EpaperLHR_21-12-24

Friday, 24 December, 2021 I 19 Jamadi-al-Awwal, 1443 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XII No 176 I 12 Pages I Lahore Edition

PM IMran Inaugurates sPecIal technology zone In lahore

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RIME Minister Imran Khan on Thursday inaugurated the Lahore Technopolis, a special technology zone, and signed agreements for bringing investments worth $300 million for its construction.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony, the prime minister lauded Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for paving way to build the special technology zone at a barren land spread over 800 acres in Lahore.

“Top tech companies globally have a turnover of $1000 billion each and even Indian exports from tech have reached beyond $150 billion,” he said and added that in comparison Pakistan only has exports worth $1 billion from technology-related products.

He, however, said that Pakistan

has a lot of potential with its 60 percent of youth population and the incumbent government is committed to support the technology sector and remove obstacles in their way.

This sector, the prime minister said, could also resolve employment issues and would pave way for women staying at home to get jobs through online platforms.

“It is unfortunate that as Pakistan’s exports saw a hike recently, our economy witnessed a shortage of dollars, forcing the country to approach the IMF to bring financial stability,” he said and added that the country’s economy could not grow without an increase in exports.

Imran said that the technology sector could alone pay off the entire debt of the country.

He added that all businesses had faced a slump amid the Covid19 outbreak, but profits of tech com-

coronavIrus In

PakIstan

panies like Google, Amazon and others multiplied.

“The technological zones are aimed at bringing ease in the sector and take full advantage of its potential,” the prime minister said and cited examples of China and India,, where their people initially invested in those projects and later foreign investors joined them.

While giving the example of China, the prime minister said that they eliminated corruption through planning and initially terminated 450 ministerial-level people over financial wrongdoings.

“China pulled out 700 million of its population above the poverty line in 40 years,” he said adding it was their exports that made China a global economic power.

Earlier, the prime minister also distributed licences among the companies which would be operating in the Technopolis.

The event also marked the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for an investment of $300 million for the establishment of another three technology zones in different parts of the country.

CM Buzdar said Lahore has been selected as the Technopolis considering the existence of universities and other tech institutes as well as companies in the city. “The project would help carry out technology-based researches and studies,” he said.

In order to attract investment to Technopolis, the government has given a 10-year tax exemption to companies operating there. Companies from various countries like the US, Canada, China and Australia are approaching to invest here, he added. news desk

Fawad derides Maryam for ‘celebrating her defeat’ in KP LG polls Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry ridiculed opposition parties on Thursday by stating that PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz has been “celebrating her defeat” in the local government polls, recently held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

The minister, while speaking to media in Lahore stated that “instead (of celebrating), they [PPP and PML-N] should have visited their party workers in KP to boost their morale. They should have done national politics,” the information minister said.

It is pertinent to note that in the elections held in the 17 districts of KP on December 19, the PTI, which has been in power in the province since 2013, conceded ground to the Jamiat Ulema-iIslam Fazl (JUI-F).

As per the provincial results of of 47 of the 63 tehsils declared by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the JUI-F won 17 seats of mayor/chairperson while the PTI came in second by securing 12 seats.

The independent candidates grabbed the third highest number of seats at seven, followed by Awami National Party at six, PML-N at three and Jamaat-i-Islami, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Tehreek-i-Islahat Pakistan bagging one seat each.

COAS appreciates troops’ combat readiness during LoC visit

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OIC moot paves way for humanitarian aid to Afghanistan: Qureshi STORY ON PAGE 02

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Similarly, in the provincial capital Peshawar, the JUI-F bagged a definitive lead in the contest for the mayor of the city. JUI-F candidate Haji Zubair Ali managed to secure62,388 votes against 50,659 votes secured by PTI’s Rizwan Bangash.

Contrary to the results, Fawad Chaudhry has claimed that the two biggest opposition parties in the National Assembly, the PPP and the PML-N, “did not get any votes there [in KP]” and that they are “celebrating the end of their parties”.

He further added that it had been proved after the elections that the PTI was the largest party in KP’s village councils.

The minister went on to state that “we are competing against political dwarfs,” while adding that “We are facing the PPP in some areas [of the country], the PML-N in other areas and competing against the JUI-F at some places. None of them have a man of Imran Khan’s stature.”

Politics, he said, would end if they were not given any television coverage for two to four days as “there is no one from among them on the ground”.

He further commented that the “socalled politics of big [opposition] parties has been surviving only because of television coverage.”

Over 100 Pakistani parliamentarians evade income tax: report

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Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Thursday visited forward areas along the Line of Control (LoC), according to a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

During his visit, the COAS was briefed on the ground situation along the LoC and operational preparedness of the formation, the ISPR said.

The army chief interacted with the troops de-

ployed along LoC in Kot Kotera Sector and appreciated their combat readiness and high state of morale.

The COAS emphasised that continuous vigil and readiness to counter all threats and contingencies is vital for ensuring security along the LoC. Earlier, on arrival at the LoC, the COAS was received by Corps Commander Rawalpindi Lieutenant General Sahir Shamshad Mirza. news desk

Pakistan lauds UNSC resolution, seeks ‘pathway’ to revive Afghan economy STORY ON BACK PAGE

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Friday, 24 December, 2021 | LAHORE

NEWS

OIC mOOT Paves way fOr humanITarIan aID TO afghanIsTan: QureshI IsLAMABAD INP

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OREIGN Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday said that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) moot, held in Islamabad on Sunday, has paved way for humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and its people. Sharing the developments from his Twitter handle, the foreign minister said that after the moot, the United Nations

Security Council (UNSC) has adopted a resolution, paving way for the provision of aid to Afghanistan for supporting basic needs.

He further said that the United States has also exempted the UN officials doing permitted business with the Taliban from sanctions in order to help ease aid flow.

Earlier on Sunday, Qureshi had said the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers had agreed to establish a humanitarian trust fund to help Afghanistan people.

Addressing a joint press conference along with OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha here, Qureshi had announced that the forum had also decided to launch a food security programme for the people of Afghanistan.

“Helping people of Afghanistan is a shared responsibility and despite the desire, Pakistan alone cannot meet their humanitarian needs,” Qureshi had said and reiterated that a humanitarian crisis is looming in Afghanistan.

Time has come to end ‘NAB-Niazi nexus', Shehbaz tells workers News Desk Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif has urged his party to gear up, as the time to “end the nexus between the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Prime Minister Imran Khan” has come.

The Opposition Leader, during an address in the National Assembly Lahore on Thursday, said that Pakistan’s economy has been destroyed during the tenure of PM Imran in the last three-and-a-half years.

“Time had come to end this Nab-Niazi nexus… I ask the workers to prepare… Time has come to end this regime and this inflation… if we do not act now, Pakistan will be doomed,” he stated.

Shehbaz further said that the government officials had only put up plaques over the projects initiated during the tenure of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

“If you [Imran Khan] liked to put up plaques so much then you should have been given this task only.”

Shehbaz went on to state that PM Imran destroyed those who gave him votes but the time to put up plaques had ended now. “Now, the time had come when the people will start grabbing them by their collars.”

“Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs. They [PTI] had promised 5 million houses but they haven’t laid a single brick during this time,” he added.

The opposition leader further stated that despite the surfacing of a number of corruption scandals including Malam Jabba, gas, medicine, sugar and rice, no one had taken any action.

He went on to add that the PTI government had handed over Pakistan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and added that despite having an ample amount of electricity and gas, the incompetent government is unable to provide both to the masses.

Teachers stage protest in Islamabad News Desk Islamabad’s D-Chowk turned into a battlefield as dozens of teachers of federal educational institutions started to march towards the Parliament House to press for their demands on Thursday.

They staged a protest against the government’s decision to put the federal capital’s educational institutions under the Municipal Corporation Islamabad through the Local Government Ordinance, 2021.

The teachers and the security forces scuffled when the protesters were stopped from marching forward. However, the protesters reached in front of the Parliament House by removing the barriers.

They also chanted slogans against the incumbent government and demanded to withdraw its decision. We will continue the protest until acceptance of our demands, the teachers vowed.

Educational activities in all federal government institutions were suspended due to the protest. On Wednesday, the Federal Directorate of Education’s joint

action committee had said that the government has repeatedly ignored their demands and continued to play with the education system. They had further said that they will not allow the educational institutions to go on the path of destruction, although they know that the protest is affecting the

education of students. This ordinance, besides explaining other functions of the local government, says in Section 166 that the mayor would be the reporting officer of the director general of the Federal Directorate of Education.

The FDE regulates all 390 schools of the federal capital and under the

ordinance the directorate would be devolved to the local government – a step which is not acceptable to teachers and non-teaching staff, who have been stating that it would be beyond the capacity of the mayor and local government to deal with the FDE as it requires an annual budget of around Rs20 billion.

Three injured as PTI, PPP workers clash in DI Khan News Desk At least three men sustained bullet and stab wounds in a clash between PTI and PPP party workers during the recount of votes at a polling station in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan (DIK) district, on Thursday. As per the DI Khan police, both sides have registered complaints against each other at the Cantt Police station. Earlier, an ANP candidate for the mayor’s slot in city council had been shot dead a day ahead of the ballot. ANP leader Umar Khattab Sherani, who was a candidate for the tehsil’s mayorship, was shot dead outside his residence early Saturday. District Police Officer Najm ul Hasnain said a case has been registered against two unidentified, armed suspects on the complaint of the deceased leader’s brother. The police official said the brother did not mention enmity with anyone, while disclosing that five teams have been constituted to investigate the case — three police teams and two of the counter-terrorism department (CTD). He further said that closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage and other evidence has been gathered, with a forensic team also investigating the case. It is pertinent to note that the recently held first phase of 2021 local government elections in KP have seen multiple incidents of violence. Several other alleged attacks and clashes were also reported from different districts of KP ahead and during the polls.

Anti-rape law: Senate committee summons IGs, home secretaries News Desk All provincial police chiefs and home secretaries on the implementation of the anti-rape law have been summoned by the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Thursday.

During a meeting of the Senate panel, its chairman Barrister Syed Ali Zafar appreciated the efforts of the government in promulgating the antirape law.

He maintained that since the law was passed, incidents of rapes in all major cities, including Islamabad, had been reported in the press.

He went on to add that the main objections in the past had always been about its implementation.

He further mentioned the case of Farhan and cricketer Yasir Shah, who

had been accused of aiding the rape of a 14-year-old girl.

He noted that according to information received by him, the inspectors general (IGs) and home departments were not yet aware of the various provisions of anti-rape law.

“Although strict provisions relating to investigation and medical examination etc. were in place, but they are not being practically followed,” he added.

Zafar further informed the committee that recently some judgments had been rendered by the Supreme Court in which the question of separation of powers between parliament and judiciary was raised.

HE added that the scope and parameters of parliament were decided.

He said parliament must safeguard its power and jurisdiction under the

Constitution and directed that the details of these cases be presented before the committee on the next date of hearing for consideration.

The committee, which was dealing with various constitutional amendments moved by former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani and others, observed that parliament had the right to pass laws.

The chairman also directed the Law and Justice Division to provide details of what steps had been taken to implement the anti-rape law.

It further observed that the matter of separation of powers between the various organs of the State was of great constitutional concern and the issue therefore needed detailed examination.

Various constitutional amendment were also discussed by the committee on

the role of the Senate in coordinating with the provinces and bringing forth their grievances as well as the constitutional power relating to promulgation of ordinances by the President.

However, the discussion on these important constitutional matters could not be concluded as comments from the various departments of the government in the matter were still awaited.

The committee also summoned the record of the past resolutions passed by the Senate regarding the proposed amendments.

The committee called the IGs and home secretaries of all the provinces and Islamabad to appear before it on the next date and give details to the panel on how far the new anti-rape law had been implemented.

Friday, 24 December, 2021 | LAHORE

NEWS

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Over 100 PaKIsTanI ParlIamenTarIans evaDe InCOme Tax: rePOrT

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News Desk

ORE than a 100 Pakistani Parliamentarians evade income tax by not registering themselves with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), a report suggested on Thursday.

As per the report, out of 1,170 MPs, 161 are in violation of tax laws as they have not paid their due income taxes or filed any tax returns. Hence, they owe assets worth Rs35 billion. Some of these MPs are not even registered with the tax authorities.

Official records show that these MPs are on the ‘in-active taxpayers’ list’. Four MPs, who are not active taxpayers, have purchased properties collectively worth millions of dollars in Dubai, Norway and London in the last decade.

Around a dozen among them have had declared businesses namely construction companies, petrol pumps, etc. in the country.

In an examination of the official documents that at least 103 MPs have collective assets worth Rs8 billion, but they don’t pay their taxes actively, while a few dozen are not registered as FBR taxpayers.

As many as 76 of these 103 MPs are from major political parties and two hold a minister’s portfolio in the federal cabinet.

More than 30 female MPs have financial assets mostly attached with their millionaire husbands. They are not filers and are not even registered as tax payers with the FBR. Nearly three dozen MPs have assets worth over Rs100 million each. As many as 12 MPs own assets of over Rs500 million each presently. But these MPs are not active

taxpayers.

The Parliamentarians Tax Directory for the fiscal year 2018 did not carry a tax record of around 323 of the total 1,170 MPs. As many as 847 MPs collectively paid around Rs1.6 billion in taxes for the year 2018-19, according to the FBR directory. The directory carries tax credentials of total 1,008 MPs, while tax columns of 161 MPs have been left blank and some names were missing from this important official document.

The federal government has yet to release MPs’ Tax Directory for theju years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. These revelations have come at a time when tax authorities have launched a campaign to enhance the tax net, urging citizens to share information about assets held in Pakistan or abroad.

