arrested,” the DC informed the bench. “We are gathering details of brick kilns in Islamabad to audit them,” the official said. Bonded labour has been outlawed in Pakistan and most other countries in line with the UN conventions on human rights. Bonded labour is a type of forced labour, and according to media estimates, more than four million people, including women and children, work in almost 20,000 brick kilns across Pakistan to pay off family loans taken from the business owners. TLTP

has been providing gas to those sectors which pay lesser tariff in comparison to CNG sector. “The CNG industry has been facing heavy losses and about to collapse as natural gas is not available for the CNG sector. Despite approval of the federal cabinet and ECC of the Cabinet, subsidiaries of petroleum division and gas companies have been creating hindrances in the import of LNG by the private sector,” said the senior leader of the APCNGA. Demanding that the government end

the closure of CNG stations to save the CNG industry and allow import of LNG by private sector, APCNGA’s Ghias Abdullah Paracha said gas users will find gas supply if import of RLNG by private sector is allowed.

It is pertinent to mention that the government has been trying hard to bridge the widening gas demand and supply gap with imported LNG during peak winter season. However, gas shortage and low pressure is being faced by different categories of the gas consumers.

Sunday, 3 January, 2021

IndIa propoSeS Crew Change at Sea for ShIpS Stranded off ChIna NEW DELHI

I

TLTP

NDIAN authorities have proposed to their Chinese counterparts facilitating a crew change at sea for the crew members stranded aboard the vessels anchored for months off the Chinese coast.

Responding to media questions in a written statement, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said that the cases of the bulk carriers Jag Anand and Anastasia, along with the other vessels waiting off the China coast, “are being pursued vigorously.”

The Indian ministry in its response said, “We have noted the statements of the Chinese side, expressing their willingness to extend their assistance in this matter. We expect that this assistance will

be provided in an urgent, practical and time-bound manner, given the grave humanitarian situation that is developing on board the ships.”

In the latest proposal to resolve the stalemate, the Indian Ministry says that it understands Anastasia is exploring the possibility of a crew change at sea at its current point of anchorage in Caofeidian.

The Indian Embassy sent a letter on December 31 last year to the Chinese authorities supporting the proposal and requesting that it be approved.

The bulk carrier the Jag Anand of Great Eastern Shipping Company has been anchored near the Chinese port of Jingtang since June 13, 2020, with a crew of 23 Indian nationals. Similarly, the Anastasia, which has 16 Indian nationals as its crew, has been anchored near the Chinese port of Caofeidian since

Suddenly overwhelmed, Ireland says thousands of Covid-19 cases yet to be added to tally DUBLIN: Ireland said on Friday it had underreported coronavirus cases in recent days by thousands more than previously known as its system came under strain, suggesting the EU’s fastest growing outbreak is worsening even more rapidly than figures showed. More than 9,000 people who have tested positive for Covid-19 have yet to been added to the official tally of confirmed cases, the National Public Health Emergency Team said. A day earlier it had estimated the number of positive tests still pending registration at just 4,000. Ireland has gone from having the lowest infection rate in the European Union just two weeks ago to having the fastest rate of deterioration, after shops and large parts of the hospitality sector were allowed to reopen for most of December. A very large volume of positive tests since Christmas has led to a delay in positive swabs being formally confirmed as new individual cases. Ireland formally reported a daily record 1,754 confirmed cases on Friday, surpassing 1,500 daily cases for the fourth day in a row. AGENCIES

China senior diplomat says US. relations at 'new crossroads' SHANGHAI: China’s relationship with the United States has reached a “new crossroads” and could get back on the right track following a period of “unprecedented difficulty”, senior diplomat Wang Yi said in official comments published on Saturday. Relations between the world’s two biggest economies have come under increasing strain amid a series of disputes over trade, human rights and the origins of Covid-19.

In its latest move, the United States blacklisted dozens of Chinese companies it said had ties to the military. Wang, China’s state councillor and foreign minister, said in a joint interview with Xinhua news agency and other state media outlets that recent US. policies towards China had harmed the interests of both countries and brought huge dangers to the world. But there was now an opportunity for the two sides to “open a new window of hope” and begin a new round of dialogue, he said. The election of Joe Biden as US. President has been widely expected to improve relations between Washington and Beijing after four years of escalating tensions under the administration of Donald Trump. Last month, Wang said he hoped the election of Biden would allow US. China policy to “return to objectivity and rationality”. However, Presidentelect Biden, who will take office on Jan. 20, has continued to criticise China for its “abuses” on trade and other issues. Wang did not mention Trump or Biden by name, but he urged the United States to “respect the social system and development path” chosen by China, adding that if Washington “learns lessons”, the conflicts between the two sides could be resolved. “We know some people in the United States are apprehensive about China’s rapid development, but the most sustainable leadership is to constantly move forward yourself, rather than block the development of other countries,” he said. Politicians in the United States have accused China of covering up the outbreak of Covid-19 during its early stages, delaying its response and allowing the disease to spread much further and faster. AGENCIES

September 20, 2020. Both vessels, along with estimates of up to 20 or more other ships, have all been waiting to discharge cargos of Australian coal.

China, for its part, denies reports that the ships are being held offshore in a trade dispute with Australia. The Indian ministry says that the Chinese authorities have conveyed to them that on account of various Covid-19 related restrictions imposed by the local authorities, crew changes are not being permitted from these ports.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested that the ships are free to depart their anchorages, but the ships' operators fear leaving the anchorage for a crew change they would not be permitted to return to the ports preferring instead to wait out the trade dispute to deliver their cargo.

The Indian authorities said that their

Embassy in Beijing has repeatedly raised the situation with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and also the provincial authorities, requesting that the ships be allowed to dock or a crew change be permitted. The Indian Ambassador has taken up this issue with the Vice Foreign Minister, the statement said, while the ministry has also been following this issue with the Chinese Embassy in India.

The National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI) attempted to bring world attention to the plight of the seafarers in November calling for a global email campaign to the International Maritime Organization. Other organizations, including the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), have also responded, calling for action to address the crew welfare with some seafarers on the ships for 20 months or more.

Pakistani-origin doctor writes off $650,000 debt of 200 cancer patients in US ISLAMABAD TLTP

A Pakistani-origin doctor in the United States forgave more than half a million dollars in outstanding debts from nearly 200 patients.

Dr Omar Atiq founded the Arkansas Cancer Clinic in 1991. But the clinic shut its doors in February last year owing to staff shortage. The clinic offered cancer treatments ranging from chemotherapy and radiation therapy and tests such as CAT scans, according to a media report.

Earlier this week, the clinic sent out holiday greetings and told patients that any outstanding debts would no longer need to be paid.

"I hope this note finds you well," wrote Dr Atiq. "The Arkansas Cancer Clinic was proud to have you as a patient. Although various health insurances pay most of the bills for the majority of patients, even the deductibles and copays can be burdensome."

He added, "Unfortunately, that is

the way our health care system currently works." He informed patients that the cancer clinic was closing practice after over 29 years of service.

"The clinic has decided to forego all balances owed to the clinic by its patients," said the note. "Happy holidays."

"We thought there was not a better time to do this than during a pandemic that has decimated homes, people's lives and businesses and all sorts of stuff," Dr Atiq told Arkansas Online. "We just thought we could do it, and we wanted to, so we went ahead and did it."

The doctor is also a professor at UAMS College of Medicine and oncologist at the UAMS William P Rockefeller Cancer Institute.

According to the local daily, the clinic worked with a billing company to cancel the debt and ensure no patient who owed money would face any type of financial repercussions.

Originally from Pakistan, Dr Atiq moved to Pine Buff in 1991

after completing a fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York City.

"It really is fate," he told Arkansas Online. I moved my family to Arkansas after receiving a call from Jefferson Regional Medical Centre with a job offer." He added that the decision to move was "life changing". The doctor became the first non-white president of the Arkansas Medical Society in 2013 and in 2018, he was named chairperson-elect of the board of governors of the American College of Physicians.

"We have been very grateful.

This has been home for a long time.

We are grateful for the opportunity for what has happened to our lives here," he said. "I believe the opportunities that have come my way are, in part, because of where I am."

When the thought of forgiving outstanding debt first crossed his mind, Dr Atiq reached out to executive vice-president of the Arkansas Medical Society, David Wroten.

Italy reports 364 coronavirus deaths on Saturday, 11,831 new cases ROME AGENCIES

Italy reported 364 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday against 462 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections plunged to 11,831 from 22,211, with far less testing than normal carried out on New Year’s day.

Just 67,174 swab tests were carried out in the past day, the ministry

said, down from a previous 157,524.

Italy has registered 74,985 Covid-19 deaths since its outbreak came to light on Feb. 21, the highest toll in Europe and the fifth highest in the world. The country has also reported 2.141 million cases to date, the health ministry said.

Patients in hospital with Covid19 stood at 22,948 on Saturday, up by 126 on the day before. There were 134 admissions to intensive care

units, compared with 145 on Friday.

The current number of intensive care patients rose by 16 to 2,569, reflecting those who died or were discharged after recovery.

When Italy’s second wave of the epidemic was accelerating fast in the first half of November, hospital admissions were rising by about 1,000 per day, while intensive care occupancy was increasing by about 100 per day.

NEWS

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put your own house in order first, pakistan tells India on minority rights issue CONtINuED fROM PAgE 01 The incident took place last Wednesday, when a mob, reportedly led by clerics, vandalised and later set a Hindu temple on fire in the southern Karak district of KP. The temple, though no longer functional, is considered a revered pilgrimage site by the Hindu community.

A day later, Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed took notice of the desecration of the temple as police began rounding up dozens of suspects – including the cleric who had instigated the attack. The top judge also directed the One Man Commission on Minorities Rights, the provincial chief secretary and police chief to visit the site and submit a report on the incident, according to a statement issued by the apex court.

UK to close all London primary schools for two weeks as coronavirus cases surge LONDON AGENCIES

The British government has decided to close all primary schools in London for the next two weeks to counter the rapid spread of a more infectious variant of the Covid19 virus, the capital's mayor said on Friday. On Wednesday, the education minister, Gavin Williamson, outlined a plan to delay the reopening of secondary schools, but open most primary schools for children under 11 years old on time next week at the end of Christmas break.

Only in the hardest hit parts of the country, which included some parts of the capital but not others, were primary schools slated to shut. But local authorities in several areas where schools were due to reopen complained. "The Government have finally seen sense and u-turned," London Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Twitter.

"All primary schools across London will be treated the same. "This is the right decision - and I want to thank education minister Nick Gibb for our constructive conversations over the past two days."