Under tax laws, they are required to file their returns and get registered with the FBR. This list includes MPs from the PTI, PMLN, PPP, MQM, JWP, BAP, ANP, JI, JUI-F, JUIF Nazriati, MMA, Pk-MAP, BNP and independent MPs. Tax experts say that the amount of tax on income utilised to create those assets estimated at Rs8 billion must be in multiple millions. They believe taxes between Rs800 million and Rs1 billion could be generated by the authorities for the past three years.

Tax evaluation suggested that if an individual earning annual taxable income of more than Rs40,000 (Rs600,000 in case of salaried individuals) is supposed to file return of income under Section 114, read with First Schedule of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.

Non-filing of return and wealth statement is a violation of Sections 114 and 116. Section 114 also stipulates obligation for filing of return for various other criteria, even if an individual owns an immovable property of 500 SQY or a motor vehicle with an engine capacity above 1000CC amongst others.

It seems the FBR has turned a blind eye to the tax evasion by MPs. Despite

repeated requests for their comments from Geo News, the FBR has chosen to remain silent on the issue. This correspondent made repeated requests via emails, WhatsApp and text messages to the FBR spokesperson who said: “We are barred by confidentiality laws.”

Ashfaq Tola, a tax expert, said: “The Income Tax Ordinance mentions punishment of MPs who are not registered with FBR; it

has to proceed against these MPs for not being registered and being filers.”

Tax authorities could put such MPs on notice under Section 111 of Income Tax Ordinance, Tola said.

It is pertinent to note that the FBR did not entertain multiple requests filed under RTI laws by this correspondent and did not respond to the Pakistan Information Commission’s order.

Karachi reports six new suspected cases of Omicron News Desk Karachi has reported six suspected cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 on Thursday, as per the sources within Sindh Health Department.

The sources stated that the samples taken from the suspected patients have been sent to a private hospital for further confirmation and the patients have been shifted to a quarantine centre.

The sources further revealed that suspected patients have a travel history.

CM Buzdar cancels overseas convention over internal rifts News Desk CM Punjab Usman Buzdar gave directive to cancel the first ‘Overseas Global Convention’ of overseas Pakistanis, scheduled to be held at the Governor House on December 23, over alleged friction within the PTI’s groups.

According to the organisers, the convention was being cancelled due to “security reasons”.

However, a trusted source in the CM Office stated that the CM ordered the event to be cancelled due to the differences over the way the event was being used for political purposes and

personal projection.

The source close to the Punjab CM said that affairs related to the event were being used for the projection of a “few groups” and that many who had travelled to Pakistan were considered close to Governor Punjab Muhammad Sarwar.

The source further said that the Governor House was running affairs in a way which is contrary to the policies of Usman Buzdar and only “like-minded people” were invited from overseas for personal projection. “The Punjab Chief Minister gets intelligence reports from various sources. Evidence was shown to him that many people who were invited as main guests of the event defamed the Punjab Chief Minister in WhatsApp groups and social media,” revealed the source.

“They belong to a particular group which doesn’t align ideologically with the PTI and criticises Usman Buzdar’s policies, who has the full trust of Prime Minister Imran Khan. The governor’s remarks in London about the IMF taking over Pakistan have not gone down well with the power circles.”

A spokesman of the Overseas Punjab Commission shared that nearly 1,000 overseas Pakistanis from the UK, Europe,

Four of them arrived in Karachi from South Africa, where the Omicron variant originated, and two others from Britain.

It is pertinent to note that Pakistan has so far reported one confirmed and 33 suspected cases of Omicron, apart from the latest suspected cases from Karachi.

Earlier on December 13, The Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) had confirmed it had detected Pakistan’s firstever case of the Omicron variant of coronavirus in a patient, who had no travel history, through gene-sequencing.

America and the Middle East were expected to attend the event – the first of its kind.

It is pertinent to note that Overseas Pakistani Commission Punjab Vice Chairman Syed Makhdoom Tariq Ul Hassan met Prime Minister Imran Khan last week and invited him to attend the convention. The prime minister had accepted the invitation and assured him that he will address the convention.

When asked if PM Khan was aware that the convention had been cancelled at the last minute, costing tens of thousands of dollars in expenses to hundreds who had travelled to Lahore to attend the convention, the Punjab government source said that the chief minister takes decisions on his own and later, takes the premier into confidence when needed. The source further said that Makhdoom Tariq Ul Hassan had done a great job since taking over around three months ago and that the event’s cancellation had nothing to do with him and his department. The cancellation, said the source, has everything to do with some people trying to hijack the event to promote a certain group.

A source close to governor Punjab rejected the allegations and said that the event at the Governor House was booked by “the OPC and the Chief Minister Office” and this was not an initiative of the Governor House.

The source further revealed that on Wednesday they were informed that the event has been cancelled without giving any reasons.

A week later, second case of the Omicron variant of coronavirus had been reported from Karachi, as per the sources within the Sindh Health Department.

As per reports, at least 32 suspected cases were reported in Balochistan’s Kalat district during a vaccination and diagnostic process, a provincial health department official stated on Wednesday.

However, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) did not confirm any cases of the strain in Kalat, Balochistan.

Friday, 24 December, 2021 | LAHORE

04 NEWS

Alvi urGes overseAs PAkistAnis to invest in country ISLAMABAD

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RESIdEnT dr Arif Alvi has urged the overseas Pakistanis to invest in Pakistan which is fast emerging as Asia’s premier investment and trade hub. The president made these remarks while talking to a delegation of US-based overseas Pakistanis, who led by President Aspire Pakistan Hassan Syed called on him on Thursday.

The president emphasised the need to link up Pakistani diaspora with the industry, academia, experts and the relevant organisations in Pakistan for proper utilisation of their intellectual and business talent. He said that Pakistan is improving and training its available human resources by imparting them contemporary skills and modern education.

He stated that efforts are being made to increase the number of university graduates, besides enhancing the quality of edu-

cation. He further said that steps are being taken for digitalisation of the economy which would further boost foreign direct investment in Pakistan.

The president was told that Aspire Pakistan is a network of overseas entrepreneurships, investors and technology experts with a vision to make Pakistan socially and economically prosperous through innovation and entrepreneurship.

The president appreciated the role of overseas Pakistanis in the socio-economic

development of Pakistan.

Separately, President Alvi called for community involvement to help address the issues being faced by the persons with disabilities.

Chairing a meeting on Thursday, he said that facilitation and welfare of differentlyabled people is a great challenge that requires the socially-responsible participation of all segments of society, including business community, students and government organisations.

The trouble with social media discourse GhAzI ABID A few weeks ago I came across a profound quote by Alan Lightman (physicist at MIT) on the role of a public intellectual which caught my attention. I was already quite disenchanted and annoyed at the superficial and pointless activism that has become malignant in our online lives and to an extent in our personal lives too. Before I share the quote, I must explain what the term "public intellectual" means. As per Lightman, such a person needs to a) be an expert in a particular field and b) must be involved in sharing their discourse or ideas to the larger public. Lightman continues to explain that once you become a public intellectual, the most important value that you need to practice is responsibility. Here's what he says: "Such a person must be careful, he must be aware of the limitations of his knowledge, he must acknowledge his personal prejudices because he is being asked to speak for a whole realm of thought, he must be aware of the huge possible consequences of what he says and writes and does. He has become, in a sense, public property because he represents something large to the public. He has become an idea himself, a human striving. He has enormous power to influence and change, and he must wield that power with respect." now let’s look at the pseudo public intellectuals that you find parading on your social media feeds every single day; from Twitter to Instagram to Reddit. What these platforms have done is that they have allowed almost everyone to exercise the second characteristic that Lightman identified. They say that the world has become more opinionated today but I think it always was, we just have more platforms today to voice our opinions. If you have a social media account and some developed understanding of logical reasoning you will find numerous examples of posts, tweets, stories and comments that are so utterly asinine that you will wonder why are they receiving any sort of

traction or attention.

The reason I decided to write this article is to shed some light on how we, collectively, are ruining the art of argument and conversation with the help of these social media giants and how normalised it has become to pass off fallacies as well educated opinions. I will explain two interconnected concepts in the context of social media discourse which I find the most problematic – logical fallacies and cancel and gotcha culture.

In doing so, hopefully, I will be able to demonstrate how flawed and unreasonable our conversations have become and might I say dangerous.

So first let’s turn our attention to the first issue – logical fallacies. These are simply flaws in reasoning or illogical statements that when dissected or properly argued against, hold no intellectual value. There is a wide variety of these that exist but I will share some that are the most common. Hasty generalisation: where a person will use a limited or small number of examples to make a claim that applies generally to everyone or everything. This is often the case when things like nationality, race, gender or sex are being discussed and statements like "men are sexual predators" or "women use sex to manipulate men" are used quite callously and often supported by 1 or 2 examples that are not enough to validate the claim the person is making about an entire population.

Affirming the consequent in which you claim that there is only one reason for the observation you are making and that reason is inferred from reversing an if-then statement around the observation and its consequence. I see this a lot when people discuss politics for example someone will say that a good minister is one that invests in public infrastructure.

Shehbaz Sharif has always invested in public

infrastructure and hence he is an excellent minister. The problem with this fallacy is that you are only using 1 out of a hundred different reasons why someone would be a good minister as it suits your narrative of speaking in favour of a politician.

Another is the slippery slope fallacy. We saw this being used a lot when Aurat March took place. It is when you say that a small step will bring about a series of negative often exaggerated consequences.

Most of the criticism that took place of the Aurat March was the conservative segment of society claiming that this Aurat March will lead to homosexuality and men and women dancing naked in the streets. It is easy to see why this is problematic as these are just consequences that are being inferred by the people against it without any claims of these consequences being wanted or brought on by the side supporting it.

Lastly, the straw-man; when you can't defend your position so you create a caricature or a simplified version of your opponent's argument and start attacking that.

Again, very common in politics and issues related to nationalism.

One of the major reasons that I think these fallacies have become so common place is that social media discourse is inherently geared towards shorter attention spans. Tweets, comments, and stories are supposed to be short and simple and when they are used to make socio-political statements they end up erroneously simplifying complicated issues and ideas.

Twitter doesn't let you write more than 280 words and users

have resort to threads to explain geo-political/social and economic events. Instagram stories have a time limit and even though you can make multiple stories, the interface gets clobbered with text and sometimes punctuated with ads that might dissuade readers.

I cannot talk about social media platforms and their inefficiency in creating effective discourse without talking about the nuisance that is gotcha or cancel culture. Please note that at this point I am referring to cancel culture as sort of widespread condemnation, marginalisation, shaming of individuals on the basis of their beliefs that might be subjectively offensive. I mean something like when Malala Yousafzai mentioned that when two people want to be together, why can they only do so through marriage?

And then hundreds if not thousands of people went ahead and cancelled her for her comments.

I feel that social media has made debating, arguing and expression a way to achieve moral high ground or supremacy through evaluating it by likes and retweets/shares etc. Our counter arguments have become increasing vitriolic, where we attack or cancel people just for having differing views. Even when we are responding, we respond with the same fallacies that we were triggered by.

Each person is only known through their alliance with a school of thought or a political party which then becomes their identity and no matter how much weight their argument bears, they are still cancelable due to their allegiances. Point scoring is common and proving that

CMYK

The meeting discussed various proposals to facilitate PWds and make markets, buildings and public places more accessible for them.

The departments of architecture of COMSATS, national University of Science and Technology and national College of Arts gave presentations that suggested various solutions to make markets and buildings of F-6 Markaz, F-7 Markaz and I-8 Markaz, Islamabad easily accessible for PWds.

your opposite is just an illiterate lunatic is the main purpose.

Ultimately, cancel culture, the one where morality might not be subjective, is still not efficient. Ex CCPO Lahore Umer Sheikh is still employed, Ali Zafar still hosted the HUM Style awards, and Aamir Liaquat still gets paid millions to appear on your TV screens.

It is my hypothesis that people share opinions on social media, not to have a civil debate and engage in arguments, rather to toot their own horn and stay in their echo chambers where everyone who follows them likes and re-tweets them and anyone who disagrees is trolled, ridiculed and ignored/blocked. I find it ridiculous when people in my circle share their opinions on public incidents on their Instagram stories where almost everyone they know comes from the same socio-economic background as them and holds the same opinions. distancing myself from Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook has made me realise that every time I meet someone, there are a certain set of topics that they will talk about and the next time I meet them they would have completely forgotten about them. I have also realised how pointless it is to argue with someone on the internet and how this mechanism of gratification (liking, sharing and re-tweeting) is no indicator of the quality of someone's argument or opinion. Unfortunately, these things are here to stay and the dumbing down of communication is in progress as we speak. not even professional platforms like LinkedIn are safe anymore. I would like to say that I am surprised but I am not.

Freedom of speech doesn't automatically mean correctness and rationality of speech.

Govt working to increase exports: Farrukh NEWS DESK Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib has said that the government is paying special focus to increase exports of information technology (IT). Addressing an event on Thursday, the minister said that in 2018, the exports of the IT sector were worth $800 million and a significant increase is being witnessed in this regard. He said the youth can start their own business with new ideas and avail up to one million rupees loan from banks under Kamyab Jawan Programme. He added they can also get benefits of loan up to Rs25 million through another slab.

He said that investment of over $300 million has been made in the startups programme. He said that under the stipend programme, 200,000 deserving students have so far been provided educational stipends. He said that special incentives are also being provided to the construction sector and big allocations have been approved for this purpose while approval of Rs100 billion has also been accorded for construction of low-cost homes. The minister said that under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, special economic zones are being established across the country. He said that the country is facing many economic challenges but the government is fighting these hurdles through an effective strategy.

Friday, 24 December, 2021 | LAHORE

FAwAd derides MAryAM For ‘ceLeBrAting her deFeAt’ in KP Lg PoLLs coNtINuED from pagE 01

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HAUDHRy was accompanied by SAPM Shahbaz Gill, who without naming anyone, stated a “systematic campaign” was started in the last few days to “launch a kid as a politician”.

Gill while making an apparent reference to PML-N leaders Maryam Nawaz and Captain retired Muhammad Safdar’s son, Junaid Safdar, he stated that “a consultant had been hired who had told them that one needs to be handsome to get votes”.

“But a charismatic personality is not enough to launch someone in politics. One

needs to evolve. But what has been your evolution … exposure, struggle, achievement and contribution?” he remarked.

It is pertinent to note that Gill’s remarks come two days after Safdar stated Junaid would follow in the family’s footsteps and become a politician.

“This is the writing on the wall that he (Junaid) will go into politics. A lawyer’s son becomes a lawyer, a doctor’s son becomes a doctor, a pir’s (spiritual leader) son becomes his successor and he (Junaid) is from a family of politicians,” Safdar had said while speaking to reporters in Islamabad.

Additionally, Fawad Chaudhry also took a jab at PPP Co-Chairperson Asif

online katchehries helpful for direct contact with customers: iesco spokesman

Ali Zardari, who had stated earlier this week that he would put up camps in Lahore to stage a protest against the federal government.

In this regard, Chaudhry stated that “Zardari sahib, just two tents will suffice for your supporters,” while adding that the PPP’s decline had been such that it had to search for candidates to contest elections in Punjab. “This is what they have made of a big party like the PPP, ” he stated.

He further said that Zardari would ask for a wheelchair or special vehicles used for transporting persons with disabilities when he had to go to the court.

“But when he gets bail, he starts

Shorooq Partners to open office in Pakistan ners signed a MoU with the STZA to support efforts to build Pakistan’s technology ecosystem in the presence of the Honorable President of Pakistan Dr.Arif Alvi.

Shorooq Partners was keen to establish a physical presence in Pakistan to support local founders and other local investors through a series of ecosystem initiatives. As part of its new office, Shorooq Partners intends to invest and extend its one-of-a-kind value-creation arm to its portfolio companies in Pakistan and give them a real competitive advantage in the market.

Shorooq Partners was early in investing in Pakistan and have done

ISLAMABAD: To ensure rectification of customer’s complaints just on a single telephone call IESCO is holding online Katcharies on regular grounds.

Complaints/suggestion and their remedies for solution of complaints are directly monitoring by Chief Executive Officer IESCO Dr. Muhammad Amjad Khan. By following same practice on 24th December 2021, SE IESCO Islamabad Circle on telephone No. 051-9260194, SE Rawalpindi City Circle on telephone No. 051-9292675, SE Rawalpindi Cantt Circle on telephone No. 0519293048, SE Attock Circle on telephone No. 051-4950343, SE Chakwal circle on telephone No. 0543-668500 and SE Jhelum Circle on telephone No. 0544-9270377 will attend complaints/suggestions of customers from 09:30 AM to 11:30 AM. IESCO requests valuable customers to participate in said online Katcharies for immediate solution of their complaints. Pr

Shorooq Partners, a leading VC firm headquartered in the UAE and with offices across Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain, has been granted approval by Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA) for a Zone Enterprise license and will be opening their first office in Pakistan in the Islamabad Special Technology Zone (STZ). Shorooq Partners is the leading technology investor across emerging markets, partnering with startups, and building enduring businesses through seed stage equity and debt funding with a focus on the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan (MENAP).

Earlier this year, Shorooq Part-

noVA, ArcheA join hands

ABL, PPAF sign MoU

Renowned real estate developers Pakistan Nova Group join hands with Italian architect firm ARCHEA for technology transfer and knowledge sharing. A formal agreement has been signed between the two parties for economical construction of high rise buildings in Pakistan. The agreement was mutually endorsed by Italian ambassador Andreas Ferrarese and Pakistani ambassador to Italy Jauhar Saleem.

Italian Ambassador in Islamabad Mr. H.E Andreas Ferrarese, Pakistan ambassador in Rome H.E. Jauhar Saleem, Secretary Board of Investment Ms. Farena, Chief Executive Lahore Central Business District Mr. Imran Ameen also addressed the audience and appreciated the efforts undertaken by NOVA Group for industry growth and innovation.

Besides that president chamber of commerce and industry Mr. Shakeel were present at the occasion along with US regional attache Mr. Michael Moe. A great of number of people from different walks of life were present and appreciated the initiative taken by the group. Nova Group Mr. Junaid Afzaal Chaudhri highlighted the key features of this outstanding project. Pr

making tall claims,” he added.

It is pertinent to note that Zardari had recently announced that the PPP government in Sindh would introduce a plan for the province. Chaudhry, while reacting to this statement, stated that it had been years since the PPP was in power in Sindh and questioned Zardari “when will you introduce a plan”. “you are thinking of coming to Lahore and Islamabad, but soon you will realise that you cannot even go to Larkana and Nawabshah,” he said, referring to two PPP strongholds in Sindh.

The minister concluded by expressing confidence that the PTI would form the government in Sindh after next elections.

more than 10 investments in companies such as Airlift, PostEx, DigiKhata, Retailo, KTrade Securities and Tazah Technologies.

Chairman of STZA, Mr. Amer Hashmi, reinforced the government’s commitment to facilitating global venture capital firms in the Special Technology Zones. “The presence of a VC firm like Shorooq Partners will be significant for Pakistan as it will bring global best practices that will enable Pakistani tech entrepreneurs and investors to forge connections on a global level, tap into other markets, and learn from top-tier founders and investors.” Pr

Ptc takes action against illegal public transporters The Punjab Transport Company (PTC) has issued challan tickets of Rs2,00,000 to 469 public service vehicles this week while 74 public transport vehicles have been impounded at different police stations.

Chief Executive Officer PTC Khawaja Sikandar Zeeshan has said in a statement that the company has adopted a strict policy against public transport running without route and fitness certificates. He has directed transporters to complete their papers at the earliest and said that the ongoing smog disaster in the city can be overcome only by timely fitness of vehicles. He has also directed PTC Deputy General Manager Enforcement Faisal Yusuf to continue the action against illegal public transport. Pr

KARACHI: In line with State Bank of Pakistan’s guidelines and with its focus on financial inclusion of under-developed areas the Allied Bank Limited recently signed an MOU with Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund to supplement the functions of two organizations for collaboration in a project of ‘Growth for Rural Advancement and Sustainable Progress (GRASP)’ initiative for underserved areas of Sindh and Balochistan. Allied Bank will support in development of Livestock and horticulture value chains in targeted districts of Sindh and Balochistan Provinces under the GRASP. Allied Bank Agri Finance Division Divisional Head Syed Sajid Ali Shah signed the MoU with PPAF Group Head Irshad Khan Abbasi. Pr

cmYK

Loss of top general delaying India’s military reform plans, say experts NEW DELHI AnAdolu Agency

As India is still awaiting the appointment of a new chief of defence staff (CDS) following the death of Gen. Bipin Rawat earlier this month, analysts fear the defence sector reform process may suffer, if only temporarily.

India’s first CDS Gen. Rawat and his wife were among 13 killed when a helicopter crashed in the southern province of Tamil Nadu on Dec. 8.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency strategic analyst Pravin Sawhney said while the government has made it clear to go ahead with military reforms, which Gen. Rawat had started.

NEWS

05

corporate corner

Pakistan Maritime Security Agency Director General Rear Admiral Mirza Foad Amin Baig HI (M) calls on Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Ali Haider Zaidi in his office in Islamabad. Matters related to maritime security and other important issues were discussed during the meeting. Pr

Pak Suzuki Motors and Meezan Bank join hands in strategic partnership for RV Ijarah arrangement to promote “New car every 2-3 years for Suzuki customers". The signing ceremony was attended by Executive Officer Marketing & Sales Aamir Shaffi, General Manager Marketing G H Agha and SEVP Arshad Majeed. Pr

FBr organises anti-money laundering training for dnFBPs

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in collaboration with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) organised training sessions on AML/CFT compliance for Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs) comprising jewelers, accountants and lawyers. A number of office bearers of various associations were also present in the training sessions. The senior representatives from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), FBR, Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU)) and Institute of Chartered Accounts of Pakistan (ICAP) were the key speakers.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Mohammad Iqbal, Director General DNFBPs, emphasized on combating Money Laundering in the non-financial sectors of the country. Pr

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06 COMMENT

The Golden Jubilee of a unique event

Managing an ambivalent relationship

When a country broke up

Pakistan, Afghanistan and troublemakers

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he day Pakistan was hosting the OIC summit to seek international support for afghanistan, Taliban stopped Pakistani troops from fencing the border at a point on the durand line. The incident again sends the message that irrespective of who is in power in Kabul the afghan leadership would stick to what it considers to be in its national interest irrespective of whether it pleases others or not. anyone extending a helping hand to the afghans needs to understand that this would not make them yield on what they consider their vital interests.

Pakistan and afghanistan have unresolved disputes and there is a dire need to work together to settle them. some are inherited from the past, others created by each country’s economic or strategic needs. While weak afghan rulers were forced to cede parts of their territory to the powerful British, this was not accepted by successive generations of the afghans. The durand line too was rejected by afghan governments. The fencing of the border and refusal to allow afghanistan to conduct trade with India through Pakistan are more recent issues between the two countries.

Imran Khan was right when he said years ago that the future of long-term relations with landlocked afghanistan lies in the two countries having “open borders” and “free trade.” But this requires a terrorist-free region and closer economic ties and greater mutual trust between Pakistan and afghanistan. In order to move towards the goal there is a need to resolve mutual disputes through dialogue between the two sovereign nations instead of recourse to pressure tactics or unfriendly acts. The Taliban regime needs to realise that it is unrealistic to seek the reversal of border changes effected over a century back. It is in the interest of the two countries to jointly eradicate terrorism from the region after which there would be no need for the fence that divides tribes and families.

Unresolved disputes help terrorist outfits like Is-K and the TTP to flourish in the region. These also provide an opportunity to people like former afghan President hamid Karzai to try to create misunderstandings between the Taliban and Pakistan.

at Penpoint m a Niazi

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angladesh’s celebration of its golden Jubilee reminds the world once again it was the first of an event still rare, the break-up of a country. at the time it occurred in 1971, it was unique. It was only much later that others followed suit, making for a new example of the malleability of borders.

In a way, the creation of Bangladesh is still unique, for it still constitutes the only example of one state broken up due to the interference of another. and it remains the only example of a state which broke up as a result of an election.

True, Bangladesh came into being only after India’s eastern Command defeated Pakistan’s eastern Command, resulting in the latter’s surrender to the former in dhaka. But the reality was that east Pakistan had already given a mandate to the awami league for secession, when it won all the 156 constituencies where it had put candidates, thereby obtaining a majority in the Pakistan national assembly.

Indeed, with hindsight, it should have been obvious when party tickets were allocated that one was dealing with two countries, with polling on the same day. neither the awami league nor the PPP had even awarded tickets in the other wing.

Czechoslovakia and sudan bifurcated, while the UssR and Yugoslavia flew apart. however, none of these separations were violent. however, Russia’s subsequent interventions in Ukraine, first carving off Crimea, and now backing the donetsk and luhansk Republics, represents the only example after World War II of one state intervening militarily to change another’s borders (apart from Iraq against both Iran and Kuwait, but it failed).. however, one of the most corrosive events for both countries has been the failure to come to terms with the war that produced Bangladesh. It is possible to add India, for it should not be forgotten that Indira gandhi followed up the 1971 War with the imposition of emergency, which was not only a failure as an experiment in national transformation, but led to the first time the Congress Party was ousted in the 1977 election.

One of the myths that developed was that the Pakistan army had not lost. It was the politicians.

There has to be something wrong, for while politicians did nothing to cover themselves in glory, it wasn’t politicians who surrendered, but thegOC-in-C eastern Command, and along with him the armed forces in east Pakistan. like it or not, the Pakistan army lost, and thus Pakistan did. The higher direction of the war was carried out by a military government, and the alienation of east Pakistan occurred under the ayub Martial law. armies lose wars, while civilian politicians just live with the consequences.

Getting real What happened in KP?

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O Prime Minister Imran Khan and KP Chief Minister Mehmood Khan really feel that the debacle in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa local body elections was solely because of the wrong selection of candidates, and had nothing to do with the way the PTI is running the country and the province? The meeting, the first since the PTI got a drubbing in the polls earlier in the week, must haven a tense one, but it is interesting that neither man spoke about inflation or economic handling.

The effectiveness of the provincial government should have been brought under scrutiny, but was not. It would have been valid to ask why a party which had become the first to win a second successive term three years before, had bombed so badly in the local body elections. True, local body polls the world over are used by voters to send signals to the government, but if so, the message from KP was not a good one for any government to have to hear.

Besides, neither seemed to be interested in how nepotism had crept into the KP PTI. Was it the fault of Mahmood Khan’s government? Or was there a more pervasive problem infecting the party in other provinces?

MrKhan’s decision to vet the election of candidates himself in Punjab may speak more of his courage than his good sense, for while there may be some improvement in candidate selection, it provides an easy way out for Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, and also makes Mr Khan responsible for the Punjab results in a way that he might not like.

Perhaps Mr Khan’s main problem is that he is not in a position to punish anyone. The PTI Mnas who have violated party discipline by supporting candidates other than the PTI’s cannot be acted against, because Mr Khan’s majority is so narrow. Mr Khan should be aware that how he handles this indiscipline will be watched carefully in Punjab by both Mnas and MPas, aware of the narrowness of the ruling majorities, especially by those ‘electables’ who saw the light in the run-up to the election. If there is no adroit coure correction, if the PTI cannot find candidates who can explain away the crumbling economy, it might come a cropper in Punjab, as big or worse than KP.