Somalia's al Shabaab says behind turkish company attack, four dead IStANBuL AGENCIES

A car bomb targeting workers of a Turkish company killed four people including one Turkish citizen on Saturday in Somalia, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said. The company’s staff were working on the construction of a road between Mogadishu and Afgoye, northwest of the capital, the ministry statement said. Abdiasis Abu Musab, military operation spokesman for the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, said the group was behind the attack. Somali government officials did not immediately respond to request for comment. The attack occurred outside the capital Mogadishu, according to residents in the area of the blast. Turkey has been a major source of aid to Somalia following a famine in 2011 as Ankara seeks to increase its influence in the Horn of Africa to counter Gulf rivals like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Last January, Somalia’s al Shabaab insurgents took responsibility for a car bombing that wounded at least 15 people in Afgoye, with those injured comprising Turkish contractors as well as Somali nationals. A group of Turkish engineers was also among those hit in late December 2019 in a blast at a checkpoint in Mogadishu that killed at least 90 people. In recent years Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has become a close ally of the Somali government. Ankara has built schools, hospitals and infrastructure and provided scholarships for Somalis to study in Turkey. In 2017, Turkey opened its biggest overseas military base in Mogadishu.

Police shut down raves defying Covid-19 curbs in France and Spain PARIS AGENCIES

Several hundred French police on Saturday shut down an illegal rave party in northwestern France that had been underway since New Year’s Eve in defiance of a curfew and coronavirus restrictions on large gatherings, officials said.

About 2,500 revellers from across France and abroad attended the rave in a disused warehouse in Lieuron, near Rennes, and some clashed with police soon after the party kicked off on Thursday, injuring several officers and damaging police cars.

The clashes prompted police to wait for reinforcements to be deployed before moving in to put an end to the party, Emmanuel Berthier, head of the Ille-et-Vilaine

prefecture, told reporters.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Twitter that more than 1,200 party-goers had been issued with penalty notices as they left the site, adding that the event’s organisers were being identified and would be prosecuted. About 800 of the revellers were sanctioned for attending an illegal party, breaking curfew and not wearing masks, and the rest were mostly issued notices for using illegal drugs, Berthier said.

Prosecutors in Rennes have opened a probe into the illegal organisation of a musical event and violence against persons of authority, the prefecture said, while local health authorities urged party-goers to self-isolate for seven days.

With the highest number of Covid-19 cases in western

CMYK

Europe, France is stepping up coronavirus restrictions, imposing an earlier curfew in 15 northeastern and southeastern departments from Saturday, starting at 6 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. In neighbouring Spain, police broke up a smaller warehouse rave near Barcelona that had also been going for more than 40 hours.

About 200 people attended the New Year’s Eve rave in the village of Llinars del Valles, and dozens continued to party on Saturday - some refusing to leave and shouting abuse when police arrived at the scene.

The event’s three organisers were arrested, Catalan’s Mossos d’Esquadra police force said on Twitter, adding that the three and those who attended the party would be charged and faced fines of between 3,000 and 600,000 euros.

Sunday, 3 January, 2021

06 COMMENT

Annus horribilis

The NAB loses credibility Cases being instituted at PM’s directions?

But it’s not over yet

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M Imran Khan repeats, almost compulsively, that he would not give an NRO to opposition leaders facing corruption cases. The mechanism Mr Khan is relying upon to end corruption is however highly partisan, defective and against legal and constitutional norms.

On Friday, opposition senators rejected the ongoing process of accountability as one-sided and accused the government of using it for a witch-hunt of its opponents. It was claimed that the NAB chief was being blackmailed to target the opposition after the leak of his “immoral audio and video clips” and he was now compelled to obey all orders “he receives through WhatsApp”. A Senator maintained that the accountability body had turned into a PTI wing.

Another member of the Upper House accused NAB of indulging in unprecedented political victimization.

Never before had NAB come so severely under criticism from superior courts as in preceding months. Last month SC judge Umar Ata Bandial remarked that the controversial provision empowering NAB to detain an accused for 90 days on physical remand in every reference is “cruel and an injustice”. In another case the same judge slammed NAB for 'selectively applying its law on individuals’. The 87-page judgment by SC Justice Baqar granting bail to PML(N) leader Kh Saad Rafique makes damaging observations about NAB’s capricious exercise of the power to arrest in utter disregard to law, fair play, equity and propriety. The NAB, said the judgment, shows reluctance in proceeding against people on one side of the political divide, even in respect of financial scams of massive proportion, while it arrests and incarcerates for months and years those on the other side without providing any sufficient cause.

In October, retired FIA director general Bashir Memon accused PM Imran Khan in a video interview of pressuring him to prosecute opposition leaders on serious charges despite there being no evidence. He also said that Mr Khan wanted the recently arrested senior PML(N) leader Khawaja Asif to be tried for treason under Article 6 of the Constitution. This exposes the hollowness of the slogan of sparing no corrupt politician.

The ongoing accountability drama has to end. The rotten system has to be improved in consultation with the opposition. There is a likelihood otherwise of opposition leaders refusing to appear before it.

Arif NizAmi

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He ‘annus horribilis’ of 2020 segueing into 2021 is stating but the obvious. The world has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic during the preceding year in a manner beyond imagination. Total number of confirmed deaths from Covid-19 so far is 1.8 million, and counting. Ironically, the western world, despite having some of the best health systems in the world, has been hit hardest. Only in the United States 354,233 people have perished and in the UK 73,512.

The singular hope is the vaccine that is now being marketed .But in the interregnum it is estimated, the worst is yet to come.

In Pakistan too, as a result of the disease, more than 10,000 have already died. Thankfully, the impact of covid-19 in Pakistan has been relatively mild. If the pandemic had hit with full force it would have been Armageddon for us as well.

The Government can take due credit for this. But the social , political and economic impact has been calamitous all over the world including Pakistan. As the misery continues into the New Year, matters will get worse. Pakistan’s virtually negative growth rate coupled with record inflation and manufacturing at almost at a standstill do not auger well for the economy.

The resultant inflation and unemployment have manifestly increased the suffering of the teeming masses.

The country has been impoverished to such an extent that it is being sustained through record loans, mostly at commercial rates. 2020 was the year of record debt that mushroomed to nearly $113 billion.

According to State Bank of Pakistan, an additional $1.6 billion was added at the end of June last year, which is more than during the PML-N’s five years rule.

Major glitches remain in the international lending agency IMF’s eFF (extended Fund Facility). The country received $1.44 billion of the 3-year year $6

Political appointments Lahore CCPO removal was inevitable

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NOTHeR one of the many pre-election promises made by the PTI that the party has abysmally failed to keep was to eliminate the culture of governments making politically motivated appointments to keep their opponents in check. The underqualified appointee, unfit for the actual job at hand, makes a mockery of the office he holds, reducing performance, only to be shown the door after a short stint by which time the damage is done. The latest example of this political bureaucratic turnover is the removal of controversial figure Umar Sheikh from the post of Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) after being given the job just four months ago, despite a damning intelligence report against him by the IB and severe resentment within the senior cadre of the Punjab Police. The IG Punjab at the time, Shoaib Dastgir, whom Prime Minister Imran Khan had earlier commended for arresting several notorious hardened criminals that his four predecessors were unable to, was removed after he refused to work with the government over its appointing Umar Sheikh as CCPO. Following the horrific Lahore-Sialkot motorway rape incident, Mr Sheikh passed some severely insensitive remarks, blaming the victim for what had happened.

Prime Minister Imran Khan was however still all praises for the new CCPO, revealing in an interview how Mr Sheikh had successfully removed squatters from a property owned by his brother-in-law. The fact that the Prime Minister would sooner remove a competent and effective Police IG than accept that the appointment of a recalcitrant incompetent loudmouth junior officer as CCPO was the wrong call, and just because the latter had delivered on a personal task of his, is the epitome of cronyism.

Special Assistant to the Chief Minister of Punjab on Information and Culture Firdous Ashiq Awan has explained that Mr Sheikh’s removal was not abrupt, rather he was given specific targets to be achieved in four months, which he was unable to do; one look at his performance record and reputation would have sufficed for Punjab CM Usman Buzdar to realise that Mr Sheikh was not the right man for the job. It would seem therefore that the ‘job’ was never to make Punjab a safer province through better police work, but to work on political deliverables that suit the PTI. In the process, the Punjab Police has become a more demoralized force and the crime rate has gone up.

How quarantine came about Learning from the past to survive the present

rAbiA Ahmed

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020 has dinned certain things into us that will not be easily forgotten. One of these is the word ‘quarantine’ with the concept of isolating the infected. The origins of this word and concept lie in one of the many Black Plague outbreaks that swept the world something like 40 times in 300 years between the 14th and 17th centuries, killing all together perhaps half of the world’s population. Nobody knew then what caused this disease, why it got some people and missed others and why it spread the way it did, but they had a vague notion it had something to do with exposure to an already sick person. So during the epidemic that swept through europe in the 14th century, people infected with the plague were strictly isolated in their homes, and in the Venetian port of Ragusa, sailors who arrived from other countries were isolated on their ships first for 30 days, and later for ‘quarantino’ days, the Italian word for 40 from which english got the word quarantine, and the world the concept of isolation. The word quarantine now applies to isolation

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

Umar Aziz

Asher John

Joint Editor

Executive Editor

Deputy Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965

Maulana being the moving spirit behind it has put the government on notice to quit, failing which, it has threatened a long march and resignations en masse from the parliament.

With Khan fully entrenched and having the support of the establishment, this is unlikely to happen.

But the instability it will engender is bound create more billion bailout package. The third tranche is still uncertainty. But Khan is fixated on his oft- repeated under review. Reportedly, there has been some agree- mantra ‘I will not give an NRO (withdraw legal cases ment with the IMF to hike power rates and bring the against the opposition through an Ordinance). A circular debt down. Already electricity rates have motely crowd of spokespersons around the prime minbeen increased. Axiomatically this means more hard- ister have been assigned the singular talk of castigating the opposition as thieves and crooks on the media. ships for the common man.

A false reality is thus created to hide the governPrime minister Imran Khan faces a double whammy. On one side he is well aware that unless he ment’s own incompetence and ineptitude. Announcshows a modicum of performance in governance and ing new development schemes has become a hobby managing the economy, it will be difficult to sustain horse of the prime minister. Nobody is willing to explain where the money for himself in face of the opposuch grandiose schemes will sition’s onslaught against come from him. On the other, if he does A policy reset is needed not meet the conditionalities not only for this year but for of the lending agencies, it Prime minister Imran Khan the rest of the PTI’s tenure. will be virtually impossible Khan, no matter how much he to run a bankrupt country. faces a double whammy. On believes in himself, cannot do Khan has already one side he is well aware that it alone. No matter how much reached half of his five-year that the opposition term. He recently exhorted unless he shows a modicum isheathinks bunch of ‘chors’ unworhis team to click as there was of performance in thy of his attention and aclittle time left to show receptance, they are an integral sults. This is the biggest chalgovernance and managing part of the political matrix. lenge facing the prime The prime minster should minister in the New Year. the economy, it will be also consider revamping his Unfortunately, the PM difficult to sustain himself in team. A 52-member cabinet is and his team has been unable too large and hardly viable in to get its act together. Full face of the opposition’s such difficult times. Most marks to him for sincerity onslaught against him. ministers are fellow travellers and dedication. But sadly the who are in the government road to hell is paved with owing to sheer opportunism good intentions. Khan rightly rather than competence. says that when he took over, As Khan had promised, the economy was already in a bad shape. Added to that, the pandemic made matters he should have a lean and mean cabinet of twenty or much worse. But now the buck stops with him. He got so, which is perhaps not possible owing to his numelected prime minister to deliver on his promises not bers in the parliament. The government spokesperson just to make excuses. In a democracy, that we claim should be the information minister instead of the multo be, matters are conducted through consensus not by titude that surrounds the airwaves and the PM 24/7. fiat. But the PTI government’s ongoing feud with the Shibli Faraz will do fine.

Various spokesmen keep on ridiculing the oppoopposition is endemic. According to the prime minister, the opposition are corrupt who through their mis- sition that it does not really want to reform the NAB rule and shenanigans impoverished the country. (National Accountability Bureau). But their real inHence, he will have no truck with them. Resultantly tention is an NRO for themselves through blackmailing the government. In reality the so-called he does even want to shake hands with them.

There is not even a modicum of a consultation accountability watchdog is the cat-paw of the govprocess between the government and the opposition, ernment for vendetta against its opponents.

It is high time the accountability process is made not even on vital issues facing the nation. The opposition’s backs to the wall, Khan have forced a union transparent and even-handed through consensus.

If the prime minister is really keen to make a that looked impossible only a few months back.

JUI-F (Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F) chief Maulana clean government, charity begins at home. He should Fazl ur Rehman failed to unite the opposition under show the door to some members of his own team who one banner with his mostly solo march against the are by no means squeaky clean. In the present milieu, PTI government late last year. Only a few months 2021 might be the year of make or break for him. later he succeeded simply because the opposition parArif Nizami is Editor, Pakistan Today. He can be ties have been left with no other option.

The newly formed opposition party’s alliance contacted at arifn51@hotmail.com http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM), with the

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Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

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to prevent infection, however long that takes. This approach worked. By the 15th century, isolating the sick during a plague had become law in england.

Most of the year 2020, with Covid 19 upon us, we have been in much the same position without any weapon against the disease. Only now that vaccines have been found,does there seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel.

It is worth considering how the world survived the previous pandemics, what did people do to fight against the Black Deaths, cholera and the smallpox before vaccination for those diseases appeared?

The only thing that appears to have saved people then was quarantine. It was only later in the 18th century that smallpox became the first disease to be pushed back by another means, with edward Jenner’s vaccine against smallpox. Smallpox was announced to be completely eradicated by 1980.

John Snow identified cholera with contaminated drinking water in the 19th century, bringing about a great reduction in that disease. Quarantine, vaccinations, sanitation. The efficacy of these three things might have gone a long way towards eradicating certain terrible diseases, but anti-vaxxers and other sceptics remain, people who do not believe in the efficacy of ‘social distancing’, and sanitation, as well as people who believe that God will in some mysterious way rid us of our troubles without us lifting a finger to help ourselves. To provide a clean and safe water supply is a government’s job. Failure to do so, as in Pakistan, is the failure of that government.

For all these things although sceptics exist very much among the educated as well, the people most likely not to believe in them are the uneducated or the less educated, those whose lives have not led them to accept the existence of what they cannot see (other than God whose concept has been with them all their lives); those whose education, if they possess, some does not teach them to rationalize, conceptualise and understand anything beyond the small box that contains the sum of their worldly experience. This is not by any means their fault. That they were not educated

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is the fault of those entrusted with doing so, once again the government. That even if they have the rudiments of education if they cannot conceptualise it is the fault of the kind of rote, unimaginative education they receive. That their horizons are so limited is their lot in life, which could change with more education or greater opportunities, neither of which are brought their way.

Once the vaccine comes to Pakistan there will almost definitely be cases like the one that just took place in the USA where a pharmacist deliberately removed more than 500 vaccines from is cooling facility. experts have said, mercifully, that there will be no adverse effects other than ineffectiveness of the vaccine. In Pakistan, the same government that cares much more about re-election and spends all its energy wrangling, that cares nothing about its people’s education, or about providing clean water, must take care that this does not happen here. Other than anything else, Pakistan cannot afford such wastage.

People must be shown, adults as well as children in school, animations about what a virus is, how it attacks and spreads, and films about the absolute necessity of isolation and quarantine. Messages on phones, leaflets and other vague methods are as good as nothing, they will cut no ice. People need to understand exactly why it is dangerous these days to attend weddings and funerals, why it is important to boil their drinking water, and why it is crucial to get the vaccination when it arrives in Pakistan.

The stress must be on teaching children who do after learn to believe in an unseen divinity. Why not then an unseen biological reality, which can be seen with a microscope?

People need to know how vaccines work, to see on film (they cannot read most of the time) what smallpox was, how it was eradicated, how the Black Death ended. Actual footage, actual stories, actual pictures. This is as important as mathematics, as crucial as religious studies, as empowering as chemistry, physics and biology.

Teachers need imagination to pass on this knowledge. The government needs the will. Is it within the power of this country to find stores of imagination and will?

Rabia Ahmed is a freelance columnist. Read more by her at http://rabia-ahmed.blogspot.com

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Sunday, 3 January, 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

PPSC fiasco

From the frying pan into the fire With their unity in tatters, the PDM components struggle to hide the gaping holes

Candid Corner rAoof hAsAN “i write two pages – that’s all i write. it takes me about an hour. i have learned that is all i am capable of and to push myself beyond that is foolhardy. it’s a very delicate thing, and i will not abuse it. So, i write two pages, and then i get up from the computer.”

–katrina elizabeth diCamillo

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NSTeAD of responding to long-standing queries, the January 1 meeting of the PDM leaders added some more to the list. even the claim that discussions among the constituent parties were held in a cordial atmosphere was belied by the despondency writ large on their faces.

Among the decisions taken, which are at a tangent to their earlier proclamations, is the one that PDM parties will participate in the forthcoming by-elections for the assemblies while a decision about the Senate polls was put off for another time. There was a reiteration of their earlier demand that the Prime Minister resign by January 31, failing which a long march will be undertaken, the date of which will also be decided later. The assault on the military was venomous, which they blamed for being the reason for all that was wrong in the country, including the rigging of the last elections. They also threatened that the decision whether to take the proposed march to Islamabad or Rawalpindi (read GHQ) will be taken at the next meeting. They accused the military of turning Pakistan into a ‘deep state’, thus rendering the system hostage which was thwarting the prospect of establishing genuine democracy. It was also stated that, as of now, their war was not with Imran Khan who was a mere stooge, but the military– an ominous declaration by all means and intents.

The proposal of holding a national dialogue to find a way out of the present confrontational mould was rejected outright. A demonstration is also planned in front of the eCP office in Islamabad for January 19 while the date for staging a similar protest in front of the NAB office will be announced later. And, in spite of the tatters which are showing with gaping holes, there was much parroting of the continuing unity among the PDM constituent parties.

No decision was also taken on submission of resignations which was the core weapon the opposition wanted to use to upstage the government. In the end, inter alia, the constituent parties had to bow before the PPP narrative encompassing a combination of not tendering resignations

from the assemblies (which they don’t recognise), confronting the government on all platforms, and refusal to give up the Sindh government. This reflects a major deviation from the original PDM plan where tendering resignations was the trump card (some called it the ‘atom bomb’) they were banking on to seek resignation from the government. This key component of the original strategy has now been replaced by taking the battle to the doors of the military by threatening them nakedly to back off.

This is quite a fall! The issue is that I have more questions today than I had before the convening of this moot. There was speculation about growing differences among the constituent parties of the PDM which has been all but proved right.

Other than that, there was virtually no concrete decision adopted to propel the movement further.

Blaming the military is a tacit acknowledgement of their inability to forge unity among their ranks. Today, the conglomerate of 11 parties which had vowed to wage joint struggle for the restoration of democracy and civilian supremacy stands divided into two camps: the one led by the PPP, and supported by a majority within the PDM, believes that resigning from assemblies is not the right strategy to reach their goal while the other faction, comprising the PML(N) and JUI(F), wants the struggle to turn violent, thus setting the stage for forcing the government out. The former approach recognizes the paradigm of realpolitik while the latter signifies an act of extreme desperation. Suffering from division among their ranks, is there even a distant possibility of either option succeeding to see the back of the incumbent government?

The answer is a no.

First and foremost, there is no substantive cause holding the PDM together. establishing genuine democracy in the country is not the commitment that moves them in this confrontational approach. Civilian supremacy is also not an objective that would stir them to action as most of them are the product of military patronage. Working for the benefit of the country or the people is also no driver for this movement as these parties have been in power over the last four decades as part of one coalition or the other, even by themselves. It is a self-interest-driven bonhomie to save their corruption and escape the looming accountability.

In reality, they themselves are the reason why the country is today confronted with some monumental existential challenges. The manner in which Pakistan has been plundered, bloodied and badgered has no precedent anywhere in the world. It is the very same leadership which op-

erated as thugs to skin the country of its resources solely for their personal aggrandisement, thus forcing the impoverished and marginalised communities to languish in deprivation and poverty. Their basic needs were never attended to. No meaningful investment was made in the sectors of education, health, social care, provision of job opportunities and uplifting the self-esteem of the downtrodden people. This was so because the ruling elite never required these facilities in the country. Their needs, and those of their kith and kin, were met in foreign lands, which is also where they have stashed their illicit wealth. So, their lust for more was augmented by their insensitivity to the horror that the poor multitudes are faced with as a matter of daily routine.

It is with the advent of Imran Khan as the Prime Minister that these thugs are confronted with any real prospect of elimination of their vile and wicked brand of politics. They know they can neither frighten Khan from fulfilling his agenda of service to the people, nor contaminate his resolve to remain steadfast in his mission.

After inheriting a wreck of a country and striving tirelessly to stabilise it through his first two years in power, he is now concentrating on remodelling it to serve its needy people as a matter of their right.

It is the quotient of compassion instilled into every undertaking he initiates that makes Khan stand apart from these gangs of exploiters. ehsaas is the flagship programme of the government for bringing relief to the poor and the needy. The panagahs (shelters) that he has set up to provide food and resting places for the poorest of the poor is just a precursor to what he intends to do for the country and its people. And it is here that the former ruling elite see a genuine threat to their chances of ever staging a comeback because, once the poor people have been lifted out of poverty and they develop their consciousness to use their right to vote freely, they would never cast it for those who are responsible for their deprivations. With the parties of the PDM plunging from the frying pan into the fire, it is Khan alone who is ascendant in his commitment to the cause of Pakistan and all its institutions which are fighting a combination of inimical forces, internally and externally, with indescribable bravery, grit and resoluteness. Nothing can deter this confluence of spirit and resolve.