Nazim UdddiN

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InCe its independence in 1776, the Usa had been a stable democracy, at least seemed so, but the January 6 riot at its Capitol put a giant question mark on the whole democratic enterprise. Of course, donald Trump failed to bring the strong democracy to its knees, it was, nevertheless, a serious attempt to disseminate a disconcerting message —democracy is fragile despite its 242 years. against this backdrop, President Joe Biden arranged a summit by inviting all democracies —strong, weak, and hybrid —around the globe. Pakistan, unlike Bangladesh, sri lanka, and Bhutan, made it to the invitee list but at the eleventh hour put paid to any chance of attending the virtual meeting. a slew of contradictory statements came to light, thanks to the tactless approach of our officials. To put the whole saga in perspective, there were three reasons for which the government balked at attending the summit. First, since the rise of President Biden to power, there has been a sort of diplomatic snub of the PIT-led government for various reasons. a number of Pakistani officials have shown their desperation to have this glossed over despite the role Pakistan played in the doha Talks; later, they stopped talking about the Biden call altogether when they saw no light at the end of the tunnel. In a sense, this decline was a response to the neglect —at least in part. second, China’s nexus with Pakistan has been lukewarm for two years now, and the former was uninvited to the conference too. Therefore, the possibility of the China factor behind this decision makes sense for the officials stated that Pakistan wouldn’t wish to be part of any bloc—though that was not any bloc. Third, some members of the government maintained that Pakistani democracy was strong enough on all counts so it didn’t need any lecture on democracy and human rights, let alone from a country that has a rich history of propping up despots, carpetbombing countries, and dismantling democratic gov-

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hingya refugees. Closer home, India is also implementing the national Register of Citizens, and has left off large numbers of people, who just happen to be Muslims. Further, the Citizenship amendment act provides fast-track citizenship to all but Muslims.

The problem is that many fled east Pakistan in the dark days before the 1971 War for India. They are not to be given citizenship, and may be sent back to Bangladesh, which is already groaning under the weight of the Rohingya. The Myanmarese government claims that they are also Bengalis who should be repatriated to east Pakistan, because they are the descendants of Bengalis, mostly Muslims, who had migrated there when Burma was a province of British India, upto 1937 Of about 1.4 million, about half have fled to Bangladesh. It is not a Pakistani problem, nor an Indian one, as it would have been had Bangladesh been reabsorbed. however, perhaps the most important factor has been China. It has been courting Bangladesh patiently, with the result that there has been a drift away from India, as well as the Usa. This tendency (it is not enough to be called a tilt) brings it closer to Pakistan. now that 50 years have passed, almost all the main characters in that drama have passed away. none of those in service then are now. even some of the main players’ children have passed away. India gandhi and sheikh Mujeeb were both assassinated, and Zulfikar ali Bhutto executed, Indira’s sons died violently, as did Mujeeb’s and Bhutto’s. even though Yahya died of natural causes, his illness was long, and painful. Though there is no link,these are strange coincidences.

It is now too long for the bitterness to persist.The much earlier Partition of India still makes sense, because the BJP has ensured that Pakistanis (and Bangladeshis…) can only be thankful that they are not a part of India. Then there is the Kashmir dispute, which heads a list of outstanding issues. Pakistan and Bangladesh have none, except for the stranded Pakistanis, who neither country is ready to claim. as for war crimes, that issue is about to die out literally, because any alleged victims, or criminals, are at least in their late 60s.

There may be some revanchism left, but it is only to be heard of in India. There is a definite attempt in India to keep the West Pakistani bogey alive for Bangladesh, but there is none in Pakistan. This might be because there are few Pakistanis with memories of east Pakistan as opposed to Bangladesh, and these are the old remembering their youth.

It is now too long for bitterness to persist. The much earlier Partition of India still makes sense, because the BJP has ensured that Pakistanis (and Bangladeshis…) can only be thankful that they are not a part of India.

The writer is a member of staff.

Costs of declining the democracy summit

Dedicated to the legacy of late Hameed Nizami

Editor Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

Bangladesh took its time about the punishment of certain Jamaat Islami leaders for war crimes, convicting none until 2008, with one being executed.

Pakistan has also not had a proper accounting of the war, though the hamoodur Rehman Commission did record evidence. however, the report was never released. It remains in the custody of an officer in ghQ in all its bulk. leaks indicate that it may have been a hatchet job, as those deposing before the commission were first ‘debriefed’ by senior officers, so that the previous C-in-C and his friends could be blackened, while the current C-in-C (gen Tikka Khan) and his cronies could be whitewashed.

The issue of war crimes by the Pakistan army has not been fully addressed, and the only evidence is propaganda by Bangladesh, and stout denial by Pakistan. Bangladesh has prospered, leaving Pakistan to wonder whether that prosperity would have happened if Pakistan had remained united.

Both countries belittled the war crimes issue by subordinating it to domestic political needs. The hamood report was meant by the Bhutto government to blacken the Yahya regime.

The hasina Wajed government made it a political issue by punishing leaders of opposition parties, the Jamaat and the BnP. Bangladesh has also to address its legacy, which made it such a leader of the Pakistan Movement. From the founding of the allIndia Muslim league in dhaka at the residence of nawab salemullah Khan, to the moving of the Pakistan Resolution by a.K. Fazlul haq, Bengal played a seminal movement.

Indeed, the new country formed the Bengali part of the short lived east Bengal and assam province, created in 1907, and ended in 1912. This partitioning of Bengal, caused hindu feeling to becoming heightened all over India, as the creation of a fresh Muslimmajority province was hotly contested. This dovetailed into the nascent Independence Movement, serving to raise hindu consciousness and array it alongside the Congress, while it motivated Muslims to seek a platform, which they did in the Muslim league.

Bangladesh is the successor of east Pakistan, in turn the successor of east Bengal (and a bit of assam). even now, the corresponding Indian province is West Bengal. however, there is no apparent move to reunite the province. India seems content to have a friendly subordinate. however, two issues have cropped up. The first is the Rohingya issue.

India has supported Myanmar on the Rohingya issue, while Bangladesh has borne the brunt of the Ro-

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ernments. Worse so, some officials argued, after the Jan 6 riot at Capitol hill, the Us should put its own house in order before lecturing others. george Friedman, however, in his latest book “The storm Before the Calm,” tried to answer the inevitable transitional period of the Usa—not decline. apart from all these reasons, from my vantage point, there is another aspect that has made the government reluctant to nod to the call for the meeting: embarrassment due to the declining democracy index reported by the Freedom house and attacks on press freedom which are widely reported at home and abroad. When the prime minister said the Pakistani media’s freedom was on a par with the British media, deep down his heart he didn’t mean it—to put it plainly. Reason: when he was in the opposition, not only did he vehemently oppose gagging the press, but he also promised to break the shackle of censorship. at best, he has changed nothing that the nawaz government was doing. so if the media was under huge siege then, to take the PM’s stance, today, nothing is different from the past. nevertheless, that’s how politics works in Pakistan.

Besides this, various neutral observers have degraded Pakistan’s points for democracy for patently manifested reasons. The prime minister isn’t fond of the democratic process either. For three years, parliament has been made a rubber stamp, and ordinances, which are an anathema to democracy, have been passed on end. also, his examples of saudi arabia’s and China’s punishment of corrupts speak volumes.

It is no wonder that both these countries are undemocratic, to say the least. There was no mention of south Korea given that its former president is in jail even to this day due to corruption charges. granted that our omniscient prime minister doesn’t know much about south Korea, a single example from some democratic countries could also have sufficed.

On the one hand, the claim that Pakistan doesn’t take sides in the new Cold War between the Us and China seems commendable, Pakistan’s tilt towards China says something else, on the other. let’s have a thought experiment. What if China was in the Us’s position and hosted a summit? It’s a foregone conclu-

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sion that there would have been no question of skipping. While saying no to China carries something unimaginable price, the Us has brushed Pakistan’s “no” under the carpet. It doesn’t mean the Us is a source of goodness. The Us is far from being a source of ethical politics: it had shown pure realpolitik for most, if not all, parts of its checkered history.

It is beyond doubt that the most arduous task is to traverse the maze of diplomacy; as a result, diplomacy is known to be the proverbial art of possibilities. While the economy works as the backbone of a country, the foreign policy defines the very standing of a state at a global level. If International relations scholars are to be taken seriously for all practical purposes, the global system is anarchic. Today’s friend can be tomorrow’s enemy and vice versa. In the light of this aphorism, the move of Pakistan can be anything but calibrated, calculated, and considerate.

The authorities at the helm of affairs shouldn’t turn a blind eye to the fact that saying no to the Us, slamming doors in the west’s face, and depending on one country—no matter how significant and sincere that country is—has consequences. given that the IMF bailout package is around the corner, the economy is in shambles, FaTF issues hover over us, and the afghan crisis is deteriorating with each passing day, messing with Washington comes with a price. If we can’t act like India as it is going to eat its cake and have it too by purchasing the Us-banned s-400 from Russia and skipping the sanction, at least, we should act like Bangladesh, which has deep relations with both countries.

Whereas the Usa used Pakistan at times and left in the lurch when the latter needed the former, most of such actions were mutually beneficial. drones are a case in point. Indeed, without a robust economy, the relevance of this country will go to dogs because with begging bowl no one would listen to us. The Kashmir issue is a textbook case of the way the world works. nevertheless, relations with any country shouldn’t sour, no less with the Us who we need greatly.

The writer is a freelance columnist

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

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Benefits of citrus peel

Why and how Bangladesh is moving forward?

Bangladesh is going places JUbeda ChowdhUry

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angladesh has improved its quality of life, economic strength and prosperity, education and research in every field. and that is why in the past Bangladesh was said to follow the developed countries to move forward, today the countries of africa are being urged to look forward to that Bangladesh. no development in Bangladesh today is a surprise, but the result of systematic hard work. Today Bangladesh is reaping the harvest of thousands of days of suffering of millions of people.

When Bangladesh achieved gdP growth of more than six percent for the first time in 2010, it was a surprise. surprisingly, Bangladesh achieved this even during the global economic downturn. due to the global coronavirus pandemic, Bangladesh’s growth has slowed down. But where the growth of all the developed countries of the world was negative in these years, the achievement of Bangladesh was also noticeable. describing Bangladesh’s growth, the BBC said in its analysis that by 2035, we will reach the list of the 25 strongest economies in the world. Bangladesh’s economic progress is being compared to that of singapore and Malaysia in the last century. shijin Chan, former vice president of the asian development Bank (adB), described Bangladesh as one of the fastest growing economies in the asia-Pacific region. and gdP growth will be 6.8 percent this year and 7.2 percent next year. On the other hand, the country’s per capita gdP growth this year will be 5.5 percent and next year it will increase to 5.8 percent.

In 2015, Bangladesh was hailed around the world as one of the most successful countries in meeting the United nations Millennium development goals (Mdgs). Bangladesh did well in all the eight goals. Bangladesh has achieved 13 out of 33 sub-indicators to achieve these goals.

One of the main aims of the Mdgs is to achieve the goal of poverty alleviation.

The target was to reduce the poverty rate to 29 percent by 2015, while Bangladesh has reduced the poverty rate to 24.6 percent. In addition, education, gender inequality, infant mortality, maternal health, disease control, and a sustainable environment these are just some of the key indicators to develop.

The matter has been made possible by following Bangladesh’s own plan or model. although it emphasized the return of the digital Bangladesh system, it did mention in each case the economic empowerment of marginalized people.a number of initiatives have been taken to reduce the dependence on city-centric industries, businesses and income systems, ranging from credit assistance, training activities, counseling assistance to the marginal level. at the same time, by spreading ICT education to the marginal level of the country, a skilled population is being formed through technical education. even in 2010, Bangladesh, which is in an economic position close to Pakistan, has left Pakistan far behind in terms of gdP per capita

and has become a rival to India. at present, the average life expectancy of the people of Bangladesh is 74 years, which is higher than that of neighbouring India and Pakistan. The average life expectancy in India and Pakistan is 70 and 68 years respectively.

Bangladesh is now a leader in the export of readymade garments in the world. Other cases are also moving forward. For example, the pharmaceutical industry of Bangladesh is said to be prosperous. There are 300 pharmaceutical companies in the country, which meet 97 percent of the local demand. They are even exporting drugs to the global market. export earnings from the pharmaceutical industry have increased 11 times in the last one decade. at present, 47 Bangladeshi pharmaceutical companies are exporting Bangladeshi medicines to about 147 countries of the world including europe and america. Bangladesh has paid special attention to every aspect of its foreign exchange earnings as a result of which about 13.2 million Bangladeshi workers are currently working in 168 countries of the world.

Bangladesh ranks eighth among the top 10 countries receiving remittances from abroad. In all, from January 1 to december 10, 2020, the country received $20.50 billion, which is about 12 percent more than the entire period of 2019.

While the flow of remittances around the world has decreased due to the impact of covid-19, the World Bank has expressed the view that the income from remittances of expatriates will increase in Bangladesh this year as well. a number of initiatives have been taken in the joint efforts of the Ministry of expatriate Welfare, the Ministry of external affairs and high commission offices, including providing comprehensive assistance to workers abroad and providing them with online passport renewal facilities. The expatriates are getting the benefits. at the same time, the Bangladesh government has created various opportunities for remittances and investment of expatriates through legal channels.

Through this, tens of millions of people of the country are benefiting. not only that, Bangladesh has created new opportunities in the world labour market. Besides ordinary workers, Bangladesh is currently sending skilled workers abroad. at the same time, skilled experts in technology are also getting opportunities in the job market outside the country. about 700.000 workers were being employed abroad every year, but in the year 2020, 220,000 workers were employed due to Covid-19.

By 2030, Bangladesh wants to establish itself as a middle-income country, and the country’s ready-made garment sector is a very effective industry in this regard. The labour-intensive garment sector developed slowly in the 1980s. The garment industry is the largest export sector in Bangladesh. 83 percent of the total export income is coming from this sector (fiscal year 2019-20).

ICT is another important sector for receiving remittances in Bangladesh at present. There are more than 42 different projects under the ICT department. Through these projects, the Bangladesh government is helping young people to turn new ideas or technological ideas into business. hi-tech parks and innovation centers have been set up to create technology hubs like silicon Valley in the country.

engineering and public universities are being prepared for research in this regard.

Bangladesh is moving from a labor-dependent to a knowledge-based economy for the benefit of technological knowledge, and information technology is accelerating its growth. 100 million people in rural areas are being brought under broadband internet, which will create employment for 20 million people.

In addition, it is estimated that by 2021, the export of ICT products and services will be $5 billion. The IT sector will emerge as the second largest sector after readymade garments. as a result, gross domestic product (gdP) is expected to grow by more than 1 percent.

The agrarian economy has always been criticized by the Western world as fragile. But today Bangladesh has become self-sufficient in food due to its dependence on agriculture. achieving self-sufficiency in food is one of the reasons why the global economic downturn and pandemic have not been had a major impact on the country’s economy. Food production has increased 4.75 times 1971 and now stands at 42.2 million tons (FY 2018-19).

Bangladesh has imported very little rice in the last few years and exported much.

Bangladesh has reduced the price of fertilizer to reduce the production cost of the crop. In the last decade, the cost of fertilizers (TsP, MOP, daP) has been fixed, even reduced.

In 2017-18 alone, it has produced 807.14 million metric tons of food grains. The agriculture budget is being increased day by day. Bangladesh ranks 4th in the world in rice production by inventing 108 high yielding varieties. It has provided agricultural inputs to 20,813,046 farmers. however, agricultural dependence on exports has declined, and the importance of the manufacturing industry and services has increased. after independence, the contribution of the industrial sector to gdP has increased from 9 percent, to about 35 percent in FY 2019-20, of which the contribution of the manufacturing sector is 24.2 percent.

Uninterrupted fuel supply is needed to keep this manufacturing sector of Bangladesh strong.

Bangladesh is currently trying to ensure uninterrupted power supply by expanding the supply system through implementing various projects.

Bangladesh is in the top three in the list of countries leading in achieving the sustainable development goals (sdgs). Bangladesh is following all the models provided by the United nations. at the same time, the country has its own goals. Implementation of digital Bangladesh by 2021 is no longer a reality.

It is not surprising that the milestone of being a middle-income country by 2024 may be missed, but mega projects like Padma Bridge, Karnafuli Tunnel and Metro Rail starting from the Century delta Plan show that the dream of Bangladesh to be recognized as a developed country by 2041 is to be realized. not a very unrealistic thought. But it requires an uninterrupted development environment and strong leadership. and this is why the development management of Bangladesh has become a role model for underdeveloped countries in all development agencies including the United nations and the World Bank.

The writer is a freelance columnist

CITRUs plants belong to the family Rutaceae which includes fruits such as orange, mandarin, lime, lemon, sour orange and grapefruit. These are a well known promising source of multiple beneficial nutrients for human beings. Processing of citrus by-products potentially represents a rich source of phenolic compounds and dietary fibre owing to a large amount of peel produced.

These citrus fruit residues, which are generally discarded as waste in the environment, can act as potential nutraceutical resources. due to their low cost and easy availability, such wastes are capable of offering significant low-cost nutritional dietary supplements. The utilization of these bioactive rich citrus residues can provide an efficient, inexpensive, and environment-friendly platform for the production of novel nutraceuticals or for the improvement of older ones. This review systematically summarized the potential components present in citrus peel, which are generally discarded as waste. Citrus peels contain high levels of antioxidants. as antioxidants, citrus peels may contribute to the protection of your dna from cancer-causing damage. according to Medicinal herbs & spices, citrus peels contain greater amounts of antioxidants than vitamin e. When used in their natural form, the antioxidant effects of citrus peels are enhanced by the high levels of vitamin C found in citrus fruits.

In addition to possessing beneficial properties towards diabetes and cholesterol, citrus peels have been found to help with obesity. according to a study published in the “Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and nutrition” on October 31, 2008, the introduction of lemon polyphenols was found to be successful in the suppression of body weight gain and body fat accumulation. The study found significant improvements in levels of serum insulin, glucose, and leptin by lemon polyphenols (found in lemon peels) which helps improve insulin resistance. This study suggests lemon polyphenols has the ability to “prevent or improve obesity and insulin resistance by modulating lipid metabolism and prevent metabolic syndrome as a representative, lifestyle-related cluster of diseases caused by an excessively high-fat diet”. Pectin, a natural fibre found in the peel helps curb cravings and diminish overactive appetites. Citrus peels contain various flavonoids that have demonstrated effective anti-cancer properties in both in vitro and in vivo, according to a 2014 article published in “Food science and human Wellness”. studies suggest compelling evidence that flavonoids in citrus peels such as nobiletin, hesperidin, and Citrus Peel extract have potent anti-tumour activities in cancers of the skin, colon, prostate, lung, and liver. nobiletin is a representative of citrus poly methoxy flavones that have shown potent beneficial activities against carcinogenesis. Research from Japan’s nakamura University demonstrated that citrus peel extract has the ability to block Tumor growth on both a dose-dependent and timedependent level. This means that the higher the dosage, the greater the inhibition with effects continuing over the duration of the treatment.

AMNA SHEHBAZ FAiSAlABAd

Islamic feminism The west misunderstands Muslims on many things, and the rights of women and their ill-treatment is one of them. It is a fact that in the recent past years the status of women in many parts of the Muslim world has not been very good, but if we look at the times of Islam as a whole and we compare the status of women before Islam and with the genesis of Islam, we get to the clarity of the things in a better way.

The west, the arabs, and the whole world were in the dark before Islam. scandinavians, nordic people, Vikings, and all were butchering each other. The females of Vikings used to give birth to newborn babies on the battlefield, and all they knew was wars and bloodshed. The arabs had a custom of looking down upon women, and burying newborn girls was a normal thing amongst arabs. When Islam came, and as Prophet Muhammad (PBUh) was in Medina, arabia, he pointed out the heinous custom of burial of newborn baby girls and called it a curse. With Islam, the women of arab society got elevated their status, their respect, their right to do business, their ranks, their honour, and everything.

Women of the entire world were treated as an object of sex and were looked upon as sex slaves but Islam gave them their rights and the honour of women was uplifted. It is the era of Islam under which the women of arabia came out as great warriors, leaders, and businesswomen. The west was illuminated with the light of Islam very much after, but still, they were illuminated, and if they have had come out of the dark times, and dark ways of life, it is due to Islam. If we look into the contemporary era, we come to find about the lives of Muslim women under radical groups such as IsIs and many others mostly in the Middle eastern parts of the world and the western media does the propaganda of their ill-treatment due to Islam, while a sensible person can look into the matter objectively and can easily clear the fact that that ill-treatment is not in the ideology of Islam, but of course the interests and ideology of those radical groups out of whom many have been classified as Khawarijites by scholars of Islam.

AWiSRA SARWAR & FAiSAl KHAN iSlAMABAd

Hydrogen gas generators WaTeR is made up of hydrogen and oxygen. By using electricity we can split the water into separate entities- oxygen gas and hydrogen gas. The hydrogen can be safely burned to produce heat and water vapours. hydrogen producing kits are used around the world to produce gas from water for cooking food and efficient heating. The units are small and only require water and electricity. Many countries are also combining this hydrogen with nitrogen from the air to produce fertilizer. since the main reason for the high rate of deforestation in Pakistan is the use of wood for cooking fuel. Pakistan has excessive energy during the winter months when heating is needed the most. Therefore the government of Pakistan should install hydrogen generation in areas close to a cheap renewable energy source like dams. local homes and businesses would be given piped and metered gas connections. The whole setup, customer service and bill collection would be handled by a new green hydrogen management provincial company. The new provincial company would also be mandated to promote green hydrogen, set safety standards, construct underground h2 storage, conduct research in green hydrogen and also accept new private sector business proposals in green hydrogen, which they would forward to KP government for approval.

The private sector can even set up green fertilizer companies.

SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEER PESHAWAR

08 WORLD VIEW 24th December 21_Layout 1 12/23/2021 10:39 PM Page 1

Friday, 24 December, 2021

08 WORLD VIEW

SaffronIzatIon of the IndIan armY and mIlItarIzatIon of the government

COUnTERCURREnTS SumANTA BANERjE

t

He outpouring of grief over the tragic death of General Bipin Rawat is manifesting itself in an ugly belligerent form, which was never witnessed in the past on similar occasions, like the passing away of army stalwarts – Sam Manekshaw, Arjan Singh and Sunderji.

The present state-sponsored display of national mourning over Bipin Rawat’s death is fast degenerating into an orgy of revenge against those who are expressing their misgivings about certain dubious and oppressive acts by the late general during his tenure as both the army chief and later as the Chief of Defence Staff.

Let me give a few examples of such behaviour of revenge against dissenters who refuse to echo the prevailing sycophantic homage to the late general and instead publicly express their disaffection with his misdeeds. Some state governments, in a wild display of their loyalty to General Bipin Rawat, are violently clamping down on these outspoken critics.

TODAY, THE WAY THE BJP RULERS DISPLAY EXTREME INTOLERANCE OF ANY CRITICISM OF THE ARMY, INDICATES A GROWING TENDENCY OF APPEASEMENT OF THE MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT In Karnataka, the BJP Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has directed his police chief to initiate legal action against culprits who have made `derogatory’ remarks on the social media on General Rawat’s death. (Re: Times of India. December 11, 2021). In Indian Occupied Kashmir, according to the above mentioned newspaper report, the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir Bank suspended a woman employee for her social media post containing `derogatory’ and `inappropriate’ comments on the death of Bipin Rawat. At around the same time, Sabbah Haji, a well-known educationist in Indian Occupied Kashmir, came out with a statement describing the late General Rawat as a `war criminal’ (a term which she must have used, remembering the atrocities carried out on her people by the Indian jawans under that general’s command). She was arrested soon after, and was given bail on December 17.

IS THE INDIAN ARMY BEING TURNED INTO A HOLY COW? As it is, we have too many holy cows in India – temples of all

denominations, religious institutions, privileged politicians – all considered to be sacrosanct, and their misdeeds are immunized against legal prosecution. It appears that the Indian Army is now being added to the list – judging by the furore raised by the ruling powers to elevate the late General Bipin Rawat to a status which debars anyone from criticizing him. In other words, the Indian Army should not be made accountable to the public.

This is in sharp contrast to the freedom that the citizens and the Opposition parties enjoyed in 1962, when during the Sino-Indian war they were free to voice their criticism of the failure of the Indian army, and even attack the then defence minister Krishna Menon, in the press.

Today, the way the BJP rulers display extreme intolerance of any criticism of the army, indicates a growing tendency of appeasement of the military establishment.

The present Narendra Modi-led government permits its soldiers to use pellets that blind young Kashmiri protestors, and in-

Journalists should report the story, not participate in it

discriminately shoot bullets that kill them.

The infamous AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) has empowered army jawans to gun down sixteen innocent citizens in Nagaland’s Mon district on December 5.

The culprits will not face any punishment, since the provisions of AFPSA grant them immunity. All these acts of culpability, whether in Indian Occupied Kashmir, or the North-east, were presided over by General Bipin Rawat, both in his capacity as the army chief, and later as the Chief of Defence Staff. It is this person, who is now being elevated to the position of an icon of national heroism – although he did not have to his credit any military achievement comparable to that of his predecessors like Sam Manekshaw and others. How does one explain the present government’s soft spot for the late General Bipin Rawat ? Let us recall a scene on December 3, 2020.

On that date, General Rawat was found joining the saffron clad UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, visiting the

USA TOdAy KEN PAuLSoN

S

OMe of the people accused of crimes for entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 have a novel defense.

They claim to be journalists. Shawn Witzemann, a plumber from Farmington, New Mexico, has been charged by the FBI, but contends that his nightly “Armenian Council for Truth in Journalism” program on YouTube should exempt him from prosecution.

Nice try, but journalists are citizens like the rest of us, subject to the same criminal laws. If a police officer tells you not to enter a building and you proceed, “I’m here to watch” is not a defense.

Journalists have an ethical obligation to report the story, and not participate in it. It’s hard to know what Witzemann was thinking when he walked into the Capitol, but it’s pretty clear who his role models were.

We learned recently that three Fox News hosts sent texts to Mark Meadows, chief of staff to Donald Trump, urging that the president put an end to the Jan. 6 havoc.

While Trump supporters roamed the halls of the Capitol, Brian Kilmeade, co-host of “Fox & Friends,” asked Meadows to “please get (the president) on Tv. (The event was) destroying everything you have accomplished.” Sean Hannity made a similar suggestion. “Can he make a statement? Ask people to leave the Capitol,” he texted.

Laura Ingraham, host of “The Ingraham Angle,” tellingly wrote, “Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. Please get him on Tv. This is hurting all of us.

He is destroying his legacy.”

“This is hurting all of us.” That’s Ingraham saying that even Fox News’ pro-Trump spin machine would have trouble explaining this away. Yet of course, Fox News did just that, with each of these seemingly appalled hosts going on to minimize the assault on the Capitol and defending Trump’s role.

In the wake of the revelations about the texts, many have pointed to Fox News hypocrisy. But that’s just Fox being Fox. ALLEGED NEWS ORGANIZATION: The real outrage here is an alleged news organization actively trying to change the path and perception of American history, offering advice on damage control to the most powerful man in the world.

Their actions were unethical and an abdication of traditional journalistic values.

Imagine the reaction if NBC News anchor Lester Holt texted President Joe Biden with possible talking points for an upcoming summit. There would be dismissals and de-

Ken Paulson is the director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, a former editor of USA TODAY and a member of the USA TODAY Board of Contributors.

Sumanta Banerjee is a political commentator and writer, is the author of In The Wake of Naxalbari’ (1980 and 2008); The Parlour and the Streets: Elite and Popular Culture in Nineteenth Century Calcutta (1989) and ‘Memoirs of Roads: Calcutta from Colonial Urbanization to Global Modernization.’ (2016).