People must be shown, adults as well as children in school, animations about what a virus is, how it attacks and spreads, and films about the absolute necessity of isolation and quarantine. Messages on phones, leaflets and other vague methods are as good as nothing, they will cut no ice. People need to understand exactly why it is dangerous these days to attend weddings and funerals, why it is important to boil their drinking water, and why it is crucial to get the vaccination when it arrives in Pakistan.

The writer is a political and security strategist, and heads the Regional Peace institute – an islamabad-based think tank. Email: raoofhasan@hotmail.com. Twitter: @RaoofHasan

THe thousands of candidates, who traveled from far and wide of Punjab in this chilly weather to take part in a recruitment test under the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC), were shocked to learn that the paper had been cancelled citing “unavoidable circumstances”. However, it later transpired that the paper was leaked by a four-member gang that the authorities claimed has been arrested by the anti-corruption department.

This shows that despite oft-repeated claims of transparency and a score of institutional reforms, merit-based recruitment is still elusive in Pakistan. Though the recruitment system is more streamlined and transparent today than it used to be a decade ago, yet this incident establishes that many black sheep are still present in such sensitive institutions that are manipulating the whole system for their petty gains, thus playing with the future of the youth in the process.

In the aftermath of this crisis, the most hardworking and deserving candidates are in the doldrums about their future. It’s high time that the PPSC addressed the mounting concerns of candidates by plugging the loopholes and unearthing the racket of black sheep working in the organization. The provincial government also needs to directly deal with this matter on a priority basis as the incident has brought a bad name to the ruling party that wants to promote merit in the selection process.

Faisal Hayat WajHlana Okara

Oil smuggling

SANA Baloch is a member of the Balochistan Provincial Assembly and former member of the National Assembly, in the Senate, of Pakistan. He is the senior researcher and MPA of Balochistan national party. He used to talk about the National Assembly regarding smuggling oil. He says in Balochistan eight percent of people are surviving due to this business. The government has directly forbidden those who are indulged with this business. He says, in Balochistan the ratio of unemployment is 86 percent where people don't have three times the food to eat. Since, in Balochistan majorities of the roads conditions are uncertain. If the government has to consider this business illegal so through the negotiations solutions come out. Neither makes them unemployed. Most of the areas of Baluchistan are deprived from basic rights, no availability of electricity, gas, industries, machinery infrastructures and more. We never took the responsibility of those common masses, who are ignored fundamentally. After, 18th amendment the government needs to regulate the oil legally so they are never compelled to do so. Undoubtedly, the executive director directly addressed that the oil business is entirely illegal. The government needs to see the realities of Balochistan, even their masses can survive, if their food is snatched from their mouths. Sana says it is the 3rd time, discussed this issue. Why is the government so irresponsible? Further, in the world if something is wrong so they never make any ordinance, they used to take out the solution, nor make the masses in trouble. You need to overcome an issue with the table of sulation.

Waleed lal turbat

$28.7 Million Penalty Payment

SIR, This poor country has to pay $28.7 Million to a US firm Broadsheet LLC hired by a military dictator Musharraf in 2000, who usurped power and was blinded by his egoistic obsession to punish former PM Nawaz Sharif. There is a legal requirement to conclude a contract signed with a foreign company in case the State does not intend to proceed further, especially after Musharraf junta, under pressure from Saudi Arabia etc., decided to let the former PM go on exile and drop all charges. The Junta had numerous legal advisors and others holding immense power, which places on them the responsibility for signing an agreement with Broadsheet LLC and not closing it with no financial repercussions. What is astonishing is that $5 Million was paid to settle the matter but there are no receipts as evidence that such a payment was made. This country has suffered because of the obsession of elected or unelected heads of state, to punish their political adversaries, and in the process their mental faculties are so occupied that the affairs of state suffer. There is a procedure laid down in the constitution to proceed against public office holders. An elected PM must not allow his mind to be obsessed with political adversaries. Public Office holders accused of corruption should be proceeded against in accordance with laws in existence and the constitution. A former Chairman FBR has stated that almost $120 to 150 Billion belonging to Pakistanis is deposited in foreign bank accounts. He also stated that only 20% of this is corruption money and the rest 80% is institutionalized corruption consisting of commissions from state procurement deals and deposits by traders etc., through under or over invoicing etc.

MAlik TARiq Ali lAHoRE

Stay in quarantine

AS the all educational institutions remain shut down across the country, there has widely existed a great crisis in the country especially for the future of education. However, we have to run through education Minister who has planned for us good since he is widely concerned regarding educational issues due to Covid-19 spread. Shefqat Mehmood, the education Minister of Pakistan recently asked students to study and revise as much as possible and he even wanted students to realize that the closing of schools wasn't done for holidays. Therefore, we should not achieve the benefits of closing schools for enjoyment, rather we should read notes, course books spending time on important games and learning ways to be perfect in these holidays.

BARkATullAH TuRBAT

Sunday, 3 January, 2021

08 WORLD VIEW

IT's TIme fOr BIBI TO sTep asIDe THE POLITICAL CLASS MISTRUSTS HIM AND RESENTS THE GOVERNMENT BEING SUBORDINATED TO HIS PERSONAL INTERESTS

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DANIel PIPeS

rOM the moment I met Benjamin Netanyahu, I liked him. On a personal level, I have had sporadic but good relations over nearly forty years. We first met in 1983, when he was deputy chief of mission at the Israeli embassy in Washington and I worked at the State Department. Over the decades since, I came to admire him for his many accomplishments.But it's time for him to go.

Netanyahu became Israel's youngestever prime minister in 1996. his tenure had its ups and downs. Visiting him a month into his first premiership, I wrote appreciatively that he "glowed and looked to the future."

That glow dimmed during his weak and amoral first prime ministry, to the point that in 1999 I wrote an exposé of his failed Golan heights policy and reluctantly rooted for his opponent to win the election.

Things improved in 2003-05, when Netanyahu served as Israel's minister of finance. his economics training gave him the skills and confidence to make unpopular but much-needed changes, which to this day benefit Israel. By his second time as prime minister, happily, Netanyahu had matured. he governed with a moral compass, provided real leadership and impressed the Israelis sufficiently to win reelection a remarkable five times between 2013 and 2020. Will March 2021 make it six?

We stayed in touch over the years. he even took the time to send me a generous condolence note and to call me after my father died in 2018. So, I emphasize, my issue with him is neither political nor personal. rather, it comes down to two problems: a frantic avoidance of criminal lawsuits and the alienation of allies.

Netanyahu's opponents, unable to bring him down electorally, have resorted to multiple lawsuits to end his political career.

Granting that Netanyahu skated near the legal limits, Alan Dershowitz convincingly argues that his "fate belongs in the hands of voters, not investigators or the courts." however, even presuming the prime minister's innocence, Netanyahu's desperate efforts to avoid or at least minimize the impact of the court cases harms the country.

Netanyahu's personal priorities, not the party's nor the country's, now drive Israeli domestic politics, with baleful implications

The theology of identity politics

City JOuRnaL

I

JoRge goNzález-gAllARzA

N American Awakening, Georgetown political theory dean Joshua Mitchell unmasks identity politics for what it is: a toxic outgrowth of Protestant Christianity that threatens the American regime of liberty and self-government. The book builds on popular critiques of wokeness by placing the phenomenon in the grander scheme of our post-1989 experiment in secular hyper-liberalism.

While other writers have noted the religious fervor that underpins wokeness, few have gone beyond caricaturing it. For many religious-minded people, to speak of any similarities between identity politics and Christianity sounds like wild exaggeration. Yet Mitchell argues compellingly that the absence of God and forgiveness is the only substantive difference between the moral paradigm of wokeness and the Christian one that it seeks to replace. his argument reveals an entire alternative theology undergirding identity politics.

Both the Christian and woke worldviews build moral orders around the categories of innocence and transgression—but with vastly different effects. In Christianity, original sin stains all human beings as transgressors, so the path to redemption cannot lie within anyone who belongs to this world. The woke worldview amounts to a shortcut to the same salvific end; though Christians believe that Jesus Christ descended from heaven to achieve salvation for all in a world beyond this one, identity politics places the keys to the kingdom within human grasp, in the here and now—provided one belongs to the right group. By claiming the mantle of innocence that identity politics confers, oppressed minorities can extricate themselves from transgression altogether and demand justice and moral redress by means of exacting payment from the transgressors. And only by scapegoating themselves and others of their group can white, heterosexual men— the transgressors, in the identity politics schema—cleanse themselves of the stain of their own natures.

Mitchell begins his inquiry by tracing how the categories of innocence and transgression migrated from religion to politics, beginning with the decline of mainline Protestant churches in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. This migration, he argues, was problematic enough, but the new sec-

ular religion is troubling for a more consequential reason. By placing atonement for past transgressions at the center of politics, wokeness seeks to apportion power in proportion to innocence. Note how in woke terminology “speaking as” a member of an innocent group instantly confers a legitimacy akin to what writer Coleman hughes calls “heightened moral knowledge.”

The regime that results is antithetical to what Mitchell calls the “liberal politics of competence.” By “competence” here, he means not mastery of any particular skill but the combination of ability and duty that both allows and compels citizens to work with one another in tackling common problems. In Mitchell’s sense, “competence” forms the basis of liberal democracy by placing the onus on citizens themselves to address challenges collaboratively on the basis of self-interest. By excluding those it deems transgressors from the ranks of “competent” citizens, writes Mitchell, identity politics neuters liberal democracy altogether.

In these polarized times, much of the dynamic that Mitchell describes has be-

come apparent even to those not politically inclined. One avenue of inquiry that Mitchell leaves to others (Yoramhazony recently explored it in Quillette) concerns how liberalism itself, practiced à la lettre, has laid the path for its own dismantling by enabling the poison of identity politics.

Liberal thought, hazony argues, never intended self-interest to be a guide for individuals acting in a vacuum; it is only through communal association that we can properly exercise our liberty.

This nuanced understanding—what Tocqueville called “liberty, properly understood”—has been undermined by a retrospective embrace of classical liberalism that reduces the Lockean social contract to the pursuit of individual self-interest alone. A connoisseur of Tocqueville, Mitchell is at his best when he reads in the Frenchman’s philosophy a foreboding of today’s ills—if not of identity politics directly, then of the derangements that nourish it. Mitchell defines those derangements

as bipolarity and addiction. On the former, Tocqueville was visionary. he foresaw the trouble that would befall America when individuals came to see themselves as “greater than kings and lesser than men.”

By greater than kings, he was referring to man’s temptation to abuse his natural right to liberty, leading to a decoupling of American self-government from the moral presuppositions on which it was founded: the preference for the local, communitarian scale of public life. The forces pulling us in this direction are exacerbated by social media, which gives us access to a universe of fictional interactions that bestow the illusion of control, even as we withdraw from the neighborly bonds of community.

As for “lesser than men”: a centralized federal government was already emerging at the time of Democracy in America (1835), though its author didn’t live to see the progressive agenda that began to put it into effect in the twentieth century. But beyond statism, other factors have worked to diminish man’s appetite for liberal competence. Globalism elevates the everyday challenges of politics to a global scale, where allegedly only remote and unaccountable institutions are competent to manage them, further alienating man from the duty of competence. Mitchell refines Tocqueville’s warning with a political theory of our present predicament. he calls the twinned operation of these forces “management society” and “selfie man.”

The first describes the empowerment of distant globalist bureaucrats, while the second describes the ordinary man lured away from competence by the fantasy of holding a digital grip on the world.

By addiction, Mitchell means the coming into being of another danger foreseen long before Tocqueville. “Substitutism,” as he charitably calls it, is man’s tendency to withdraw progressively from the duty to build a common world with others by replacing key elements of that experiment with crude approximations.

Twitter, for instance, provides us with the self-satisfying illusion of being engaged citizens, even as it isolates us from the real world where citizen engagement actually matters.

American Awakening is an ambitious book, seeking not only to translate the deep theological assumptions driving the woke agenda but also to draw parallels between them and older derangements in liberal democracy. Though many others have sounded this alarm, Mitchell’s warning is compelling. The liberal-democratic experiment of citizens shaping reality together through common duty toward one another is incompatible with identity politics—for religion and politics pollute one another when mixed.

Jorge González-Gallarza is the cohost of the Uncommon Decency podcast and an associate researcher at FundaciónCivismo.

American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time, by Joshua Mitchell (Encounter Books, 242 pp., $28.99)

for the economy, public health and civic trust. For example, during frenzied attempts to form a government in June 2019, the prime minister made underhanded offers to members of opposition parties and considered a coalition with the anti-Zionist Joint List. Also, to ensure the loyalty of the haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) parties, he grants them undue influence over Israeli society, at the expense of the country's cohesion.If Netanyahu does not deserve his legal woes, the alienation of allies is undoubtedly of his own making. The political class mistrusts him and resents the government being subordinated to his personal interests. The "Anyone But Bibi" slogan represents this sentiment. Former colleagues in the Likud Party—Naftali Bennett, Moshe Kahlon, Avigdor Liberman and Gideon Sa'ar—have become his avowed political enemies and abandoned Likud in anger to found their own rival parties.

Most devastating, however, was Ze'ev

elkin's very recent denunciation of Netanyahu, delivered as elkin announced he was departing Likud to join Sa'ar's fledgling party. For a decade, elkin had served as Netanyahu's confidant, filling myriad key roles for him from coalition chairman to russian translator with Vladimir Putin. In a stunning revelation, elkin accused Netanyahu of "destroying Likud" by turning it into a "Byzantine court" and a personality cult. he indicted Netanyahu for making false promises to "friends, allies, activists and ordinary citizens." reluctantly, this analyst concludes that it's time for Netanyahu to move on. he's already Israel's longest-ever serving prime minister. his optimism and vision serve as his legacy, as do his economic savvy and his resolve versus enemies of the Jewish state. his vote of thanks should be election as the next president of Israel in half a year.

As one 71-year-old to another, I note the great talent of Israel's younger generation and urge my friend Bibi to give it the chance it deserves.

Daniel Pipes (DanielPipes.org, @DanielPipes) is president of the Middle East Forum.

COVID-19 exposes the cracks in the world's big democracies

BLOOMBERG

T

PANKAJ MISHRA

he year 2020 was, by any measure, rich in awakenings and reckonings.

None were as earth-shaking as those forced upon the United States, Britain and India. The pandemic found three of the world’s most prominent democracies shockingly underprepared, governed by leaders as incompetent as they were deluded and encumbered with states that had steadily rendered themselves incapable of performing their most basic duty: protecting human lives.

In each case, stridently advanced claims — whether to be a new superpower (India), to become one again (Britain) or to provide moral leadership to the world (U.S.) — were broken on the wheel of an unforgiving virus.

The socio-economic challenges before these countries suddenly seem immense, greater even than those faced after the calamity of two world wars. The conventional formulas for national uplift — intensified mass production of goods and services — are no longer enough in the age of deindustrialization and climate change. Meanwhile, the promise of the knowledge economy seems largely deceptive.

But a deeper and more intractable, if also intangible, problem lies in the realm of perception. For the pandemic revealed the great and crippling chasm that exists between reality and the images cherished by these countries. A future that represents an appreciable improvement over the present will remain elusive unless the diminished democracies develop less grandiose and more pragmatic self-images.

In the conventional, widely celebrated idea of India, the country brims with democratic virtues and seems destined to outpace China and take its place among the great Western powers. “India is not simply emerging,” then-President Barack Obama claimed in 2010, “India has emerged.”

This vision, hardened into an unassailable consensus by politicians, businessmen and journalists, ignored the country’s unresolved contradictions of social and economic inequality, as well as its inept bureaucracies, dodgy bankers, defaulting businessmen, venal politicians and timorous journalists.

In Britain, the dream of imperial power and self-sufficiency grew more intense even as the country became more parasitic on inbound flows of financial capital. The final and shattering delusion was Brexit, a perfect act

of national self-harm.

In the U.S., decades of political dysfunction, endless wars, economic crises and intolerable inequality culminated in four disastrous years of Donald Trump.

In all three cases, the political class and, to a damaging extent, the mainstream media and intelligentsia tried to keep up appearances long after they had frayed.Thus, Obama could write in Wired magazine, a month before Trump’s election in 2016, that for Americans there had never been a greater time to be alive.

In Britain, an alliance of right-wing politicians and journalists won a massive electoral endorsement for their fiction that liberation from the european Union would unleash their country’s world-beating prowess. Prime Minister Narendra Modi successfully kept up his rhetoric of regaining hindu pride and glory long after his policy of demonetization had severely compromised India’s economy.

All nations are imagined communities.

But they lose sight of their essential tasks and fatally restrict their scope of action if they imagine themselves too extravagantly.

India today would be more resilient had it resisted irrational exuberance and diagnosed and repaired early such structural weaknesses as a poorly educated and underfed labor force and underinvestment in the rural sector. Likewise, Britain’s fate as a country that no longer makes enough goods desired by the world need not have been so bleak.

The U.S. would not be a society divided into insulated winners and angry losers had it not believed its own rhetoric about the unimpeachable virtues of its liberal capitalist system after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Stagnation and decline had already set in by the 1990s, and the trillions of dollars spent on military capabilities and democracy-promotion abroad could have been used to stem inequality at home, or at least to bring public healthcare in line with other rich countries.

Illusions of grandeur are again flourishing as a traumatic year ends and a new one begins. The British government and its journalistic mouthpieces have promised a windfall of “sovereignty” upon Britain’s exit from the eU. India has started to hope again that it can replace China as a destination for manufacturers. The incoming Biden administration is broadcasting its intention, as thousands of Americans succumb to COVID-19 every day, to have the U.S. lead the world again.

Such desires cannot but seem a case of what Sigmund Freud called regression: The national ego is reverting to an earlier developmental stage instead of handling reality in a mature way, still insisting that a gap, cruelly exposed by the pandemic, between selfperception and reality can be narrowed.

With stricken nations, as with individuals, a new and better life becomes possible only after obsolete and unsafe ideas about self are discarded. Admittedly, countries cannot overnight abandon the self-flattering narratives that they have long generated for external consumption. Nevertheless, the great democracies would do well in the new year to adhere to a principle that underpins one of the world’s most gainful businesses: Do not get high on your own supply.

Sunday, 3 January, 2021

BUSINESS 09

GovT oFFerS To Clear oUTSTandinG dUeS oF iPPS T ISLAMABAD

Tesla 2020 deliveries beat estimates, but fall short of Musk’s target NEW YORK: Tesla Inc on Saturday reported better-thanexpected 2020 vehicle deliveries, driven by a steady rise in electric vehicle adoption across the world’s largest economies. The company delivered 499,550 vehicles during 2020, above Wall Street estimates of 481,261 vehicles, according to Refinitiv data, but 450 shy of CEO Elon Musk’s target of half a million. Musk, however, tweeted here he was “proud of the Tesla team for achieving this major milestone.” “At the start of Tesla, I thought we had (optimistically) a 10% chance of surviving at all,” he said.

Tesla has pinned hopes on new markets such as Europe and Asia, with competition intensifying in its home turf as legacy automakers double down their investments in the booming EV space. Its delivery push has been supported by its new Shanghai factory, the only plant currently producing vehicles outside California. The carmaker said here Model Y production in Shanghai has begun, with deliveries expected shortly. Palo Alto, California-based Tesla said it delivered 180,570 vehicles during the fourth quarter, a quarterly record for the electric carmaker, beating estimates of 163,628 vehicles. AGENCIES

Facebook’s advertising integrity chief leaves company SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook Inc’s chief of advertising integrity, who handled the company’s ad products around sensitive subjects such as politics and coronavirus misinformation, departed this week, according to an internal company post viewed by Reuters on Friday. Rob Leathern, director of product management, said earlier this month on Facebook’s internal network that he would be leaving the company on Dec 30. His exit had not been previously reported. Facebook could not immediately be reached for comment. Leathern said in the post that he was “leaving Facebook to work on consumer privacy beyond just ads and social media,” without disclosing where he was headed. Leathern was often the public face of the company’s controversial political advertising policies. Prior to the Nov 3 US election, Facebook was heavily criticised for allowing misleading claims and conspiracy theories to spread widely on its platforms. In November, Leathern had tweeted that Facebook did not have “the technical ability in the short term to enable political ads by state or by advertiser.” Subsequently, Facebook lifted a temporary post-election ban on political ads in Georgia ahead of the Jan. 5 runoff that will determine which party controls the US Senate. AGENCIES

AHMAD AHMADANI

HE government has offered to release Rs450 billion to clear outstanding bills of the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in a bid to get rid of the mounting circular debt of the power sector.

It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s power sector is currently faced with approximately Rs2.4 billion in circular debt, while the total overdue bill of IPPs stands at Rs700 billion. Of these IPPs, 47 who had earlier signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with the government had outstanding dues worth Rs400 billion till November 30, 2020.

According to sources, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, in a meeting with the representatives of IPPs, has presented a plan to resolve the circular debt issue in the power sector by offering a three-part instalment plan within a span of one year. “IPPs are expected to share their response to the offer in the next few days,” sources added.

Sources said that the government has offered to pay one-third of the outstanding amount in January, one-third in June, and one-third in December.

On the same note, IPPs have proposed to clear one-third of their outstanding bills in cash and two-

thirds in the form of PIBs. Sources further said that the government wants to revise Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with private sector IPPs in line with MoUs, which the two sides had signed in August.

They added that the representatives of IPPs and

Bitcoin touches record above $29,000, extending 2020 rally NEW YORK AGENCIES

The price of Bitcoin topped $29,000 on Thursday for the first time, with the digital currency almost quadrupling in value this year amid heightened interest from investors big and small alike.

The world’s most popular cryptocurrency touched $29,300 before pulling back, most recently down 0.67% at $28,774.36. It has surged by nearly half since breaking $20,000 for the first time on Dec. 16.