Yes, vote-buying is illegal. But why?

SURPRISINGLY, BUYING VOTES IS A COMMON PRACTICE AROUND THE WORLD, EVEN IN THE US

JOURNALISTS NEED TO MAINTAIN INDEPENDENCE FROM THEIR SOURCES AND NOT BECOME THE NEWS STORY mands for investigations. At Fox News, they just circle the wagons. For all the softball coverage of the Trump administration over the years, this was different. Fox was caught being inside the administration.

The First Amendment was ratified in 1791, guaranteeing freedom of the press at a time when newspapers were particularly partisan and rough-edged. But that first generation of Americans saw benefit in a free press keeping an eye on those in power. The idea was that a free press would serve as a check on the powerful, and not serve as a collaborator or co-conspirator.

UNDERMINING TRUST IN MEDIA” Of course, the arrogance of some who want to shape rather than report the news is not limited to one end of the political spectrum. On Dec. 4, CNN fired Chris Cuomo, a liberal nighttime host, in the aftermath of revelations he worked behind the scenes to defend his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, over allegations of sexual harassment.

As in the Fox News example, Cuomo was trying to shape the public perception of a big news story being covered by his own news organization.

This kind of behavior takes a toll. Trust in news professionals has plummeted in recent years, with a Gallup poll finding in October that just 36% of Americans trust the media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly; 34% of the respondents said they have no confidence in media news coverage.

It may be that the antics, bias and arrogance of the most visible cable hosts have poisoned public perception of the thousands of professionals who report the news in cities and towns across the country. That said, accountability remains critical at every level of news reporting.

We should expect professional journalists to report the news in good faith and not pander to one end of the political spectrum or the other. Being informed is not the same thing as taking a warm bath in one’s own beliefs.

We should be able to be confident that journalists are reporting what they see, not what they want us to see, and that their relationship with the powerful is independent and at arms-length. Among the most basic ethical principles drilled into rookie reporters over the decades: “You don’t matter.

The news matters. Don’t get in the way.”

That means no political activities or personal involvement in news stories. It means full disclosure of anything that could color your work or undermine trust in your reporting.

Of course, all of this is aspirational, and in a world where anyone can record and distribute their own takes on the news, it’s admittedly old school.

What I do know is that credibility of news media is best built with honesty, independence and transparency, regardless of topic. On television, a football play-by-play announcer explains exactly what’s happening on the field, even as the audience watches in real time. His credibility depends on getting it right.

A color analyst shares views on plays and players, but unless that opinion is informed and accurate, it doesn’t last long. Above all else, those announcers – and all who work daily to inform the public - should stay the hell off the field.

Gorakhnath temple (as captured in photographs). He prioritized this religious duty of his over his more important responsibility (under the army service rules) to participate in the wreath-laying ceremony in Delhi for Navy Day on December 4 – which he skipped.

No Indian army chief in the past had been known to have expressed religious loyalty of any kind by such public participation in religious ceremonies.

The valedictory tributes being paid by the present ruling powers to this General of their choice, cannot hide the oppressive legacy that he had left behind during his career in the army.

BLOOMBERG STEPHEN L CARTER

I

’ve never been a fan of litigating election results in court, and the lawsuit filed last month by the loser of the Democratic primary for a Florida seat in the U.S. House of Representatives seems as frivolous as they come.

Yet one of its several charges deserves more thought. Not because it’s true — it’s ridiculous on its face — but because it speaks to the nature of democracy.

The allegation from the loser, Dale Holness, is that the winner, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, essentially purchased votes by promising legislation that would pay those of moderate income $1,000 per month. His lawsuit calls it “a gimmick designed only to motivate people to vote for her.”

Well, sure. But the gimmick is perfectly legal.

The Supreme Court has long held that the First Amendment protects a candidate’s promise that her victory will mean more money in voters’ pockets. What Cherfilus-McCormick has done is what office-seekers do all the time. A public promise of cash payments to a large number of voters isn’t illegal; a private promise of money just to me would be. As the legal scholar Pamela Karlan memorably put it, candidates are allowed to buy votes wholesale but not retail.

Which leads to the question about democracy: Why not allow private transactions for votes? If a passionate partisan pays fellow citizen the going rate (evidently around $10 or $20) to cast his ballot a certain way, what exactly has the partisan done wrong?

Consider that we can freely alienate other constitutional rights. When a lawyer agrees not to disclose the confidences vouchsafed by a client, nobody supposes that the lawyer’s right to free speech is unjustly infringed. Freedom of religion isn’t violated when an hourly worker forgoes weekend worship services in order to earn timeand-a-half or better.

Moreover, although frowned upon pretty much everywhere, vote-buying remains common around the world, even when the secret ballot means that the bargain is difficult to police. The rapid growth of social media has created channels that make electoral transactions easier. And we can’t exclude the U.S., where vote-buying has long been common. Scholars have found that votes are typically

purchased not by strangers but by acquaintances or influential community leaders.

Academics have tried to explain why we can sell other rights but not votes: Because our votes affect others, for instance. Or because public officials (and by extension candidates for public office) owe fiduciary duties to voters. Because if votes could be sold, voters would have yet another reason to consider mainly their own self-interest. Because allowing votes to be sold would transfer more political power to the rich.

Although each of these arguments possesses some merit, I suspect that most of the instinctive opposition to vote-selling stems from the near-mystical faith in the ballot box as the heart of democracy, the place where citizens make thoughtfully considered choices. The voter who allows the choice to be influenced by filthy lucre betrays that faith.

In an 1880 speech, the great liberal lawyer Robert Ingersoll put the point this way: “every voter is in his own right a king; and every voter, poor and rich, wears the purple of authority alike. The man that will sell his vote is the man that abdicates the American throne.” The vote-seller, said Ingersoll, “is not worthy to be an American citizen.”

Temptation was considered endemic. A Connecticut pastor, in an 1898 sermon, urged parishioners not to sell their votes “for a few paltry dollars or a drink of liquor.” To similar effect, a North Carolina newspaper in 1912 issued a stern caution: “Don’t sell your vote for the small sum of two or three dollars. Don’t sell your vote at all, for God hates a man that sells his vote.”

Running against President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936, Kansas Gov. Alfred M. Landon tried to turn this widespread sentiment to political advantage: “I am dedicated to this proposition that henceforth no American citizen shall ever again be put in a position where he has to sell his vote for bread.”

Pro-Democratic newspapers bristled, interpreting Landon’s words as an open accusation that government officials were conditioning relief on political support. In context, however, the challenger clearly meant that he wanted an America where people didn’t have to rely on the dole.

In other words, he thought it wrong to “buy” votes by promising government assistance.

Which brings us back to Florida. As I said, Holness’s accusation of vote-buying is frivolous; Cherfilus-McCormick purchased no votes. Yet the instinct to which his lawsuit appeals, even if absurd in this particular instance, is one that runs deep in American history. True, the image of the rational and disinterested voter may be no more than a fiction, but it’s often by such fictions that democracy is preserved.

Stephen L. Carter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a professor of law at Yale University and was a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. His novels include “The Emperor of Ocean Park,” and his latest nonfiction book is “Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster.”

Friday, 24 December, 2021 | LAHORE

NEWS

09

K-ELEcTric sEEKs coLossaL hiKE in powEr TariFF ISLAMABAD

K

Lira extends rally in wake of Turkey’s rescue plan ISTANBUL ReuteRs

Turkey’s lira strengthened almost 10% on Thursday, adding to big gains this week after the government said it would guarantee some local currency deposits against depreciation losses, while questions emerged over the central bank’s reserves.

The lira stood at 10.81 against the dollar at 1122 GMT, from a Wednesday close of 12.05, stabilizing after record swings and volatility earlier this week.

The currency hit a historic low of 18.4 on Monday when it was down some 60% on the year.

Despite the rebound, risk measures are near all-time highs as questions remain over the state’s anti-dollarisation plan, which could further stoke inflation, add to public debt and eat into foreign reserves if the lira begins sliding again.

The cost of insuring against a sovereign default using CDS broke above 600 basis points earlier this week, before dipping back to 593, levels seen last Friday before volatility ramped up, according to IHS Markit.

Ugur Gurses, an economist and former central bank employee, cited his calculations from the bank’s balance sheet to suggest that state banks had conducted backdoor interventions worth some $7 billion, helping the lira’s rally this week.

The three big state banks did not immediately comment on possible interventions. The central bank was not immediately available to comment.

In 2019-2020 the central bank backed, via swaps, the sale of some $128 billion via state banks to stabilize the lira, depleting Turkey’s foreign reserves. Earlier this year, the sales emerged as a focus of what the political opposition calls government mismanagement.

The central bank has announced five direct market interventions this month that bankers say totaled between $6-$10 billion. There were no intervention notices this week.

Talks between the central bank and counterparts in Azerbaijan and the UAE on a possible currency swap line to bolster depleted reserves are wrapping up and one deal is likely before year-end, sources told Reuters.

On Monday, President Tayyip Erdogan announced the series of steps that would shift the burden of a weakened currency to the Treasury and encourage Turks to hold lira rather than dollars. The central bank will backstop lira converted from hard currencies.

More than half of locals’ savings is in hard currencies and gold, official data shows, due to a loss of confidence in the lira after years of depreciation and eroded central bank credibility.

Under pressure from Erdogan, the central bank has cut rates by 500 basis points to 14% since September.

The president has pledged to continue with his low-rates policy despite widespread criticism, while opposition parties have called for immediate elections over the currency meltdown.

Wall Street bank J.P. Morgan said markets expect a big reversal in monetary policy and are pricing in a 16 percentage point rise in Turkey’s key interest rate over the next year.

staff RepoRt

-Electric has asked the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to approve a Rs5.50 per unit increase in the electricity tariff on account of fuel adjustment charges.

According to the details, Karachi’s sole power utility is seeking a Rs5.18 per unit hike under fuel charges adjustment (FCA) for the quarter ending September 2021 and a 31 paisa per unit increase on account of monthly FCA for the month of November.

The authority will hold a hearing on January 3, 2022, to consider the proposed adjustment in the power tariff.

KE has submitted that the revision in the quarterly adjustment is due to updating the fuel cost component for July to September in line with

NEPRA’s FCA determination for these months. The hearing will discuss in detail and analyse whether the requested fuel price variation is justified and whether K-Electric has followed the merit order in power purchases from external sources and in giving dispatches to its power plants.

In a notice, NEPRA has invited all the interested and affected parties to raise written and oral objections as permissible under the law.

As per already set tariff mechanism, changes in fuel cost are passed on to consumers on monthly basis, while quarterly tariff adjustments on account of variation in the power purchase price, capacity charges, variable operation and maintenance costs, use of system charges and the impact of transmission and distribution losses are built in the base tariff by the government.

Sixth review to be presented to IMF board on Jan 12: finance ministry

The sixth review of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) would be presented to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) board on January 12.

In this regard, Finance Ministry Spokesperson Muzzammil Aslam tweeted, “I am pleased to confirm 6th review will be presented to IMF Board on 12th January, 2022.” Earlier on November 22, the Fund and Pakistan reached a staff-level agreement on policies and reforms needed to complete the sixth review under the $6 billion EFF which has been stalled since April.

In its statement following discussions with Pakistani officials, the IMF had acknowledged the country’s progress in implementing the programme “despite a difficult environment”.

“All quantitative performance criteria (PCs) for end-June were met with wide margins, except for that on the primary budget deficit,” the Fund noted, adding that finalisation of the National Socio-economic Registry (NSER) update, adoption of amendments in the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) Act, notification of all pending quarterly power tariff adjustments, and payment of the first tranche of outstanding arrears to independent power producers (IPPs) were

“notable” achievements on the structural front.

However, the agreement is subject to approval by the Executive Board, following the implementation of prior actions, notably on fiscal and institutional reforms, the statement reads, adding that the approval of the agreement will make available $750 million in Special Drawing Rights (SDR), equivalent to $1,059m.

Moreover, the IMF has directed Pakistan to get the amendment bill and finance supplementary bill approved by the parliament in order to get the $1 billion tranche by January 12, 2022.

The government had recently retracted the mini-budget, including the amendment bills, from the federal cabinet after the IMF turned down the government’s proposal to present the budget through a presidential ordinance while the cabinet also did not consider the bills after the economic team apprised the premier about the reservations of different quarters.

On Tuesday, the minister for information had said that the Cabinet Committee on Legislative Cases (CCoLC) would make more changes in the SBP Amendment Bill due to which it has not been finalised yet. news desk

Exports increase by 29.53pc in 5MFY22 ISLAMABAD app

The exports from the country witnessed an increase of 29.53 per cent totaling Rs2,072,512 million during the first five months of the current fiscal year (5MFY22) as compared to the exports of Rs1,599,976 in the corresponding period of last year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported.

On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, exports increased by 45.35pc to Rs502,376 million in November compared to the exports of Rs345,640 million during November, 2020.

On a month-on-month (MoM) basis, exports increased by 18.75pc when compared to the exports of Rs423,063 million in October 2021.

The main commodities of exports during November included knitwear, readymade garments, bed wear, cotton cloth, rice others qualities, cotton yarn, towels, madeup articles, excluding towels and bedwear, basmati, and fish along with related products.

Meanwhile, imports during the July–November period totaled Rs5,537,253 million against Rs3,197,899 million during the corresponding period of last year, showing an increase of 73.15pc.

Based on the data, the trade deficit during the period under review was recorded at $20.648 billion, showing an increase of 112.34pc over the deficit of $9.724 billion recorded during July-November FY21.

Oil prices edge higher on optimism over Omicron impact NEW DELHI agencies

Oil prices edged up on Thursday for a third consecutive session over positive developments around COVID-19, even as China imposed new travel curbs and Australia reinstated restrictions to combat surging cases.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 10 cents, or 0.1%, to $72.86 a barrel at 0625 GMT after jumping 2.3% in the previous session.