Bitcoin’s potential for quick gains, as well as expectations it could become a mainstream payment method, has attracted demand from larger U.S. investors, as well as from traders who normally stick to equities.

“You can buy a stock like Amazon, you can buy a stock like Apple, and you know what you got,” said Dennis Dick, a proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC. “Bitcoin you really just have digits on a screen and you’re really hoping that the guy behind you sees it as being worth more than what you just paid for it, so it’s a

purely speculative view,” he said.

Still, intrigued by the story behind bitcoin and the traction it was getting with institutional investors, he put 1% of his net worth into a bitcoin fund around five weeks ago, which has doubled in value since then, and he sold half on Thursday.

“When you double your money within five weeks, if you sell half of it, I figure now you’re playing with the house’s money,” he said.

Recent gains have taken bitcoin’s market capitalization past $536 billion, according to industry website CoinMarketCap coinmarketcap.com.

Abdul Hafeez Sheikh will hold a meeting for the finalisation of amendments in February.

Officials of the power division, on condition of anonymity, said that negotiations in this regard are underway. “Various proposals are under consideration.

However, no consensus has so far been reached.”

China says it will take action against US delisting of its telecom firms SHANGHAI AGENCIES

China will take “necessary measures” to safeguard the interests of its companies after the New York Stock Exchange began delisting three Chinese telecom firms that Washington says have military ties, the country’s commerce ministry said on Saturday. The NYSE said on Thursday that it would delist China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom following President Donald Trump’s move in November to bar U.S. investment in 31 firms that Washington says are owned or controlled by the Chinese military. “This kind of abuse of national security and state power to suppress Chinese firms does not comply with market rules and violates market logic,” the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement. “It not only harms the legal rights of Chinese companies but also damages the interests of investors in other countries, including the United States,” it added. While the ministry said it will take action to protect its firms, it also called on the United States to meet China half-way and put bilateral trade relations back on track. In its final weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20, the Trump administration has stepped up its hardline stance against China.

Divided UK casts off into Brexit unknown LONDON AGENCIES

The United Kingdom began the New Year outside the European Union’s orbit on Friday after ending a tempestuous 48-year liaison with the European project, its most significant geopolitical shift since the loss of empire.

Brexit took effect in substance on Thursday at the strike of midnight in Brussels, or 2300 London time (GMT), at the end of a transition period that largely maintained the status quo for 11 months after Britain formally left the EU on Jan. 31, 2020.

“This is an amazing moment for this country,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson, 56, said in his New Year’s Eve message. “We have our freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it.”

For five years, the frenzied gyrations of the Brexit crisis dominated European affairs, buffeted the sterling markets and tarnished the United Kingdom’s reputation as a reliable pillar of Western stability.

Supporters cast Brexit as the dawn of a newly independent “global Britain”, but the drama has weakened the bonds that bind England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

After all the vitriol, one of the most significant events in European history since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 passed with little fanfare: the United Kingdom slipped away, shrouded in the silence of the COVID19 crisis.

With gatherings banned in London and most of the country due to soaring rates of infection, there were few outward displays

of emotion when the Great Bell known as Big Ben tolled 11 through a scaffold on Thursday night.

As EU leaders and citizens bade farewell, Johnson said there would be no bonfire of regulations to build a “bargain basement Dickensian Britain” and that the country would remain the “quintessential European civilization”.

But Johnson, the face of the Brexit campaign, has been short on detail about what he wants to build with Britain’s “independence” – or how to do it while borrowing record amounts to pay for the COVID-19 crisis.

His 80-year-old father, Stanley Johnson, who had voted for Britain to remain in the bloc, said he was applying for a French passport,

which would give him rights and freedoms in Europe now inaccessible to most Britons.

“LIES AND FALSE PROMISES”: In the June 23, 2016, referendum, 17.4 million voters, or 52%, backed Brexit while 16.1 million, or 48%, backed staying in the bloc. Few have changed their minds since. England and Wales voted out but Scotland and Northern Ireland voted in.

“Scotland will be back soon, Europe.

Keep the light on,” Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Thursday.

The referendum revealed a United Kingdom polarised about much more than the European Union, and fuelled soul searching about everything from secession and immigration to capitalism, the legacy of empire

CM YK

and what it now means to be British.

Leaving was once the far-fetched dream of a motley crew of “eurosceptics” on the fringes of British politics: the UK joined in 1973 as “the sick man of Europe”. Two decades ago British leaders were arguing whether to join the euro. They never did.

But the turmoil of the euro zone crisis, attempts to integrate the EU further, fears about mass immigration and discontent with leaders in London helped Brexiteers win the referendum with a message of patriotic, if vague, hope.

“We see a global future for ourselves,” said Johnson who won power in 2019 and, against the odds, clinched a Brexit divorce treaty and a trade deal, as well as the biggest Conservative parliamentary majority since Margaret Thatcher.

Supporters see Brexit as an escape from a doomed Franco-German project that has stagnated while the United States and China surged. Opponents say Brexit will weaken the West, further reduce Britain’s global clout, and make it poorer and less cosmopolitan.

French President Emmanuel Macron, in a New Year’s Eve broadcast, said Britain would remain a friend and an ally but Brexit was the product of “many lies and false promises”.

European leaders and many Britons opposed to Brexit have long accused Johnson of caricaturing the EU and falsely blaming Britain’s problems on Brussels, while making exaggerated claims about the potential benefits of leaving the bloc.

DIVIDED KINGDOM: Fuelled partly by

Brexit which many Scots oppose and partly by the poor handling of COVID-19 by Johnson’s government, support for Scottish independence has risen, threatening the 300-year-old political union between England and Scotland.

Sturgeon has said that if her Scottish National Party wins elections to Edinburgh’s semi-autonomous parliament scheduled for May, an independence referendum should take place quickly.

With the United Kingdom now out of the Single Market and European Customs Union, there is almost certain to be some disruption at borders. More red tape means more cost for those importing and exporting goods.

After haggling over a trade deal for months, the British government published 70 pages of case studies just hours before its departure, advising companies on what rules to follow at the new UK-EU border.

The Port of Dover expects volumes to drop off in early January. The most worrisome period, it says, will be in mid- to late January when volumes pick up again.

At the freight terminal in southern England giving access to the Channel Tunnel, traffic volumes were low on Friday, as usual on the first day of the year. For the small number of trucks that went through to France, new procedures worked well, said John Keefe, director of public affairs at operator Eurotunnel.

“At 11 o’clock last night, the first truck rolled through the new procedures, just as quickly as the truck in front of it had rolled through when there weren’t any,” he said.

Sunday, 3 January, 2021

10 FOREIGN NEWS Turkey bans Britons after detecting cases of coronavirus variant in travellers from UK

INdIa approves asTraZeNeCa's CovId-19 vaCCINe

ISTANBUL

NEW DELHI

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Turkey has banned Britons from entering the country after detecting 15 cases of a new and more contagious variant of the coronavirus in travellers from Britain, the government said on Friday. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said the 15 travellers have been isolated, as have those with whom they were in contact. No other cases of the Covid-19 variant have been detected in nationwide regular screenings. “The situation is under control,” Koca said in a statement.

“Entrance to Turkey from the UK has been temporarily suspended.” Turkey’s virus death toll rose by 212 in the last 24 hours, separate health ministry data showed on Friday, bringing total deaths to 21,093 in the country. The number of new Covid-19 cases stood at 12,203 over the same period to bring total cases to more than 2.22 million since the outbreak struck early last year. The current lockdown will be lifted at 5 a.m. local time on Monday (tomorrow), although Ankara has also imposed weekday curfews and limited restaurants and cafes to delivery and take-out service.

Britain will allow mixing of Covid-19 vaccines on rare occasions LONDON AGENCIES

Britain will allow people to be given shots of different Covid-19 vaccines on rare occasions, despite a lack of evidence about the extent of immunity offered by mixing doses. In a departure from other strategies globally, the government said people could be given a mix-and-match of two Covid-19 shots, for example if the same vaccine dose was out of stock, according to guidelines published on New Year’s Eve. “(If) the same vaccine is not available, or if the first product received is unknown, it is reasonable to offer one dose of the locally available product to complete the schedule,” according to the guidelines. Mary Ramsay, head of immunisations at Public Health England, said this would only happen on extremely rare occasions, and that the government was not recommending the mixing of vaccines, which require at least two doses given several weeks apart. “Every effort should be made to give them the same vaccine, but where this is not possible it is better to give a second dose of another vaccine than not at all,” she said. Covid-19 has killed more 74,000 people in Britain - the second-highest death toll in Europe, and health officials are racing to deliver doses to help end the pandemic as fears grow that the health service could be overwhelmed. Earlier this week, the government reactivated emergency hospitals built at the start of the outbreak as wards fill up with Covid-19 patients. Britain has been at the forefront of approving the new coronavirus vaccines, becoming the first country to give emergency authorisation to the Pfizer/BioNTech and the AstraZeneca/University of Oxford vaccines last month.

Both vaccines are meant to be administered as two shots, given several weeks apart, but they were not designed to be mixed together. The government’s new guidelines said there “is no evidence on the interchangeability of the Covid-19 vaccines although studies are underway”.

However, the advice said that while every effort should be made to complete the dosing regimen with the same vaccine, if the patient is at “immediate high risk” or is considered “unlikely to attend again” they can be given different vaccines. Britain sparked controversy earlier this week by announcing plans to delay giving the coronavirus vaccine booster shot in an attempt to ensure more people could be given the more limited protection conferred by a single dose. The top US infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, said on Friday he did not agree with the British approach of delaying the second dose up to 12 weeks. “I would not be in favour of that,” he told CNN. “We are going to keep doing what we are doing.”

I

NDIA has approved the Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, paving the way for a huge immunisation campaign in the world’s second most populous country.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters on Saturday the vaccine had been given the green light on Friday, confirming what sources close to the matter had told a news agency.

It is the first Covid-19 vaccine to be approved for emergency use by India, which has the highest number of infections after the United States, and comes on the day the country is running a nationwide mock drill for vaccine delivery.

Javadekar said at least three more vaccines were waiting to be approved - local company Bharat Biotch’s COVAXIN, Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D and Russia’s Sputnik-V. “India is perhaps the only country where at least four vaccines are getting ready,” he said.

“One was approved yesterday [Friday] for emergency use, Serum’s COVISHIELD.” he said, referring to the fact that the AstraZeneca/Oxford shot is being made locally by the Serum Institute of India (SII).

India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) is expected to announce the dosage and other details about the shot later. SII had applied for a two full-dose regime about 28 days apart.

The AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, which was granted its first approval by Britain on Tuesday, is cheaper and easier to use than some rival shots -

major advantages in tackling a pandemic that has claimed more than 1.8 million lives worldwide.

However, it has been plagued with uncertainty about its most effective dosage ever since data published in November showed a half-dose followed by a full dose had a 90 per cent success rate while two full shots were 62 per cent effective.