Brent crude futures also gained 8 cents, or 0.1%, to $75.37 a barrel, extending a 1.8% gain in the previous session.

The big gains on Wednesday were partly spurred by a larger-than-expected drawdown in US crude stockpiles last week.

“Oil’s direction is entirely reliant on omicron headlines, and as long as they stay more contagious but less virulent, oil’s rally is likely to continue, with intra-day ranges exacerbated by thin liquidity,” Jeffrey Halley, senior analyst at OANDA, said in a note.

The United States overnight authorized Pfizer Inc’s antiviral COVID-19 pill for people ages 12 and older, the first oral and athome treatment as well as a new tool against the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

Meanwhile, a South African study suggested that those infected with Omicron were much less likely to end up in hospital than those with the Delta strain.

A weaker US dollar buoys oil markets as it makes commodities cheaper for those holding other currencies. The dollar fell to near a one-week low after data on Wednes-

day showed US consumer confidence improving more than expected in December.

Oil’s climb has come even as governments reimposed a range of restrictions to slow the spread of Omicron. The Chinese city of Xian on Wednesday ordered its 13 million residents to stay home, while Scotland imposed gathering limits from Dec. 26 for up to three weeks, and two Australian states reimposed mask mandates as cases surged.

The market has shrugged off the potential impact of mobility restrictions on fuel demand because the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and allies, together called OPEC+, has left the door open to reviewing their plan to add 400,000 barrels per day of supply in January.

Friday, 24 December, 2021 | LAHORE

10 FOREIGN NEWS

US AUThoriSeS Some TrAnSAcTionS wiTh TAlibAn To keep Aid flowing To AfghAniSTAn WAsHINGtON

T

ReuteRs

He United States formally exempted on Wednesday US and UN officials doing permitted business with the Taliban from U.S. sanctions to try to maintain the flow of aid to Afghanistan as it sinks deeper into a humanitarian crisis.

It was unclear, however, whether the move would pave the way for proposed UN payments of some $6 million to the Islamists for security.

Reuters on Tuesday exclusively reported a UN plan to subsidize next year the monthly wages of Taliban-run Interior Ministry personnel who guard UN facilities and to pay them monthly food allowances, a proposal that raised questions about whether the payments would violate US sanctions.

The Treasury Department declined to say whether the new license would exempt the proposed UN payments from US sanctions on the Taliban.

Having designated the Taliban as a terrorist group for years, Washington has ordered its US assets frozen and barred Americans from dealing with them.

The Treasury on Wednesday issued three general licenses aimed at easing humanitarian aid flows into Afghanistan.

Two of the licenses allow US officials and those of certain international organizations, such as the United Nations, to engage in transactions involving the Taliban or Haqqani Network for official business.

A third license gives non-governmental organizations (NGOs) protection from US sanctions on the Taliban and the Haqqani Network for work on certain activities, including humanitarian projects.

A senior US administration official said the Taliban would have to take action to prevent Afghanistan’s economy from contracting further.

“What we can attempt to do, what we’re going to work to do, is to mitigate the humanitarian crisis by getting resources to the Afghan people, and these general licenses will allow us to allow organizations that are doing this work to do exactly that,” the official told reporters.

The top Republican on the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee criticized the decision by Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.

The exemption “could result in using American taxpayer funds to reward, legitimize and enable the same Taliban that took power by force and has shown no interest in abiding by international norms,” Representative Michael McCaul said in a statement.

Afghanistan’s economic crisis accelerated after the Taliban seized power in August, as the former Western-backed government collapsed and the last US troops withdrew.

The United States and other donors cut financial assistance, and more than $9 billion in Afghanistan’s hard currency assets were frozen.

The United Nations says nearly 23 million people – about 55% of the population –

are facing extreme levels of hunger, with nearly 9 million at risk of famine as winter takes hold.

“We will continue to support efforts by our partners to scale up assistance and deliver necessary relief during this moment of particular need,” US Secretary of State

Antony Blinken said in a statement.

In a separate bid to address the crisis, the UN Security Council passed a resolution exempting donors, aid groups and financial institutions involved in humanitarian assistance from UN asset freezes on leaders of the Taliban and associated entities.

China’s Xian locks down its 13 million residents as Covid-19 cases mount ReUteRs The Chinese city of Xian has imposed tight curbs on outbound travel and commuting within the city, putting its 13 million residents in a lockdown as a new Covid-19 outbreak sees community cases tick higher. The daily count of domestically transmitted Covid-19 infections with confirmed symptoms in Xian has increased for six consecutive days since Dec. 17.

That brings the total number of local cases to more than 200 during Dec. 9-22, smaller than many outbreaks outside of China. No infection caused by the Omicron variant has been detected in Xian.

Consistent with Beijing’s stance that no flare-up can be allowed to spread, Xian has made it difficult for residents to leave. Those who want to travel out of the city need to test negative for Covid-

19 before departure and get clearance from employers or community-level authorities. The city has suspended longdistance bus services and banned taxis and cars hired on ride-hailing platforms for trips out of town, and dispatched po-

lice at highway exits to dissuade those who intended to leave. Livestreaming video provided by local traffic police on social media showed some highway sections in Xian were almost empty.

Starting Thursday, only one person

in each Xian household can go out for necessary shopping every two days, while other family members must stay home unless they have essential jobs.

All domestic flights to and from Xian previously scheduled for Thursday have been cancelled, according to data provided by Variflight. Outbound flights from Xian for Friday are still available, online travel booking apps show.

The city has run at least two rounds of mass testing.

A few other local regions, such as Sichuan province and Chongqing city, demanded people who had recently visited Xian to be quarantined for up to 14 days before they could travel freely. For Wednesday, mainland China confirmed a total of 71 local symptomatic cases, including 63 in Xian, according to a statement by the National Health Commission.

The exemption is “solely for the provision of humanitarian assistance and other activities that support basic human needs in Afghanistan which the council will review in one year,” Jeffrey DeLaurentis, a senior adviser to the US mission to the United Nations, said in urging approval of the measure.

Saudi-led coalition says destroyed drone targeting airport: Arabiya TV DUBAI ReuteRs

The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi group in Yemen said on Thursday it had destroyed an armed drone attempting to target Abha international airport, al-Arabiya TV reported. Debris from the destruction of the drone surrounding the airport did not cause any injuries, the coalition added. The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said on Wednesday it had helped get Iran’s sick ambassador out of the country before he died, rejecting an Iranian accusation that the envoy’s evacuation had been delayed. Iran said on Tuesday said Hasan Irlu, Iran’s ambassador to Houthi-run north Yemen, had died of Covid-19 after his evacuation from Yemen, suggesting Saudi Arabia delayed his departure from the capital, Sanaa. The coalition, which has been fighting the Houthi movement since early 2015, said in a statement it had facilitated Irlu’s repatriation and had arranged for an Iraqi medical plane to fly him from Sanaa to Basra in Iraq.

US authorises Pfizer Covid-19 pill, first for at-home use ReUteRs The United States on Wednesday authorised Pfizer Inc’s antiviral Covid-19 pill for people ages 12 and older at risk of severe illness, the first oral and at-home treatment as well as a new tool against the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

Pfizer’s antiviral regimen, Paxlovid, was nearly 90 per cent effective in preventing hospitalisations and deaths in patients at high risk of severe illness, according to data from the company’s clinical trial. Recent lab data suggests the drug retains its effectiveness against Omicron, Pfizer said.

Pfizer raised its 2022 production projections to 120 million courses of treatment from 80m and said it was ready to start immediate delivery in the United States. The treatment’s two-drug regimen includes a new medicine and a second older antiviral called ritonavir.

The US government will have 265,000 treatment courses available by January and supply will ramp up in subsequent months, White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients told a briefing. The government expects to receive the 10m courses it has ordered within six months.

“Paxlovid’s approval is a major milestone that marks another step towards making Covid-19 a much more manageable infection,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Health Security.

“There are two key issues, however, that remain: It will be scarce in the coming weeks and its optimal use requires prompt diagnosis, which can be difficult with the continual testing problems that plague us,” Adalja added.

Pfizer has said it has 180,000 treatment courses ready to ship this year. The US government’s contract for 10m courses of the drug is priced at $530 per course.

The Food and Drug Administration’s decision to issue emergency authorisation for the treatment comes as the US combats a surge in Covid-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant, with President Joe Biden announcing plans for more federal vaccination and testing sites.

Pills can fill treatment gap: The pills can fill a treatment gap opened by the Omicron variant, said William Schaffner, a leading infectious disease expert from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. The most widely used monoclonal

antibody treatments for Covid-19 have proven to be less effective at fighting the variant and there is limited supply of the one remaining treatment that works, he said.

Monoclonal antibodies are typically given intravenously in hospitals, are not widely available and are more than twice the cost of the Pfizer pill.

The Omicron variant, first identified in southern Africa and Hong Kong in November, has spread across the world and now constitutes over 70pc of new coronavirus cases in the United States, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Prior infection and vaccines have been shown in studies to only partly prevent infection from the variant, though a booster shot does increase protection.

EvEry 12 hours for 5 days: The FDA said it authorised Paxlovid for emergency use for the treatment of mild-to-moderate disease in adults and children 12 years and older who are at high risk for progression to severe Covid-19.

The drug is available by prescription only and should be initiated as soon as possible after diagnosis of Covid-19 and within five days of symptom onset, the FDA said.

The pills are meant to be taken every 12

hours for five days.

While the clinical trials did not include patients under the age of 18, Pfizer said, the authorised adult dosing regimen is expected to result in comparable blood concentration levels of the drug in pediatric patients 12 and older weighing at least 40 kg.

The second drug, ritonavir, is known to have interactions with some other prescription medicines. Pfizer has said that should be manageable and suggested most patients would be able to lower the dose of their other medications while being treated for Covid19. Pfizer said it plans to file a new drug ap-

plication with the FDA in 2022 seeking full regulatory approval.

Pfizer has agreed to allow generic manufacturers to supply versions of the treatment to 95 low- and middle-income countries through a licensing agreement with international public health group Medicines Patent Pool (MPP).

A rival pill from Merck & Co is under review by the FDA. The drug, molnupiravir, developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, cut hospitalisation and death risk by 30pc in a trial. Pfizer shares ended up more than 1pc at $59.45 on Wednesday.

Friday, 24 December, 2021 | LAHORE

SPORTS 11

LiveRPooL fiGht back to beat LeiceSteR in LeaGue cuP LIVeRPOOL

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AFP

IVERPOOL came from two goals down to beat Leicester on penalties after a pulsating League Cup quarter-final ended 3-3 at Anfield as Tottenham and Chelsea also made the semi-finals on Wednesday.

Spurs were 2-1 winners over West Ham and will face Chelsea in the last four after they needed two late goals to see off Brentford 2-0.

Liverpool will take on Arsenal in the semi-finals over two legs in January.

All three matches went ahead in front of full crowds despite the worrying rise of coronavirus case numbers that had seen last weekend’s Premier League schedule decimated by call offs.

Leicester’s previous two fixtures had been called off due to a combination of a coronavirus outbreak in the squad and a mounting injury list.

However, Brendan Rodgers was able to name a close to full strength side on his return to Anfield and it showed early on against a much-changed Liverpool.

Jamie Vardy struck twice inside the first 13 minutes as he angled a drive across Caoimhin Kelleher and then tapped in Patson Daka’s pass from close range.

Jurgen Klopp had made 10 changes from the side that drew 2-2 at Tottenham on Sun-

day with Liverpool also depleted by four positive Covid cases.

However, it was one of their more experienced starters who got them back in the game as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain smashed home from the edge of the area.

Leicester restored their two-goal cushion before half-time thanks to James Maddison’s piledriver from 30 yards that flew past Kelleher.

Klopp introduced three first-team regulars at half-time and one of them, Diogo Jota,

gave Liverpool life again 22 minutes from time. Kasper Schmeichel then needed to produce a stunning save to deny the Portuguese a second, but Leicester still could not hold out as Takumi Minamino sent the game to penalties in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

US defeat Ireland by 26 runs in T20 contest

Minamino then missed with the chance to win the tie from the spot in the shootout, but Kelleher saved from Luke Thomas and Ryan Bertrand before Jota fired home the winning penalty.

Tottenham boss Antonio Conte showed his determination to end the club’s 13-year trophy drought as soon as possible as he named Harry Kane among a strong starting line-up.

But it was the other two of Spurs’ front three who were on target in north London.

Steven Bergwijn scored his first goal of the season after two clever one-twos with Pierre Emile Hojbjerg.

Tottenham’s lead lasted just three minutes as West Ham seized upon Eric Dier’s slack pass and Jarrod Bowen fired low past Hugo Lloris.

Two minutes later it was 2-1 as Bergwijn this time turned provider for Moura to prod home from close range.

“In England it’s very difficult to win something,” said Conte, who will come up against his old club in the last four.

“It’s good for Tottenham to reach the semi-finals of this competition. You can see the names of these teams that have reached the semi-finals – Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal with us – so every side wants to try to lift this trophy.”

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel handed debuts to academy prospects Harvey Vale, Jude Soonsup-Bell and Xavier Simons with the Blues short of seven players due to a Covid outbreak.

However, Tuchel emptied his bench in the second half with the introduction of N’Golo Kante, Mason Mount, Christian Pulisic, Reece James and Jorginho.

And that extra quality made the difference as Pontus Jansson turned James’ cross into his own net 10 minutes from time.

Jorginho then stroked home a penalty after Pulisic had been upended in the box.

Ramos sent off in PSG draw

LAuDeRhILL

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AFP

AFP

The United States scored a famous and deserved T20 cricket triumph over Ireland on Wednesday to get the most important series in their history off to the best possible start.

A brilliant 65 from Gajanand Singh helped the hosts reach a competitive 188 for 6 in their 20 overs and some disciplined bowling from Saurabh Netravalkar and Ali Khan helped keep the Irish at bay to secure an opening victory in the five-game set, the first USA home series ever against a Test playing nation.