India’s regulator has also received an emergencyuse application for the Covid-19 vaccine made by Pfizer Inc with Germany’s BioNTech - the first shot to secure regulatory approval in the West.

India has reported more than 10 million Covid19 cases, though its rate of infection has come down significantly from a mid-September peak.

The country hopes to inoculate 300 million of its 1.35 billion people in the first six to eight months of this year.

SII, the world’s biggest producer of vaccines, has already stockpiled about 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford shot, which will be sold to the government at about 250 Indian rupees ($3.42) per dose and 1,000 Indian rupees on the private market.

Aviation deaths rise worldwide in 2020 even as fatal incidents, flights fall WASHINGTON

Niger's presidential election set for February runoff NIAMEY

AGENCIES

AGENCIES

The number of people killed in large commercial airplane crashes rose in 2020 to 299 worldwide, even as the number of crashes fell by more than 50 per cent, a Dutch consulting firm said on Friday.

Aviation consulting firm To70 said in 2020 there were 40 accidents involving large commercial passenger planes, five of which were fatal, resulting in 299 fatalities. In 2019 there were 86 accidents, eight of which were fatal, resulting in 257 fatalities.

Large commercial airplanes had 0.27 fatal accidents per million flights in 2020, To70 said, or one fatal crash every 3.7 million flights – up from 0.18 fatal accidents per million flights in 2019.

The decline in crashes came amid a sharp decline in flights due to the coronavirus pandemic. Flightradar24 reported commercial flights it tracked worldwide in 2020 fell 42 per cent to 24.4 million.

More than half of all deaths in the To70 review were the 176 people killed in January 2020 when a Ukrainian plane was shot down in Iranian airspace.

The second deadliest incident was the May crash of a Pakistan

airliner crashed in May killing 98.

Large passenger airplanes covered by the statistics are used by nearly all travellers on airlines but exclude small commuter airplanes in service. Over the last two decades, aviation deaths have been falling dramatically. As recently as 2005, there were 1,015 deaths aboard commercial passenger flights worldwide, the Aviation Safety Network (ASN) said.

Over the last five years, there have been an average of 14 fatal

accidents for commercial passenger and cargo planes resulting in 345 deaths annually, ASN said.

In 2017, aviation had its safest year on record worldwide with only two fatal accidents involving regional turboprops that resulted in 13 deaths and no fatal crashes of passenger jets.

The United States has not had a fatal US passenger airline crash since February 2009 and one fatality due to a US passenger airline accident in that period.

Niger's ruling party candidate Mohamed Bazoum will face former president Mahamane Ousmane in a presidential election runoff in February, according to provisional results of the first round of the contest announced by the electoral commission on Saturday. Bazoum led the first round with 39.33 per cent of the vote, falling short of the 50 per cent needed to win outright in the first round. Ousmane received 17 per cent of the vote, the commission said. The second round is expected to be held on February 21 after the results of the first round have been validated by the constitutional court which will hear any appeals. Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou is stepping down after two five-year terms, which is expected to lead to Niger's first transfer of power between two democratically elected presidents. The incoming president will inherit several challenges, including rising violence from different armed groups.

Attacks near the western border with Mali and Burkina Faso and the southeastern border with Nigeria killed hundreds of people last year. Provisional results of the legislative election showed the ruling Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism leading with 80 seats. The main opposition MODEN/FA-Lumana was second with 19 seats in the 171-seat house.

Peru farmers lift roadblock protests over police violence for govt talks LIMA AGENCIES

Peruvian government officials sat down to talks Friday with representatives of farm workers who had blockaded a highway to protest the deaths of three people in clashes with police.

Farm workers have been staging protests for weeks to demand more pay. But 28 demonstrators and 36 officers were injured in confrontations, while 45 agricultural workers were arrested. Authorities said three people, including a minor, were killed in clashes with police in recent days.

This prompted the workers to blockade a part of the key Pan-American Highway some 500 kilometers (300 miles) north of the capital, Lima, in protest.

The blockade held for two days until it was lifted ahead of talks Friday. Television

images showed police using tear gas and birdshot against demonstrators.

The presidency of Peru's council of ministers said in a tweet Friday that discussions had started in the city of Trujillo and would involve "active listening" on the part of the commission. The workers are demanding that agricultural-export companies increase their daily wage from $11 to $18, but a newly passed law provided an increase of only 48 soles – about $13.

On Friday, a commission that the government said included ministers and deputy ministers of agriculture, labor, trade and other senior figures met with workers' representatives.

After more than seven hours of talks, the participants agreed to draw up an amendment to the agrarian law, adopted by Parliament on Tuesday, within 45 days.

"We call on the representatives of (agri-

cultural) workers at the national level to discuss the modification" of the agrarian law, Labor Minister Javier Palacios said, adding that talks will continue over the weekend.

The talks came after a call to dialogue Thursday by President Francisco Sagasti, who also vowed to "sanction the police that did not respect the ban on using firearms" on protesters.

Sagasti agreed the new law "does not satisfy any of the parties involved" and undertook to set up a national forum "to discuss the future of the agricultural sector."

The government announced an investigation into the deaths during the protests and said the police chief of the La Libertad region would be removed.

Rural labor protests over wages and conditions have been a feature of the Peruvian political scene in recent weeks. Since the protests broke out there have been five deaths.

Sunday, 3 January, 2021

SPORTS 11

MAncheSter UnIted cLoSe In on LIverPooL wIth 2-1 ASton vILLA wIn

Injured Babar ruled out of second nZ test LAHORE APP

MANCHESTER

M

AGENCIES

ANCHESTER United closed in on the Premier League’s pole position after a 2-1 home win over Aston Villa on Friday put them level on points and games played with champions and leaders Liverpool.

United trail their traditional rivals on goal difference with both teams on 33 points from 16 matches. Liverpool travel to Southampton on Monday (tomorrow).

United stretched their unbeaten league run to 10 games as Bruno Fernandes capped another fine individual performance with a penalty after Bertrand Traore had cancelled out Anthony Martial’s opener for the home side.

The hosts had the upper hand in the first half and Martial forced an acrobatic save from Emiliano Martinez before he buried a superb diving header past the Villa goalkeeper after Aaron-Wan Bissaka’s cross in the 40th minute. The visitors came close through Ollie Watkins before Traore got on the end of a sharp Jack Grealish pass at the far post and beat United keeper David De Gea with a slick shot from close

range in the 58th. But Villa’s joy was shortlived as Fernandes drilled his penalty into

Five Indian players isolated as boards investigate protocol breach

the bottom right corner three minutes later after Paul Pogba went down under a chal-

Rabada’s return put on ice as SA look ahead to Pakistan tour JOHANNESBURG

MELBOURNE AGENCIES

AGENCIES

Five India cricketers were placed in isolation while the Australian and Indian cricket boards investigate allegations of breach of biosecurity protocols after a video surfaced showing the players eating at a Melbourne restaurant. A video posted on social media showed Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Navdeep Saini and Prithvi Shaw eating together. Australia and India are in the middle of a four-Test series with both sides currently staying in Melbourne before travelling to Sydney for the third Test from Thursday.

According to the strict biosecurity protocols set

by Cricket Australia, players are allowed to sit outside but not allowed to dine inside restaurants.

“The BCCI and CA are investigating the matter and seeking to determine whether the outing constitutes a breach of biosecurity protocols,” Cricket Australia said in a statement.

South Africa will not risk the fitness of lead attack bowler Kagiso Rabada despite a return to their squad and he will miss out the second Test against Sri Lanka, which starts at The Wanderers Stadium on Sunday (today), officials said.

Rabada suffered an adductor muscle strain that ruled him out of the one day international Series against England last month and left him sidelined for the first Test win over Sri Lanka in Pretoria.

The 25-year-old paceman was recalled to the squad for the second Test, suggesting he would lead an otherwise inexperienced attack as South Africa seek to complete a 2-0 se-

South African quick Steyn pulls out of 2021 IPL

ries whitewash.

But team officials on Saturday said Rabada would not be considered. “The coaches are very happy with his progress but in terms of work load, they would like to make sure he is in the right space to be able to compete fully for the Test series against Pakistan as well as Australia,” said team spokesperson Sipokazi Sokanyile.

South Africa tour Pakistan later this month for the first time in 14 years, where they play two Tests and three Twenty20 internationals.

Australia are then due to play three Tests in South Africa in February and March.

Rabada has taken 197 Test wickets at average of 22.95 in 43 appearances for South Africa.

Former India captain Ganguly admitted to hospital after chest pain MUMBAI

CAPE TOWN

AGENCIES

AGENCIES

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who also heads the country’s cricket board (BCCI), was admitted to a hospital in Kolkata on Saturday after complaining of chest pain.

One of India’s most successful captains, 48-year-old Ganguly, who hails from the state of West Bengal, took over as the BCCI president in 2019.

His transition from a player to top administrator was seen as a natural progression for a former captain who helped India emerge from a damaging match-fixing scandal in 2000.

“Sad to hear that Ganguly suffered a mild cardiac arrest and has been admitted to a hospital,” Mamata

South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn has pulled out of this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) as he seeks some time away from the sport.

Steyn was signed by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) ahead of the 2020 edition, which took place in the United Arab Emirates following the Covid-19 surge in India. “Just a short message to let everyone know that I have made myself unavailable for RCB at this year’s IPL,” the 37-year-old wrote on Twitter.

lenge from Douglas Luiz, with the spotkick given after a VAR check.

Pakistan captain Babar Azam will miss the second Test against New Zealand, which commences at the Hagley Oval from Sunday (today), the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) confirmed on Saturday. In his absence, Mohammad Rizwan will lead the side. “Babar had a full-fledge training session yesterday [Friday] but felt slight pain in his thumb, following which, the team management has opted against taking any risk,” read the PCB statement. Babar had to sit out the three-T20I series and the first Test, at Mount Maunganui, after he fractured his right thumb during a net session in the lead-up to the white-ball series.

Dr Sohail Saleem said, “We have seen improvement in Babar Azam's injury, but he is yet to fully recover. He is our captain and the most important batsman in the lineup, so we do not want to take any risk. The medical team is constantly reviewing his injury and we are hopeful he will be available for the home series against South Africa.” New Zealand is currently leading the two-match series 1-0. Pakistan squad: Mohammad Rizwan (captain, wicketkeeper), Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Haris Sohail, Imran Butt, Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Sohail Khan, Yasir Shah and Zafar Gohar.

Fielding will determine whether I play Sydney Test, says Warner SYDNEY AGENCIES

Australia’s David Warner believes it will be his ability to field effectively that will decide whether he plays the third Test against India at Sydney Cricket Ground next week. The left-handed opener missed the first two Tests in the series because of a groin injury and admitted, despite intensive rehabilitation, it was “highly doubtful” that he would be 100 per cent fit by the time the match starts on Thursday.

Warner said he would have a better idea of where he stood after training sessions on Sunday (today) and

was determined to do everything he could to persuade the selectors to give him the green light to play at his home ground.

“I think it is about being smart,” the 34-year-old, who usually fields in the slips, told reporters.

“If I feel like I can do my duty ... not be a hindrance in there in the field ... I think that is going to determine whether I play or not.

“I know I can manage the running between wickets (and) the shot-making that I have, it is whether or not I am able to have that capacity of catching the ball right and left of myself ... I have got to be agile enough to take those chances.”

Banerjee, the chief minister of the West Bengal, said on Twitter.

Local media reported that Ganguly complained of chest pain after a gym session on Friday and was taken to hospital after the problem recurred on Saturday.

Messages poured in on social media from the cricketing community wishing Ganguly, fondly known as “dada” or “elder brother”, a speedy recovery.

“I wish and pray for the speedy recovery of Ganguly.

I have spoken to his family. Dada is stable and is responding well to the treatment,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah said on Twitter.

The former left-handed batsman, who retired from international cricket in 2008, played 113 Tests and 311 one-dayers and led India to 21 Test wins.

herschelle Gibbs named Karachi Kings head coach ISLAMABAD APP

Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise Karachi Kings has signed former South African cricketer Herschelle Herman Gibbs as its new head coach for the sixth season of the league. Gibbs replaced Dean Jones, who had passed away in Mumbai during the Indian Premier League (IPL) season on September 24 last year. ”Gibbs has always been a great student of t e modern game and with his growing exposure in coaching roles, I reckon, he is a great fit at our team to continue our winning ways,” said Karachi Kings President Wasim Akram. “I am so excited by this appointment and really feel with the chemistry, the Kings franchise has fostered over the years under great leadership and a wonderful bunch of guys, who cracked the winning formula last season. This is a great time to join them…..I look forward to working with the great Wasim Akram and helping the team grow and build together this season,” said Gibbs. The South African cricketer has played all formats of the game in his 14-year-long career. He is also the first player to hit consecutive sixes in one over in ODIs, when he played against the Netherlands in the 2007 World Cup in West Indies.

England's Root says Covid-19 cases would not derail Sri Lanka tour LONDON AGENCIES

England captain Joe Root is confident any positive Covid-19 tests in the squad would not force the cancellation of their two-Test tour of Sri Lanka this month, but said his side would have to keep a close watch on their physical and mental wellbeing.

Part of the World Test Championship, the series was scheduled to take place in March last year but was postponed following the Covid-19 pandemic. It will now begin on January 14. England’s one-day international series in South Africa last month was postponed after

breaches of the teams’ bio-secure environment in Cape Town, but Sri Lanka’s tour of South Africa and Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand have both gone ahead despite positive cases in the squads. “I do not think it (positive cases) will result in an automatic end,” Root told reporters. “The reality is around the rest of the world... teams have had to deal with positive cases... We have to manage it as best we can.” Root said the team would be travelling with a psychologist to help them cope with the challenges posed by playing during a pandemic. “There is going to be a little bit of extra support for the players in terms of a psychologist on the ground at all times, making sure there is someone to speak to,” he added.

Sunday, 3 January, 2021

PRAyER TImINGS

NEWS

pm imran to announCe mega uplift paCkage for multan: fm QureShi MULTAN

f

APP

OREIGN Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Hussain Qureshi on Saturday said that Prime Minister Imran Khan would announce mega development package for Multan during his upcoming visit.

While chairing a meeting here, the minister observed that Multan was a mega city and there was need to launch different uplift schemes in different sectors of the city. Multan would be the provincial capital in future, he stated. The government was focusing equally in both, urban and rural areas, said Qureshi.

Qureshi also hinted comprehensive strategy to resolve sewerage issues of city on permanent basis. Similarly, Education and Health were also included in priorities of the government.

Chief Whip National Assembly and

Special Assistant to Prime Minister Malik Aamir Dogar also instructed district administration to shift Timber, Iron and Grain markets outside the city. He also stressed the need to widen road from Dera Adda to Northern Bypass via Lodhi colony.

Provincial Minister for Energy Dr Akhtar Malik also spoke and stated that 82 Basic Health Units would be energized through solar system. Multan is in urgent need of another Medical College and IT university.

Provincial parliamentary secretary for Information Nadeem Qureshi proposed to promote cultural and religious identity of city of saints. MPA Qasim Langah said that road should be widened between Shujabad to Jalalpur Pirwala.

Earlier, Deputy Commissioner Aamir Khattak gave briefing to parliamentarians and informed them about different problems.

He suggested recruitment to improve working of Water

and Sanitation Authority (WASA). Similarly, machinery and human resources

were also required for Waste Management Company. He apprised that uplift schemes worth Rs2280 millions were in progress across the district. Similarly, under annual development programme, Rs5.73 billion were being spent, concluded the deputy commissioner.

GOVERNMENT’S RESIGNATION: Meanwhile, talking to a news channel, the foreign minister made it clear that the PTI government will not resign on January 31 as demanded by the opposition parties.

The minister said this with reference to the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) decision to intensify its anti-government campaign to seek resignation from the PM before the deadline.

The minister further said, "PM Imran enjoys the confidence of the National Assembly. Why would he resign on the Opposition's demand? The PDM had earlier announced to resign from the assemblies on December 31, but the date passed.”

President stresses need for raw material producing industries to be enlisted KARACHI TLTP

President Dr Arif Alvi has said that industries producing raw materials for the export industries need to be enlisted so that they could be provided sufficient supply of energy on a priority basis.

Talking to members of the Sindh business chambers in Karachi on Saturday, the president said that the national economy made a turnaround despite Covid-19, while the government also maintained a balance between

lives and livelihood by allowing business activities.

He said that currently, investors are coming to Pakistan as the stock exchange is also responding well.

He said that steps are underway to bring differentlyabled people into mainstream society by providing the necessary technical skills and capacity building.

“We need to adopt a rights-based approach instead of a charity-based approach for persons with disabilities,” he said, highlighting the need for coordination with training centres to provide necessary skills to persons with disabilities and enabling them for employment op-

portunities in different sectors.

He was informed that the Karachi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) was collaborating with HUNAR Foundation for designing special technical courses for differently-abled persons that would enable them to find suitable jobs.

Separately, in an interview with a private television channel, the president lamented that the PTI government had inherited several issues like artificial rupee values, current account deficit and low revenue generation.

fAjr sunrise

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‘Blind’ poliCe fire killS Student in iSlamaBad ISLAMABAD INP

A youth was shot dead in Islamabad late Friday night when the personnel of the counter-terrorism force (CTF) purportedly opened indiscriminate fire on a vehicle. Reports suggest Usama Nadeem, a 21-year-old resident of Islamabad, was returning after dropping off a friend when the incident happened near G-10 Srinagar Highway. Citing police sources, an INP report said Islamabad police late last night received a tip-off about a robbery attempt in Shamas Colony neighbourhood. At this, the police rushed to the locality. After spotting the suspected car with tinted glasses, the CTF personnel signalled it to stop. However, the driver of the vehicle failed to comply with the directive. The police party then chased the car till Sector G-10 where the personnel shoot at the tyres. Accidently, the bullets were received by the student who died on the spot, the police said. Unverified tweets suggest 22 shots were fired of which 17 hit the student mostly on the face and upper body. Four CTF personnel including a sub-inspector said to be involved in the incident were arrested. Islamabad Inspector General of Police (IGP) Amir Zulfiqar took notice of the incident and directed the CTS superintendent of police (SP) to investigate the incident.

Car bomb explodes in Syrian border town: report BEIRUT AGENCIES

A car bomb exploded in a vegetable market in the north-eastern Syrian town of Ras al Ain close to the border with Turkey, with reports of several killed and wounded, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported on Saturday. Two children were among those killed and their mother was wounded in the explosion, SANA reported, adding the blast also killed several Turkish-backed fighters. Turkey, which is allied with some rebel groups opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, seized control of the town in 2019 in an offensive to push back Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters, which Ankara views as a terrorist group.

Amid shortages, scientists weigh benefits of a single Covid-19 doses versus two ANNAPOLIS AGENCIES

Some scientists have called for governments to give out single Covid-19 doses after preliminary research suggested they appear to provide a degree of protection, despite manufacturers recommending two doses. But other scientists warn that one inoculation is not enough to confer durable immunity.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) analyses of both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines found that a single dose of either appears to provide some protection against the coronavirus.

The efficacy of one Moderna vaccine dose was around 80 to 90 per cent, researchers found in stage 3 trials ahead of its approval by the US regulator in January.

Scientists found that the

Pfizer-BioNTech jab is 70 per cent effective with one dose compared to 95 percent effective with two.

After approving the OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine, British regulators said it was around 70 per cent effective in the 12 weeks after the first dose.

With supplies of the vaccines limited across the globe, such findings are raising a key question for governments and

medical professionals: Does it makes more sense to vaccinate fewer people with both doses for maximum protection or is it better to spread out vaccinations, inoculating more widely but less completely?

Some have suggested that governments should aim to give as many people as possible a single dose, instead of using half the vaccines currently available on second doses.

KP govt releases funds to purchase ancestral houses of Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor Current owner of KApoor's AnCestrAl house demAnding rs2bn for 'Antique building PESHAWAR AZIZ BUNERI

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government on Saturday approved the release of Rs23.56 million to purchase the ancestral houses of legendary Bollywood actors Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor, situated in the Khudadad Mohallah of Qissa Khwani Bazaar.

The provincial government has formally announced to convert the ancestral residences of Bollywood legends into museums and fixed their market values on the recommendations of Peshawar deputy commissioner (DC) and the Communication and Works Department (C&W).

The announcement said that the land value of both houses was fixed by the Pe-

shawar DC, while the cost of the structure of both houses was fixed by the KP C&W department.

In this regard, KP Chief Minister (CM) Mehmood Khan has formally approved the proposal, allowing the authorities concerned to purchase the ancestral houses at the determined rate.

According to documents, the total value of Dilip Kumar’s house has been fixed at Rs8.56 million while the value of Raj Kapoor’s ancestor residence has been set at Rs15 million. However, the current owner of Kapoor’s ancestral has demanded Rs2 billion for the ‘antique building’.

Earlier, the Archaeological Department had forwarded the case to secretary KP Culture for funding to purchase.

The dilapidated house of Mohammed Yusuf Khan, known professionally as Dilip Kumar, is located in Mohallah Khudadad of the historical Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar. In the past, the area used to be a residential area but it is a major business centre at present.

Dilip Kumar was born in the house on December 11, 1922; however, his family moved to Bombay. In 2013, Kumar’s house was declared a national heritage site by the federal government that vowed to convert it into a museum, however, its owner took the matter to the high court. Earlier in 1988, Dilip Kumar had visited his ancestral home.

At that time, he had kissed the doorstep of his house and reminisced about his childhood in the house to the media. In 1997, Dilip Kumar was awarded Pakistan’s highest civilian honour, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz. On this occasion, he wished to visit to his ancestral home in Peshawar again, but it was not possible due to the overwhelming crowd that had gathered there to greet him.

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