The United States, wanting to compete at the very highest level, will need more performances like this to stand them in good stead moving forward.

Ireland had never lost to an American side coming into the clash, thrashing them four times in T20 World Cup qualifier tournaments from 2010 to 2015.

But the visitors were distinctly second best in Florida as the US notched their best-ever win against a Test playing nation in the Twenty20 format.

“This is a good start,” spinner Nisarg Patel, who bowled well in taking 2-27, told AFP. “We’ve been playing well for the last year and a half. Winning against bigger teams like Ireland will send out a good message across the country and the world.

“Hopefully we can keep it going.”

It was the first of five games — two T20s and three one day internationals — between the sides, with Ireland’s arrival in the United States complicated by some Covid-19 cases in the camp.

Reaching the World Cup in either format, as well as possibly competing in

Sergio Ramos was sent off as Paris Saint-Germain salvaged a 1-1 draw away at Ligue 1 strugglers Lorient thanks to Mauro Icardi’s injury-time equaliser on Wednesday. In their final outing of 2021, PSG trailed in Brittany to Thomas Monconduit’s thunderous first-half strike for Lorient until Icardi rescued a point with a header in the 91st minute. Ramos had come off the bench at the start of the second half for just his third appearance since moving to France from Real Madrid in the close season, but he was dismissed four minutes from time after receiving a second yellow card. PSG, with top scorer Kylian Mbappe and playmaker Marco Verratti both missing due to suspension and Neymar still out injured, produced another worryingly sub-standard performance that will put the focus on coach Mauricio Pochettino.

The Argentine, approaching the first anniversary of his appointment, has struggled to get the very best out of PSG’s array of superstar players, although they sit a huge 13 points clear of their nearest challengers Nice and Marseille at the French season’s halfway stage. “In terms of results we are still in all competitions, so in that regard we are doing fine,” Pochettino said. “In terms of performances, we are still trying to get the best out of the team. “The first few months of the season have been intense with lots of travelling. We are sure that in time we will get there but we know we need to improve a lot.” The Parisians, who will play Real Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League, were lucky to avoid defeat against a Lorient side who had lost their last eight matches and had not won a game in three months.

Nigerian striker Terem Moffi notably squandered a great chance on an early breakaway for Lorient, seeing his effort saved by Keylor Navas in the PSG goal. Lionel Messi, who still has just one Ligue 1 goal, struck the post with a volleyed effort midway through the first half and Lorient went ahead five minutes before the interval as Enzo Le Fee teed up Monconduit to smash a shot into the top-right corner from just outside the box.

the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics,remains the US aim while moves are well underway to establish an American professional competition, Major League Cricket, within the next two years.

Young players are also being produced, with 18-year-old Ritwk Behera, born in Rockville, Maryland, and New Jersey native Yasir Mohammad the only players in the starting XI at the Broward County Stadium who were born in the United States.

Skipper Patel’s side were desperate to make a strong start and show the lively couple of hundred fans in attendance as well as the International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport’s global governing body, the team was deserving of future highprofile series. uSa Struggled early: Early

stages against a new look Ireland side aiming to bounce back from a disappointing T20 World Cup showing were a struggle for the US team, which slumped to 16 for four quickly, which included losing captain Patel to the second ball of the match.

But a brilliant fifth-wicket stand between Singh and Sushant Modani helped turn the tide for the hosts. Their partnership of 110 saw Singh lay into a Irish bowling attack that seemed to alarmingly wilt in the Florida sun.

Singh smacked the first six of the match in the 12th over — a sign of just how slow the US came out of the blocks — and proceeded to hit four more maximums in a splendid, crucial innings of 65.

Modani weighed in with an equally

important 50 before Marty Kain, one of five debutants for the home side, crushed a quick-fire 39 from only 15 balls to reach a very competitive target of 188 for six from their 20 overs.

Ireland’s bowling at the death was woeful and their batting response suffered the worst possible start when captain Andy Balbirnie was dismissed in just the second over.

A breezy 31 from 15 balls from opener Paul Stirling, however, steadied the ship and at the halfway point, Ireland were 74 for three and a close finish beckoned.

The Americans hung in, however, and allied by some tight bowling and excellent fielding, the visitors found themselves needing a daunting 76 from 37 balls, which was way beyond them.

Collingwood to stand in as England coach for West Indies series LONDON REUTERS

Former England captain Paul Collingwood will stand in as head coach for England's fivematch Twenty20 International series against West Indies next month, the country's cricket board (ECB) said on Thursday.

Regular head coach Chris Silverwood will take a break following the ongoing Ashes series against Australia, with Marcus Trescothick joining Collingwood as an assistant coach. Eoin Morgan will captain

the squad.

Collingwood was at the T20 World Cup earlier this year with England before going to the Ashes, but flew back to Britain last week.

Of the 16 players named in the squad, 11 travelled to the World Cup, with uncapped leftarm seamer David Payne earning a maiden call-up to the England T20I team.

"We have selected a strong squad with some serious batting power and a balanced attack as we begin preparations ahead of the T20 World Cup in Australia," Colling-

wood said.

"The World Cup is less than a year away and there will be increased opportunities for the squad in the absence of those players who are with the Ashes squad."

The series will begin on Jan. 22 and will conclude on January 30.

Squad: Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Tom Banton, Sam Billings, Liam Dawson, George Garton, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Tymal Mills, David Payne, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, James Vince.

Friday, 24 December, 2021

prayer Timings

newS

Pakistan lauds unsC resolution, seeks ‘Pathway’ to revive afghan eConomy P akistan has lauded the United nations security Council (UnsC) resolution allowing humanitarian assistance for the people of afghanistan, while adding that a pathway should be found to revive the afghan economy.

“Pakistan welcomes the adoption, by consensus, of the United nations security Council Resolution 2615, that has reaffirmed that provision of humanitarian and other assistance to people of afghanistan is not a violation of the security Council sanctions regime,” the Foreign Office said in a statement a day after the UnsC unanimously passed a resolution moved by the United states. it is pertinent to note that the resolution passed on Wednesday stated that “Payment of funds, other financial assets or economic resources, and the provision of goods and services necessary to ensure the timely delivery of such assistance or to support such activities are permitted.” such assistance supports “basic human needs in afghanistan” and is “not a violation” of sanctions imposed on entities linked to the taliban, it added.

Earlier, a Us resolution had sought to authorise case-by-case exemptions to sanctions but that was blocked by vetowielding permanent security Council

members — China and Russia.

Pakistan further said the resolution came at a critical time and reflected the sense of urgency felt by the international community to help the afghan people, who have suffered immensely due to decades of conflict. “this sentiment was also reflected in the resolution adopted unanimously by the 17th Extraordinary session of the OiC Council of Foreign Ministers hosted

by Pakistan last week. the OiC CFM, chaired by Pakistan, unequivocally calls for swift roll-out of all possible humani-

tarian, recovery, reconstruction, development, technical and material assistance to afghanistan,” the FO communiqué added. it said the resolution passed by the Un security Council was a step in the right direction towards helping the afghan people in dire need. “as called for by the OiC, pathways should now be found towards revitalising of the afghan economy and unfreezing of the assets that rightfully belong to the afghan people,” it stressed.

Prime Minister imran khan, in his

keynote address to the OiC CFM, had said that sanctions should not prevent the international community from providing humanitarian and other essential assistance to the people of afghanistan.

“Pakistan hopes that the international community, especially the donor countries, Un agencies, humanitarian organisations, international financial institutions and other emergency relief providers, will act swiftly and with determination, to provide all possible assistance to the people of afghanistan,” the statement said. it merits mention that the Us has withheld $9.5 billion assets belonging to the afghan central bank since the taliban took control of the country in august.

But a senior Us official earlier this week told Pakistan-based foreign journalists that the assets’ freeze were linked to a court proceedings in the Us. the official said the Us had been working quietly to address the liquidity crunch being faced by the afghan economy.

On the day the UnsC adopted the resolution, the Us also announced additional steps on Wednesday easing sanctions against the taliban to allow aid, updating guidance to make clear that exports of goods and cash transfers are allowed as long as they do not go to individuals targeted by Us sanctions. news desk

Suicide bomber shot dead in Kabul as Taliban fighters gather for passports a would-be suicide bomber was shot dead on thursday outside kabul’s main passport office, police said, as hundreds of taliban fighters lined up for travel documents on a day reserved exclusively for their applications.

“He was identified and killed at a checkpoint at the entrance,” Mobin khan, spokesman for kabul police, told aFP. there have been several attacks against taliban fighters since their return to power in august — most claimed by the local chapter of the islamic state group. around 200 taliban fighters had gathered at the passport office from dawn after authorities announced that thursdays would be set aside exclusively for them to apply for passports. it was unclear why the fighters wanted passports — or where they planned to travel to — as security operatives barred reporters from interview-

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at least two killed in explosion at court building in india’s ludhiana at least two people were killed and as many injured after a powerful explosion ripped through an indian court building on thursday, police said.

Footage showed police officers carrying the injured out of the building and asking others to leave the premises after the explosion near a restroom of the judicial complex in Ludhiana, north of the capital new Delhi. “there’s been a blast but we can not confirm the cause,” a police officer at the scene said.

“We can confirm that four people are injured and out of four, two are dead,” he added. the blast damaged the walls of the bathroom and shattered glass in other rooms, broadcaster nDtV reported.

Punjab state chief minister Charanjit singh Channi said the government was “on alert” and announced an investigation. “i’m reaching the blast site shortly and i assure the people of the state that the guilty would not be spared,” Channi tweeted. “anybody trying to disturb the peace and harmony of the state, will be taken to task. “ app

turkey, Qatar ink deal to jointly operate kabul airport DOHA anadolu agency

ing them.

Civilians who arrived to process their applications were held back or sent home by taliban security, who also tore up documents of some as they pressed to enter. “issuing passports to the taliban members was cancelled due to overcrowding,” said Qari shafiullah tassal, a spokesman for the office.

Many people were also falsely claiming they had taliban links, he told aFP. taliban fighters were also given the opportunity on thursday to apply for passports in the southern city of kandahar, according to an aFP reporter there. taliban authorities stopped issuing passports after the hardline group returned to power on august 15, citing staff issues, faulty equipment and a lack of supplies.

Operations resumed on sunday but hundreds of thousands of afghans are desperate to flee a growing humanitarian crisis in the country. afp

turkey and Qatar agreed to jointly operate the kabul international airport in afghanistan, diplomatic sources told anadolu agency on thursday. after talks between committees from both countries, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the turkish and Qatari companies to operate the airport in collaboration on the basis of equal partnership, the sources told anadolu agency. according to the sources, the MoU was signed during turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's visit to Doha for the seventh turkey-Qatar High strategic Committee Meeting on Dec 7. a joint committee consisting of turkish and Qatari officials would visit the afghan capital kabul to discuss the deal with the interim government of the country, as well as the demands and expectations of the afghan side.

Flights were suspended at afghanistan's main international airport in kabul after the taliban took over power in august and the Us troops destroyed equipment and a radar system at the facility before leaving the country.

Hindutva leaders call for killing Muslims at 'hate speech conclave': reports Provocative and communal speeches against Muslims were made at a three-day closeddoor conclave in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar, where Hindu religious leaders addressed the gathering and called upon the Hindu community to take up arms against Muslims.

Brazen threats of violence against Muslims and loud, passionate calls for a “Hindu Raj” rang at the ‘Dharma sansad’, or ‘Religious Parliament’, which was attended by numerous leaders of politico-religious Hindu organisations between December 17 and December 19 in Haridwar. the conclave was organised by Yati singhanand, a controversial Hindutva figure who has been known to make openly communal statements. the leaders from several far-right groups in india have issued calls for the ethnic cleansing of minorities in the country.

“Economic boycott won’t work. Hindu groups need to update themselves. swords look good on stage only. this battle will be won by those with better weapons,” local media quoted narsinghanand as saying.

“Like Myanmar, our police, our politicians, our army and every Hindu must pick up weapons and conduct a safayi abhiyan (clean-up). there is no other option left,” swami Prabodhanand Giri, president of the Hindu Raksha sena stated. as per further details, narsinghanand has been accused of inciting communal tension against the Muslim community on several occasions. as per sources, religious leader swami anandswaroop gave an example of how Muslim street vendors should be treated. “the street in which i live, every morning i used to spot a mullah with a big beard and nowadays they keep a saffron beard. this is Haridwar, Maharaj. there is no Muslim buyer here, so throw him out,” he said. sadhvi annapurna, the general secretary of the political party Hindu Mahasabha, also gave a call to arms and incitement to genocide. “nothing is possible without weapons. if you want to eliminate their population, then kill them. Be ready to kill and be ready to go to jail. Even if 100 of us are ready to

kill 20 lakhs of them (Muslims), then we will be victorious, and go to jail,” the Wire quoted her as saying.

BJP leader ashwini Upadhyay and BJP Mahila Morcha leader Udita tyagi also attended the three-day summit “giving the event a level of political encouragement from the ruling party”.

Upadhyay said that “it was a three-day event and i was there for one day, during which i was on the stage for around 30 minutes and talked about the Constitution. What others said before and after me, i am not responsible for it.” it is pertinent to note that videos of the event have been circulating on social media for the past several days, prompting criticism from several quarters. the all india Professionals’ Congress, a department of the indian national Congress, condemned “in the strongest possible terms the genocidal statements made by Hindutva leaders in a three-day hate speech conclave organised in the holy city of Haridwar”.

“Will the Union of india and other institutions remain mute spectators?” it asked. saket Gokhale, the national spokesperson for the all india trinamool Congress, said on thursday that he had filed a com-

plaint at a police station against the event.

“Failure to register an FiR against the organisers and speakers in 24 hours, a plaint shall be made to the judicial magistrate,” he said. news desk

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